UnitedHealth Group, at the request of IBM, has partnered with seven medical groups in Arizona on a pilot program that will test the viability of the "medical home" model of health care, the New York Times reports. In Arizona, UnitedHealth serves as the only health insurer for IBM and covers about 11,000 company employees and their dependents. The program, which will continue through 2011, will involve about 7,000 patients of 26 physicians from the seven medical groups. The patients include a small fraction of IBM employees, as well as Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries enrolled in UnitedHealth plans.

UnitedHealth will give physicians additional authority over patient care decisions and higher payments for more closely monitoring patients' progress, regardless if they are being treated by specialists or hospitals. UnitedHealth will hire consultants from a for-profit company managed by the American Academy of Family Physicians to help physicians change their practices to improve care for patients. Physicians will continue to receive payments from UnitedHealth based on the services that they provide but also will receive a quarterly management fee and bonus payments when they meet certain quality measures…