Ohio

As a former pediatrician in rural Vermont and a career-long believer in the centrality of primary care, I have been frustrated and dismayed to witness the lack of definitive evidence demonstrating what is considered to be conventional wisdom—that a high-performing health system must have primary care at its core. For a decade, I have been in the position of counseling patience, insisting that the upfront investment in the quality of, data for, and access to primary care will eventually pay off.

When an inmate needs to see a medical specialist, getting that care can be complicated.

Prisons are often located in rural areas far from medical centers that have experts in cancer, heart and other disease treatments. Even if the visit just involves a trip to a hospital across town, the inmate must be transported under guard, often in shackles.

Ohio's Department of Insurance said on Thursday that non-profit managed care company CareSource will sell health plans in Paulding County next year - the last county in the United States that would have been without Obamacare individual coverage in 2018.

On January 14, 2016, the Ohio Office of Health Transformation (OHT) announced that the Ohio Medicaid program will implement a patient-centered medical home (PCMH) care delivery model statewide in 2016, two years ahead of schedule. The Medicaid PCMH initiative is part of an all-payer effort.

A Mercy Health effort to improve coordination of care saved the federal Medicare program over $15 million during 2014, according to the nonprofit hospital network.

Called Mercy Health Select, a group of about 1,400 health care providers, including Mercy Health and affiliated doctors, have invested in better electronic medical records systems and obtained certification for primary care locations. To date, Mercy Health has 115 certified patient-centered medical homes, which means those doctor offices use a team approach to managing care and promoting health and wellness.

Two years ago, leaders of the Buckeye Community Health Plan decided to take action after noting an increasing number of babies in Ohio being born with symptoms that included seizures, rapid breathing and vomiting. They were suffering from neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), caused by their mothers' abuse of narcotics such as heroin, codeine and oxycodone during pregnancy.