Denver, CO – Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet released the following statement regarding today’s launch of the Partnership for Patients at the Children’s Hospital in Aurora. The effort includes a national community-based Care Transitions Program created from a bill engineered by Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet that has the potential to save billions of dollars in avoidable and unnecessary health care costs.

“Colorado has shown the country that better-coordinated care can lead to higher-quality outcomes at a much lower cost to patients, hospitals and our health care system as a whole,” said Bennet. “The Partnership for Patients incentivizes collaboration at the community level that will improve patient safety, lead to higher-quality care and bring down costs, just as we’ve done in Colorado.”

According to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Partnership for Patients has the potential to save up to $35 billion in health care costs, including up to $10 billion for Medicare.  Over the next ten years, it could reduce costs to Medicare by about $50 billion and result in billions more in Medicaid savings. The partnership would achieve these goals, in part, by committing $500 million to community-based organizations partnering with eligible hospitals to help patients safely transition between settings of care – an effort made possible by language authored by Sen. Michael Bennet that was included in the Affordable Care Act.

A Denver Post article recently reported that a Denver care-transitions model pilot program “demonstrate[ed] hundreds of millions of dollars in potential Medicare savings.” Colorado Public Radio also has a story on the nexus between Colorado’s work on Care Transitions and the Partnership for Patients, which can be found here.