Lt. Governor Brown Announces Maryland Patient-Centered Medical Homes Gain National Recognition

On April 6th, 2012 Lt. Governor Brown announced that Maryland’s 52 multi-payer PCMH practices have achieved NCQA recognition.  Originally designed to position primary care providers to be able to improve patient care, Maryland now has 577 clinicians at 98 primary care practices recognized by NCQA as meeting patient-centered medical home standards.  Those standards include providing access through expanded office hours, using data to drive population management, care management, offering support for self-care processes, tracking referrals and follow-up care, and implementing continuous quality improvement processes.Lt. Governor Brown highlighted how these PCMHs encourage provider accountability for improving patient care through ‘responsible incentives’ that allow them ‘to spend more time with patients, coordinate care and promote prevention and wellness.’Focused on ‘bending the curve of rising health care costs’ in the state, this program has wide support as demonstrated through participation from all large private health insurers and most Medicaid managed care organizations in Maryland.  Other participants include the federal and state government plans, the Maryland Health Insurance Plan, and most recently, the Johns Hopkins US Family Health Plan (serving US military families in Maryland).