Medical Home

The Latest Information -Posted December 2008

Medical Home Awareness Month

The MAFP used the month of November as a time to educate and reach out to members about the medical home.  To see the emails that were sent to members, click here.

Medical Home Talking Points (word document)
 

Medical Home News

A funding opportunity to support Medical Home development in your practice!

The Minnesota Department of Human Services is pleased to announce the availability of grant funds to support the development of Medical Homes / Health Care Homes in primary care clinics. Please note that providers who are planning to participate in the DHS Primary Clinic Care Coordination Project may use these funds for capacity building. Qualified responders include collaboratives and organizations that support multiple clinics.

The Request for Proposals is posted on the DHS web site. Please click here to access it directly.

Proposals are due December 1, 2008.
 

MH-IQ
Find out where you stand on the journey to becoming a Medical Home by measuring your practice against the TransforMED Medical Home IQ Assessment's modules. The TransforMED MHIQ makes it easy to benchmark your practice's current performance.  Answer a dozen or so short questions and get your current score each of the eight areas, along with recommendations based on that score.

You can find this assessment tool by visiting here.  (You will need to sign in and get a password.)

The MAFP encourages you to do the MH-IQ activity with a small group at your clinic.
 

Patient Resources

Description for Patients: What is a Medical Home?

Printable Medical Home Brochure (PDF)

Printable Medical Home Poster (PDF)

 

2008 Health Care Reform Legislation

Minnesota Department of Health Reform website - On this website you will find updated information about health reform including news and announcements, fact sheets, working group updates and a calendar of upcoming events and meetings. Please note that you can subscribe to get email updates of announcements and events.

Link to Actual Legislation - Article 2 discusses Health Care Homes

 

MAFP-Generated Resources

Talking Points: Transforming Healthcare in Minnesota through Patient-Centered Medical Homes (Word Document)

Patient-Centered Medical Home: Myths and Misperceptions (Word Document)

Presentation:  Wondering How to Implement Medical Home Concepts in Your Practice? (PDF)

Minnesota Family Physician Articles - The MAFP has been publishing articles in the Minnesota Family Physician on concepts of the Medical Home.  The series of articles was launched in the July/August 2007 issue.

Medical Home Position Statement (PDF) - The MAFP launched an initiative to define the Medical Home (as the next step towards educating our members, the legislature, governmental entities, health care delivery systems and the public.  The MAFP Board of Directors approved a Position Statement on the Concept of the Medical Home in March 2006.  During the development of that statement, we researched other organizations' work on the Medical Home, including the Amercian Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Physicians.

View MAFP Medical Home Commercial

The MAFP produced a cable commercial introducing the Medical Home concept to Minnesotans.  It ran on several cable stations during the summers of 2006 and 2007.
 

New Model of Family Medicine DVD  - The MAFP created a DVD highlighting local clinics that have had success with the New Model of Family Medicine concepts.

 

National and Other Medical Home Resources

In February of 2007, the AAFP, AOA, ACP, and AAP released the Joint Principles of the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PDF) as a method of providing comprehensive primary care in a health care setting that promotes collaboration between patients and physicians.

TransforMED  - TransforMED, a corporation wholly owned by AAFP, is a practice redesign initiative focused on studying and implementing transformed models of high performance practices that meet the needs of both patients and practices.  In June 2006, TransforMED launched a 24-month National Demonstration Project, serving as a "Learning Lab" to generate new knowledge about the process of practice transformation and to systematically evaluate and compare the effect of two practice transformation approaches on practice and patient outcomes. A report will be published in early 2009.

National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) - NCQA's Physician Practice Connections (PPC) program is designed to assess how medical practices are functioning as patient-centered medical homes.  The PPC-PCHH standards emphasize the use of systematic, patient-centered, coordinated care management processes.

The AAFP’s Center for Health Information Technology (ChiT), has modules of free CME activities created to help FPs learn how to research, select and implement electronic health records (EHRs) in their practices.  The latest addition to the series of online tutorials is “Health Information Technology for the Family Physician Office: Implementing Your Electronic Health Record.”  The module is designed to help users identify and accomplish pre-implementation tasks and then to help them formulate a strategy for implementing their EHR system.

 AAFP - Patient-Centered Medical Home - A link to information about the Patient-Centered Medical Home on the AAFP website.

AAFP’s Family Practice Management September issue has an article entitled The Medical Home: An Idea Whose Time has Come … Again by Leigh Ann Backer.  In the article, she discusses the criteria that is being developed by the National Committee for Quality Assurance. 

Rural Medical Homes - The Rural Assistance Center provides information about Medical Homes.

Minnesota Children with Special Health Needs (MCSHN) – Minnesota Medical Home Project  - A link to the Minnesota Department of Health website.

 

Data Supports Value of Family Medicine

Through the MAFP Research Committee, a summary (word document) of each resource and reference is provided for over ten sources that support topics on the cost effectiveness and quality care for primary care, patient involvement in care decisions and healthcare quality outcomes in the US.

AAFP has an online resource, Value of Family Medicine, that provides links to abstracts and/or articles commonly requested by family physicians.  This handy resource can help prepare you to speak at your Chamber of Commerce, Rotary or other service organizations.  These articles can provide material when speaking at grand rounds to medical student lunches to patient care. 

 

Medical Home Origins

Where did all this talk on changing family medicine start?
Crossing the Quality Chasm from the Institute of Medicine was instrumental in challenging physicians to look at how medicine is practiced.  AAFP’s Future of Family Medicine Report accepted the challenge and took a long hard look at our specialty and how it can be changed while keeping the integrity of family medicine intact.  Part of the report identified the New Model of Care tenets which are considered essential to re-making family medicine. 

The Minnesota Medical Association has taken a strong lead by establishing and publishing the Physicians' Plan for a Healthy Minnesota. It continues to build collaboration with other organizations, including the MAFP to create a model of patient-centered care that will be supported by health plans, employers, and the public. The Healthy Minnesota: A Partnership for Reform sets the parameters for success and as a launching point to build a reimbursement model. 

Report on Financing the New Model of Care (AAFP Task Force 6 Report) takes an initial step in helping family physicians eliminate waste in their practices, improve coding and meeting the measurements for performance.