Massachusetts to Receive $500,000 to Support Patient-Centered Medical Homes

BOSTON — The Patrick Administration announced today that Massachusetts will receive $500,000 in grant funding to support the transformation of 14 Community Health Centers into patient-centered medical homes over a four-year period. The Patient Centered Medical Home model is designed to promote comprehensive, coordinated, patient-centered care delivered by teams of primary care providers, including physicians and nurses. The Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services and the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers have been selected to serve as one of five national Regional Coordinating Centers.

In a patient-centered medical home, a primary care provider and members of his or her team coordinates all of a patient's health needs, including management of chronic conditions, visits to specialists, hospital admissions, and reminding patients when they need check-ups and tests. The medical home model supports fundamental changes in primary care service delivery and payment reforms, with the goal of improving health care quality.

The grant funding is provided through a Safety Net Medical Home Initiative led by the Commonwealth Fund of New York and implemented by Qualis Health. The Commonwealth Fund is joined in support of the project by regional co-funders. In Massachusetts, the co-funders include Partners HealthCare, The Boston Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Announcing the grant, Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. JudyAnn Bigby said, “Massachusetts has been extraordinarily successful in implementing health care reform, but true reform is about far more than having an insurance card. In order to ensure access to care, we must strengthen the practice of primary care in Massachusetts by reforming the way we pay for primary care and by supporting practice to reflect the advances we have made in prevention and the care of chronic diseases. We are committed to implementing a medical home initiative for MassHealth and are eager to collaboratively develop a sustainable model for the medical home with other public and private payers.”

“This initiative is a key building block in MassHealth's strategic effort to deliver the highest quality care to our members at the greatest value to taxpayers," said Thomas Dehner, Massachusetts’ Medicaid Director. "We look forward to being a part of the Commonwealth's efforts to transform the practice and enhance the quality of primary care."

The 14 Massachusetts sites selected for inclusion in the patient-centered medical home project are:

Codman Square Community Health Center, Dorchester
Dorchester House Community Health Center, Dorchester
East Boston Neighborhood Health Center, East Boston
Joseph M. Smith Community Health Center, Allston
Joseph M. Smith Community Health Center, Waltham
Geiger Gibson Community Health Center, Dorchester
Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, Lawrence
Hilltown Community Health Center, Huntington
Holyoke Community Health Center, Holyoke
Mid-Upper Cape Community Health Center, Hyannis
Neponset Community Health Center, Dorchester
Revere Health Center, Revere
Union Square Health Center, Cambridge
Whittier Street Health Center, Roxbury

The national Safety Net Medical Home Initiative was launched to improve health care quality, efficiency and patient experience.Forty-two applicants from 31 states applied for the competitive funding program. Following a rigorous selection process, the Commonwealth, in partnership with the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, was one five sites selected as a Regional Coordinating Center that will partner with safety net clinics to advance the medical home model. The Executive Office of Health and Human Services will serve as Executive Sponsor, and the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers will serve as Medical Home Facilitator. Funding will primarily support the medical facilitator role for centers, including “practice coaches,” highly trained clinicians who will help health centers transform themselves into the new models of care.

“We are appreciative of this recognition and opportunity to work collaboratively with the state to enhance services at community health centers. Together we will work to maximize health care reform to address health care needs and system changes to assure that we continue to bring quality and access to the patients and communities we serve,” said James W. Hunt, Jr., President and CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers. “This collaborative reflects a creative set of partnerships to assure quality.”

In addition to the $500,000 in grant funding, the Commonwealth will receive technical assistance from Qualis Health, a health improvement organization, working in concert with the MacColl Institute for Health Care Innovation. Participation in the program also includes a comprehensive evaluation by the University of Chicago. Furthermore, the funding will complement support for the use of health information technology, consistent with ongoing efforts in Massachusetts as a part of the state’s landmark health care reform.

About the Commonwealth Fund

The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation that aims to promote a high-performing healthcare system that achieves better access, improved quality and greater efficiency, particularly for society's most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, minority Americans, young children and elderly adults. The Fund carries out this mandate by supporting independent research on healthcare issues and making grants to improve healthcare practice and policy. An international program in health policy is designed to stimulate innovative policies and practices in the United States and other industrialized countries.

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