Government
New medical home guidelines released
■ Physician groups hope clarity, consistency will lead to broader acceptance of the programs.
By Chris Silva — Posted May 12, 2009
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Four physician organizations have developed new guidelines for medical home projects to ensure consistency and help define how a patient-centered home model should look.
The 16 guidelines include recommendations on who should collaborate on the projects, how they should choose practices to participate, what type of support should be provided to practices, how practices should be reimbursed, and what each project should do to analyze and report results.
"We believe that these new guidelines are necessary to help define what constitutes an adequate test of the patient-centered medical home model," said Joseph W. Stubbs, MD, president of the American College of Physicians, which developed them along with the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Osteopathic Assn.
The guidelines have also been endorsed by the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, a coalition of more than 400 employers, consumer groups, health plans, hospitals and physicians that have worked to advance the patient-centered medical home concept.
"If projects are consistently and appropriately evaluated, it will indeed facilitate more meaningful interpretation and understanding of the lessons learned as we move forward to full implementation of medical home nationally," said David T. Tayloe Jr., MD, AAP president.
The measures were developed as a companion to the "Joint Principles of the Patient-Centered Medical Home," a 2007 release that more broadly describes the patient-centered medical home model. The American Medical Association in 2008 adopted those joint principles and made a commitment to continue studying the medical home model, with emphasis on funding sources and payment structures.
The new guidelines are available online (link).