The Healthcare Policy Podcast ® Produced by David Introcaso Primary Care Medical Homes, What Are They and Are They Working: A Conversation with Marci Nielsen (February 19th)
The term "medical home" was first introduced in the 1960s by the pediatric profession. Still to date this model of care emphasizes team-based comprehensive, continuous and coordinated care. The care model is intended to improve primary care generally via improved patient communication, care quality, safety and outcomes. In several ways the ACA encouraged the adoption of the, now termed, Primary Care Medical Home/PCMH for both the Medicaid and Medicare programs and among private health insurers. (In some ways the PCMH is seen as a precursor for providers interested in becoming an Affordable Care Organization (ACO), i.e., taking on reimbursement risk.) Over the past few years PCMHs have become widely adopted. Over forty state Medicaid programs are experimenting with the model along with 90 commercial health plans and three federal initiatives.
During this 23 minute discussion Dr. Nielsen discusses the PCPCC's purpose and goals, more specifically what is the PCMH model of care, the varying ways PCMH's are reimbursed, what does the research to date show regarding PCMH effectiveness and challenges in adopting this new model of care.
Dr. Marci Nielsen currently serves as CEO of the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC), an organization dedicated to advancing an effective and efficient health system built on a foundation of primary care. Prior to the PCPCC, Dr. Nielsen served as Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs and Associate Professor at the University of Kansas School of Medicine’s Department of Health Policy and Management. Dr. Nielsen was appointed by then-Governor Kathleen Sebelius as first Executive Director and Board Chair of the Kansas Health Policy Authority (KHPA). She worked as a Legislative Assistant to Senator Bob Kerrey and later served as the health lobbyist for the AFL-CIO. Dr. Nielsen is a board member of the American Board of Family Medicine and also a committee member for the Institute of Medicine’s Leading Health Indicators for Healthy People 2020 and Living Well with Chronic Illness: A Call for Public Health Action. Early in her career she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand and served for six years in the US Army Reserves. Dr. Nielsen earned her MPH at The George Washington University and her Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
The PCPCC's 1/14 PCMH impact on cost and quality report can be found at: http://www.pcpcc.org/newsletter/annual-report-pcmhs-impact-cost-quality-2012-2013.
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