Patient-Centered Medical Homes Reduce Costs

The patient-centered medical home (PCMH), introduced in 2007, is a model of health care that emphasizes personal relationships, team delivery of care, coordination across specialties and care settings, quality and safety improvement, and open access. As the number of PCMHs has increased, a new report in the journal Health Services Research finds the model offers a promising option to reduce health care costs and utilization of some health care services.

“When we looked at the literature, we found that the overall evidence is still fairly limited in terms of how well the model actually works,” said corresponding study author, Martijn van Hasselt, Ph.D., of the nonprofit RTI International in Research Triangle Park, N.C. “Among the more consistent findings is that PCMHs tend to be associated with improved quality of care and better patient experience with care. Evidence remains fairly mixed, however, with respect to the cost of care, hospital admissions or emergency room visits.”