MassHealth Fact Sheet – FY2011 H.2
Medical Homes

Overview 

The Patient-Centered Medical Home Initiative (PCMHI) seeks to create a more 
efficient and effective model of health care delivery that addresses care 
fragmentation, challenges associated with the increasing prevalence of chronic 
disease, and a potential shortage of primary care physicians. The PCMHI will 
pilot a model for transforming the quality of and payment for primary care 
practices in the Commonwealth.  
The objectives of the PCMHI are to: 
1. implement and evaluate the PCMH model as a means to achieve accessible, high 
quality primary care; 

2. demonstrate cost-effectiveness in order to justify and support the 
sustainability and applicability of the model; and 

3. attract and retain primary care clinicians into practice in Massachusetts by 
increasing resources available to practices and improving their quality of work 
life.  

The PCMHI was initiated in June 2009, when the Secretary of Health and Human 
Services Dr. JudyAnn Bigby invited a large group of consumer, physician, nurse 
practitioner, hospital, insurer, state agency and other interested stakeholder 
representatives to form the PCMHI Council and initiate a cooperative effort to 
assure access to high quality, enhanced primary care through the transformation 
of primary care practices into medical homes.    

FY2011 Policy Initiative 

In FY2011, the PCMHI seeks to implement the first phase of the Medical Home 
demonstration with the intent to roll out the model more broadly in future years 
based on evaluation results. A procurement will be released in the spring of 
FY10 in order to evaluate the effectiveness of this transformation for primary 
care practices.   

The selected primary care practices will work to transform their practices by 
participating in learning collaboratives and working with a practice coach to 
implement changes. Participating practices will receive supplemental payments 
from participating payers and will be required to transform internal processes 
for planning, delivering and measuring the impact of care on their patients.