Family Medicine and the Patient Centered Medical Home

One of the most important components in achieving family medicine’s goals of true health care - and payment - reform is the patient centered medical home (PCMH).  The PCMH is much more than a movement by the primary care community to improve health care for our patients.  

Family medicine is advocating for our country – public and private insurance providers - to adopt the PCMH model.  Government programs (Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Health, TriCare, Federal employees’ health plan) and private insurance companies should structure their payment to primary care providers based on the medical home model.  

Working toward a medical home in Illinois  

Illinois Medicaid patients are already seeing the benefits of having a “medical home” through the Illinois Health Connect Program.  Over 5,000 primary care practices are designated primary care providers to over 1.9 million Medicaid patients. These practices function as Medicaid patients’ usual source of care and first point of contact.  As a result, participating physicians are seeing increased payments and better outcomes for coordinating care.  

The disease management component, Your Healthcare Plus, is working to improve outcomes for some of Medicaid’s most complex patients. All Illinois physicians can benefit from the clinical knowledge and the quality improvement tools available from the Your Healthcare Plus CME program, created by IAFP’s education network.   

Both Illinois Health Connect and Your Healthcare Plus are led by family physicians and shaped by constant feedback from IAFP leaders and family physicians.  Link to the IAFP case statement on IHC and YHP