In 2005 IBM began to question the very foundation of the health care it buys, and reached a significant conclusion: when compared to other industrialized countries, U.S. health care fails to deliver comprehensive primary care because of the way primary care is finnanced. Primary care is the only entity charged with the longitudinal care of the whole patient, and it is the primary care relationship that has the most profound effect on health care outcomes. The idea was shaped further when the term patient centered medical home was coined and took root with a number of large employers and primary care provider organizations.

PCPCC was created in late 2006, when the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) was approached by several large national employers with the objective of reaching out to the American College of Physicians, the Academy of Family Physicians, and other primary care provider groups in order to (1) facilitate improvements in patient-provider relations, and (2) create a more effective and efficient model of health care delivery. To achieve these goals, the PCPCC has become one of the major developers and advocates of the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model in America.

The Collaborative’s membership includes a number of large national employers, most of the major primary care physician associations, health benefits companies, trade associations, profession/affinity groups, academic centers, and health care quality improvement associations.

The PCPCC has created an open forum where health care stakeholders freely communicate and work together to improve the future of the American medical system. The Collaborative has developed model language for inclusion in health reform proposals to include the patient centered medical home concept. It also acts as a key source for the continued education of congressional representatives, the federal and state governments, and individual practices on the patient centered medical home model as a superior form of health care delivery.