Leveraging Primary Care To Derive Value: A Collaboration Across The Pond

Patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs) in the United States and primary care homes (PCHs) in England share many design features and are viewed as foundational to overall system transformation by American, English, and other policy makers across the globe. Why are these innovations gaining traction, how are they doing in terms of delivering results, and what can we collectively learn from collaborating with our international counterparts?  

Several panels at the recent National Health Services (NHS) Health and Care Innovation Expo in Manchester, England (September 11–12, 2017) highlighted that English health policy leaders are keen to increase investment in primary care and eager to understand what has and has not worked with the 10-year US effort to design, implement, and continuously evolve the PCMH. Simultaneously, US policy leaders wish to glean from their English counterparts how they have linked primary care to services in the community to better address mental health and social determinants of health. Both sets of leaders are eager to move to population-based health systems—with a strong primary care foundation and agreed upon payments to manage against rising costs—to enhance the value of what their respective health system spends on health care.