Early Results Show WellPoint’s Patient-Centered Medical Home Pilots Have Met Some Goals For Costs, Utilization, And Quality

Abstract

Primary care must be reengineered to improve outcomes and affordability. To achieve those goals, WellPoint invested in ten patient-centered medical home pilots that encourage care coordination, preventive care, and shared decision making. Two of the three pilots described in this article—in Colorado and New Hampshire—layer incentive payments for care coordination and quality improvement on top of a traditional fee-for-service payment. The third—in New York—pays doctors an enhanced fee that is tied to achievement of quality levels. Preliminary evaluations show encouraging signs that the Colorado and New Hampshire pilots are meeting some cost, utilization, and quality objectives. A full evaluation in all three states is ongoing. To help enable systemwide transformation, WellPoint is now applying similar payment strategies to primary care practices that may not have the resources to become full-fledged medical homes.