DAYTON — CareSource is about to embark on a big statewide experiment: deploying 60 people to help frequent Medicaid users navigate Ohio’s fragmented health care system.

The Dayton-based nonprofit, which now covers about 10 percent of all insured Ohioans and through November had 2011 revenues of $2.5 billion, is betting that those “patient navigators” will be a cost-effective way to improve outcomes for its most high-risk members. Those improvements would be due in large part to eliminating barriers to access, communication and trust that individuals encounter or perceive in the health care industry.

Others will be watching to see if CareSource’s bet pays off.

“If it’s proven to reduce cost and improve quality and outcome, then ... I think there’s a high likelihood that more of the commercial insurance system could really embrace this,” said Pamela Morris, CareSource’s president and CEO. “Our experience can help convince our peers in the commercial sector.”

The patient navigator concept assumes that workers who meet face-to-face with the Medicaid population will have a better chance of improving their outcomes than those who make contact with Medicaid beneficiaries by phone.

CareSource will initially make patient navigators available to about 1 percent of its members deemed most at-risk, or about 8,500 to 9,000 members. Those members typically have a range of medical problems such as diabetes or heart disease, socioeconomic disadvantages and/or behavioral health care needs.

There’s much at stake. Just 1 percent of Ohio’s Medicaid patients account for 23 percent of Ohio’s total Medicaid spending, according to the state Department of Job and Family Services. The state’s Medicaid program is budgeted at $18.8 billion this fiscal year.

Dr. Harold Freeman, credited for pioneering the patient navigator concept in Harlem, said research has shown the approach to be effective in improving screening and rates for breast cancer patients. But more long-term research is needed to prove the approach’s effectiveness in treatment.

CareSource’s 60 patient navigators will be paid $30,000 to $35,000 annually. Officials said last week they hope to hire the unemployed and underemployed to fill the jobs. The hires are part of CareSource’s effort to meet a state push to improve the performance of Medicaid managed-care plans.

Statewide, CareSource is also hiring 90 registered nurses and social workers. Of the 150 total jobs, an estimated 35 will be filled in the Dayton-Cincinnati market.

“If you have a system of care in which the community becomes confident that you’re going to see them all the way through, then it’s more than likely that people in the community will come,” Freeman told the Dayton Daily News on Wednesday following a talk at CareSource.

By diagnosing diseases such as cancer earlier on, treatment tends to be less expensive, he said.

“That’s one area that could lead to better outcomes, which will trump cost (of the patient navigators) any day of the week for us,” Morris said.

New York City launched its first patient navigator program in 2003 to combat low rates of colorectal cancer screening. In one New York hospital, Freeman said, the no-show rate for colonoscopies was cut from 65 percent to 10 percent.

CareSource expects the community-based model will provide a framework for expanding beyond its traditional Medicaid base. Future patient groups will include “dual eligibles” (seniors eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid); uninsured adults who will become eligible for Medicaid under the federal health care overhaul; and those who participate in state health care exchanges.

“We think we’re the first to do this (patient navigation) in a meaningful way in Ohio,” said Dr. Craig Thiele, CareSource’s chief medical officer.

CareSource employs 1,128 people overall, including 945 in Dayton.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7457 or bsutherly@DaytonDailyNews.com.