Patient Centered Medical Home

Patient Centered Medical Home

Patient centered medical home is a model of care that is provided by physicians to patients (Reid, 2009, p. 71). It is aimed at establishing positive relationships between the physicians and the patients, and aims at providing quality services to the patients in a move to ensure long term healing (Crawford, Davies, Ying & Chrestay, 2009, p. 5).

There are various patient centered medical home programs that have been initiated by states and individuals intended to ensure that quality medical health care is provided to a specific region or category of people. Example of a patient centered medical home demonstration project that has been initiated by the state in my locality is Access Health Columbus. Access Health Columbus patient centered medical home project targets adults aged between eighteen to sixty years. They target chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, cancer among many other diseases. The prevalence of these diseases has been on an increase and therefore, immediate measures are required to create awareness among the people to enable them seek early treatment and find ways of preventing them.

The participant payers are bodies or institutions that are required to cover part of the expenses that is incurred in provision of health care services (Medical and rehabilitation equipment, 2012, para. 1). Some of these providers include Care Oregon, Broadspire, Gentiva Care Centris and Great West Life.

There are various insurance products that are available and which the participants can choose to cover for their medication. This includes Health Maintenance Organization [HMO] and Preferred Provider Organization [PPO] (Bindman, 1995, p. 305). HMO is fulfilled through doctors, hospital and other providers, which it has a contract with. PPO on the other hand is healthcare plan that provides services at discount rates for people who use network health care providers. The insurance products to be used in this demonstration are HMO, because it is affordable to many participants and services are provided by specific assigned doctors or hospitals.

In Access Health Columbus patient centered medical home project, participating providers include community health centers and hospitals in the area. These providers will have the mandate to provide their services to the community and members of the society that are under the scheme.

Reimbursement of the participating providers is by the state. The state will have a plan or salary scheme that will be compensated to the health providers. The facilities will also be funded through government. Part of funds contributed by the patients to the various insurance payers will be taxed by the state and some percentage is going to be used to support the provision of services.

So far, since the implementation of the program, it has progressed on well. Many people have been reached and provided with good health care services. Many of the patients who have been interviewed have expressed their satisfaction with the plan and argued that it should be extended to various places. They have indicated that quality of health has improved and they have been able to get information on how to live healthy and ensure that they are not affected with chronic diseases. The various payers and providers have collaborated in ensuring that better health care services are provided to the affected people. The support has played a crucial role in promoting health care in the areas. The relationship between the health care providers and patients has improved and this is manifested in the way the patients commented about the program. Therefore, the progress of the PCMH program is fairing on well and it is aimed at ensuring that quality health care services are provided in the entire area.

References

Bindman, B. et al. (1995). Preventable hospitalizations and access to health care. JAMA, 274(4):305-311.

Crawford, D., Davies, E., Ying, S., & Chrestay, D. (2009). Designing a parent-centered medical home demonstration project: Options and recommendations. Retrieved form: http://www.accesshealthcolumbus.org/pdf/projects/pcmh-200903-design-report.pdf

Medical and rehabilitation equipment. (2012). Participating payers. Retrieved from: http://www.caremedical.com/participating-payers.shtml

Reid, R et al. (2009). Patient-Centered Medical Home Demonstration: A Prospective, Quasi- Experimental, Before and After Evaluation, American Journal of Management Care, 15(9): 71-87.