The Accountable Care Organization (ACO) formed by Anthem Blue Cross (Anthem) and HealthCare Partners in California produced $4.7 million in savings for the first six months of 2013 compared to a comparison group, Anthem and HealthCare Partners announced today.
That coordination would not have existed if Steinberg’s practice was not a medical home, one of 44 participants in the multi-payer Massachusetts Patient-Centered Medical Home Initiative (MA-PCMHI) sponsored by the Massachusetts Office of Health and Human Services.
“When I describe the patient-centered medical home to practices, providers, or to anyone—all of us are patients at one point or another—I like to say it’s really the way we, as patients, would like to see our care delivered,” Steinberg toldMedical Economics.
When we began in early 2007, we didn’t have a charted course to follow or a well-marked roadmap that outlined all of the hills, valleys, skyline, turns or bumps. Instead, we had to trust each other and remain transparent about our goals and challenges, celebrating accomplishments with each step forward.
The DIAMOND (Depression Improvement Across Minnesota, Offering a New Direction) Initiative was pioneering work to change how care for patients with depression was delivered and paid for in primary care. The DIAMOND model was based on research (more than 37 randomized control trials) and built primarily around the components of the University of Washington AIMS Center’s IMPACT (Improving Mood: Providing Access to Collaborative Treatment) care model.
Background: The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model of primary care is being implemented widely, although its effects on quality are unclear. The PCMH typically involves electronic health records (EHRs), organizational practice change, and payment reform.
Objective: To compare quality of care provided by physicians in PCMHs with that provided by physicians using paper medical records and, separately, with that provided by physicians using EHRs without the PCMH (to determine whether effects were driven by EHRs).
Rhode Island, one of the first states to adopt the multi-payer, patient-centered medical home model of care, has established itself as a leader in the primary care movement. Health care leaders in this state believe that we have the opportunity to truly change our health care system through this Initiative. Recent indicators show us that this model of care is doing just that.
The REACH Foundation’s interest in patient-centered medical care and the medical home movement stemmed directly from the foundation’s mission: To inform and educate the public and facilitate access to quality healthcare for poor and underserved people.
Looking for ways to improve the health of beneficiaries and address the escalating costs of care, the self-insured Fresno Unified School District/Joint Health Management Board (JHMB) decided in late 2010 to join the California Academy of Family Physicians (CAFP) in supporting a local Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) initiative. In July 2012, after 18 months of preparation and training, a primary care medical group – Community Medical Providers (CMP) – launched the initiative. One year later, at the end of June 2013, CMP had saved the district nearly $1 million in total claims.
In 2009, the Nebraska Legislature, through enabling legislation, initiated the Nebraska Medical Home Pilot Program Act to be designed and implemented by the Division of Medicaid and Long-Term Care (DHHS). The two-year pilot began in February, 2011, with two rural practices and 7000 Medicaid patients. The focus for the pilot was to transform the two practices into recognized patient-centered medical homes (PCMH) in order to improve health care access and health outcomes for patients and contain costs of the medical assistance program. The pilot concluded February, 2013.
