Annual Wellness Visits vs GRACE-augmented Annual Wellness Visits For Older Adults With High Needs - Phase 2

In the United States, 10% of patients account for half of health care costs. Many of these are older adults with complex health and social care needs (referred to as "older adults with complex needs"). They see a doctor on average 9.6 times per year, 3 times more often than older adults overall. Patients, caregivers/care partners experience care as confusing and disorganized. Clinicians in primary care practices and accountable care organization (ACO) leaders face critical dilemmas about how best to care for older adults with complex needs. Patient stakeholders providing feedback on preferred care models worry about fragmented care. Many also prefer to be at home. Evidence suggests that optimal care of older adults with complex needs involves an interprofessional team of doctors, nurses, social workers and other health care staff in partnership with patients and care partners to provide person-centered care plans, guided by evidence-based geriatric assessments. Few primary care practices provide this type of care, but Medicare ACOs and other value-based care models such as Medicare Advantage plans are well positioned to link clinicians and provide support for complex patients, their caregivers and care partners. ACOs are groups of clinicians, often housed in healthcare systems, who share in savings if they deliver high-quality care. Unlike traditional fee-for-service payment arrangements, the payment models in ACOs reward efficient, patient centered care that also minimizes unhelpful (and sometimes harmful) institutional care. ACOs are eager to optimize effective care for their patients with complex needs, but best strategies are unknown.

In 2011, to encourage value-based care, Annual Wellness Visits (AWVs) were introduced as a new Medicare Part B benefit. AWVs, as conceived by Medicare, seek to incorporate routine comprehensive assessment by primary care practices of older adults' geriatric health risks using questionnaire-based assessments completed by the patient or care partner. The goal of an AWV is to produce a Personalized Preventive Plan (PPP) for older adults. While uptake by clinicians has accelerated, uptake is lower for more vulnerable older adults. In Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), an average of 55% of beneficiaries had an AWV in 2021 vs only 42% for adults 75-85 years old and dually eligible for Medicaid and Medicare.

AWVs have potential value as an organizing tool for patients and families and clinician teams as one time each year that someone looks at all aspects of care including understanding the care team, determining needed screening and preventive care, reviewing needs for assistance with activities of daily living, testing cognition, reviewing medications from multiple providers, and care coordination that can prevent acute episodes and hospitalization. For consistent and predictable impact, AWVs would be conducted systematically using evidence-based tools and structured protocols in response to patient needs elicited in AWVs. Although there is growing evidence that AWVs lead to increased screenings and reduced use of inpatient care, some are concerned that they also lead to increased use of low value testing after a visit. Furthermore, studies suggest that AWVs are underutilized in minoritized and socially vulnerable populations.

An evidence-based approach to support geriatric care planning for complex patients that offers solutions to identified problems that has been tested in primary care is the Geriatric Resources for the Assessment and Care of Elders (GRACE) program. GRACE is a protocolized inter-professional co-management model that was developed to improve the patient experience of care, provide patients and care partners with a designated point of contact in a nurse/social worker team, reduce utilization costs, and supporting overburdened primary care physicians by managing complex patients. The core components of the GRACE model include: 1) an individualized care plan developed by a nursing/social work team based on 2) an initial in-home assessment, 3) structured protocols, and 4) close co-management with the patient's primary care provider, who reviews, provides their input and endorses the plan. The care plan is built using GRACE Protocols for common geriatric conditions and providing a checklist to ensure a standardized approach to care. The care model was developed using extensive feedback from patients and family care partners. The GRACE Support Team designed it as a patient/care partner support system interfacing with the patient's primary care team to implement the care plan. In a randomized, controlled trial, patients at high risk for hospital admission who received GRACE team care versus a 'usual care' control group had decreased acute care utilization and costs with positive return on investment; improved quality of care; increased patient and provider satisfaction; and improved quality of life. However, GRACE has not been adopted by many ACOs and its additional value to the more commonly used AWV has not been established.

The purpose of the Supporting Practices in Respecting Elders (SPIRE) study is to address this gap in knowledge with the overall goal of improving the lives of older adults with complex needs cared for in primary care practices. The study will opportunistically evaluate two primary care programs aimed at improving care in older adults. The AWV is currently standard of care and is being used regularly in primary care clinics. However, AWVs is a "one size fits all" approach and may not be effective or appropriate for older adults with functional limitations and complex care needs and may not adequately meet the wellness needs of a diverse population of older adults. GRACE is an Evidence-based Practice specifically designed for older adults with complex care needs. GRACE was designed to address the health and health care challenges faced by low-income seniors with multiple chronic conditions including a comprehensive in-home assessment performed by a nurse practitioner and social worker (the GRACE Support Team). This in-home physical and social evaluation will build on the self-report AWV screening questions (promoted as the standard by CMS/Medicare) and brings together information learned at the in-home assessment back to an expanded GRACE team, which is led by a geriatrician and includes a pharmacist and mental health liaison (typically a licensed clinical social worker). No complex care delivery model such as GRACE has yet been implemented at scale. To date, health systems appear to find it easier to implement AWVs rather than AWVs augmented by GRACE in their high-need older adult populations. Therefore, a test of the comparative effectiveness of AWVs (usual care) versus AWVs augmented by GRACE will inform health system leaders and clinicians on optimal approaches for high cost, high need older adults with complex health and social needs.