Patient-Centered Medical Home updates

There are several opportunities in the new federal health reform act for CT to embrace, and fund, patient-centered medical homes. Currently, CT has no (zero) medical homes certified by NCQA, the national accrediting body. The SustiNet patient-centered medical home committee is considering the options and how they fit with Connecticut’s unique health care environment. At this week’s meeting, the committee heard from Ron Preston, formerly Regional Administrator at CMS in Boston, about an exciting collaborative of New England states to apply for a Medicare waiver allowing a multi-payer medical home initiative. Unfortunately CT is the only New England state not participating; it is unclear how the current administration made that decision. In addition to accessing Medicare funding, the collaborative is also working to set common standards for data collection and evaluation across patient-centered medical homes in the region to identify best practices and share resources. The committee was very interested in engaging CT with that collaborative, accessing new federal resources for our state, and learning from others about successful practice transformation to benefit every CT resident. The committee meets again this coming Wed. May 26th at 10am in the LOB.
Ellen Andrews