Idaho Medical Home Collaborative

The Idaho Medical Home Collaborative (IMHC) was created by an executive order of Governor Butch Otter on September 3, 2010.  The IMHC is a collaboration of public payers, private health insurers, primary care physicians, and many other interested stakeholders to implement the patient-centered medical home model of care in a statewide pilot project.  This effort will address the need to transform Idaho’s health care system into a higher performing health care model that delivers higher quality, increased efficiency, and lower overall cost.  The IMHC will make recommendations to the governor on a unified definition of an Idaho medical home, payment formulas to transform health care to encourage quality, and procedures to analyze the results to report on clinical and financial outcomes.

The patient-centered medical home is a comprehensive model of primary care where the relationship between a physician-directed care team and a patient ensures that appropriate care is structured, delivered and coordinated around the specific needs of each patient, and offers significant promise for improving health care value.  To be able to deliver patient-centered medical homes, primary care physicians have to restructure their practices so that they are more accessible, promote prevention and wellness more effectively, support patients with chronic illness rather than treat the symptoms of those illnesses, and, proactively support patients in self-management and decision-making.  These changes will result in better care and lower costs. 

Idaho is committed to working with partners to develop a comprehensive and efficient structure for our health care system.  Idaho is ranked last in the nation for the number of primary care physicians per capita.  The development of an efficient and cost-effective model of care will cut health care costs to local businesses, attract new businesses to our state, encourage primary care physicians to practice in Idaho, improve access to health care through the medical home model, promote healthier lifestyles by focusing on prevention, help avert complications in chronically ill patients and improve the overall health of Idaho citizens.

The IMHC’s pilot is a unique model for health care transformation nationally in several key respects.  Most importantly,

A.         The 2 year pilot will take place in approximately 20 to 30 primary care practices of all sizes and in all corners of the state. 

B.         It will be one of the only pilot projects to incorporate multiple payers, public and private, as well as multiple primary care providers including pediatrics, internal medicine, and family medicine.  The pilot project will incorporate public and private practices ranging from solo providers to large hospital owned clinics, residency programs and community health centers.

C.         Within each medical home, every patient will benefit from the medical home structure.  Healthier patients will receive the support to keep them from developing chronic illness, and those who have already developed chronic illness will be assisted to prevent complications. 

D.         The lessons learned from the pilot should be informative in translating the medical home statewide so that every Idahoan will get the patient-centered medical home they deserve.

The organizations and individuals involved in the IMHC are:

Co-Chairs

Leslie Clement,  Deputy Director Division of Medicaid

Scott Dunn, MD, Family Physician, Immediate Past President, Idaho Academy of Family Physicians

Members

Idaho Primary Care Association

Blue Cross of Idaho

Pacific Source

Family Medicine Residency of Idaho

State of Idaho Senate

Health and Social Services, The Governor's Office

Idaho Medical Association

Idaho Department of Insurance

Regence Blue Shield of Idaho

Idaho House of Representatives

Idaho Academy of Family Physicians

State Office of Rural Health and Primary Care

Representative, SGIM, Idaho Chapter

Idaho Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics

Employer

VA Medical Center

HealthWest, Inc.

Idaho Hospital Association