The patient-centered medical home: will it stand the test of health reform?

THE FUNDAMENTAL CHALLENGE FOR HEALTH CARE REform in the United States is to expand access to all US residents, while rapidly reengineering the delivery system to provide consistently high-quality care at lower overall cost. Current reform discussions recognize that success will require a shift in emphasis from fragmentation to coordination and from highly specialized care to primary care and prevention. One prominent model of delivery system reform is the patient-centered medical home (PCMH). Crafted by the primary care professional organizations in 2007, the model has been endorsed by a broad coalition of health care stakeholders, including all of the major national health plans, most of the Fortune 500 companies, consumer organizations and labor unions, the American Medical Association, and a total of 17 specialty societies. Currently, 22 multistakeholder demonstration pilot projects are under way in 14 states, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will conduct Medicare demonstration pilot projects in 400 practices in 8 regional sites in 2009. Twenty bills promoting the PCMH concept have been introduced in 10 states.