Medical Home V. Health Home – Confused?
By Monica E. Oss Chief Executive Officer, OPEN MINDS
Developed by OPEN MINDS, 163 York Street, Gettysburg PA 17325, www.openminds.com. All rights reserved.
Recent health care policy documents and trade magazines (and even newspapers) are full of discussion of the move to primary-care-focused medical homes. (If you’ve missed the medical home discussion, see Experts disagree about value of ‘medical home’, Can a specialty practice be a patient-centered medical home? and What is a patient-centered medical home?) So, what exactly is a medical home? A medical home is a coordinated care model focused on acute care for all populations.
Then, enter the term “health home.” Confused? I was, the first time I heard the term. But, I’ve learned a lot about the differences between the two – and opportunities in both models over the last year. And, that was the focus of a great recent article, Health Homes Vs. Medical Homes: Big Similarities & Important Differences premium members, by my colleague, Senior Consultant Laura Morgan.
Health homes are a population-based integrated care model targeting consumers with chronic conditions, which coordinate medical and behavioral health care, and community and social supports. In her article, Laura noted that while health homes and medical homes were born of the same concept, health care reform legislation established health homes as a new state Medicaid option for service delivery specifically for enrollees with chronic conditions. As this National Council chart from her article illustrates, health homes and medical homes are very similar, but have different focuses.
|
How Are Health Homes Different From Patient Centered-Medical Homes? |
||
|
Category |
Health Homes |
Medical Homes |
|
Populations served |
Individuals with approved chronic conditions |
All populations served |
|
Staffing |
May include primary care practices, community mental health centers, federally qualified health centers, health home agencies, ACT teams, etc. |
Are typically defined as physician-led primary care practices, but also mid-level practitioners |
|
Payers |
Currently are a Medicaid-only construct |
In existence for multiple payers: Medicaid, commercial insurance, etc. |
|
Care focus |
Strong focus on behavioral health (including substance abuse treatment), social support, and other services (including nutrition, home health, coordinating activities, etc.) |
Focused on the delivery of traditional medical care: referral and lab tracking, guideline adherence, electronic prescribing, provider-patient communication, etc. |
|
Technology |
Use of IT for coordination across continuum of care, including in-home solutions such as remote monitoring in patient homes |
Use of IT for traditional care delivery |
|
Source: Smith, Alicia. (2011, June 7). Overview of the Medicaid health home care coordination benefit. National Council webinar |
||
Will medical homes and health homes be coming to your area soon? We’ll keep you posted. And if you’ve missed our recent coverage, check out:
- Missouri Health Homes Launched January 1, 2012 all members
- Rhode Island Medicaid To Launch Mandatory Health Homes For SMI Population all members
- Idaho Developing Medicaid Behavioral Health Managed Care & SMI Health Homes Plan premium members
- Ohio Will Launch Medicaid Health Homes For Individuals With Serious Mental Illness BY June 2012 premium members
- Hawaii Medicaid Preparing to Launch Patient-Centered Health Homes in 2012 premium members
If you have questions on health homes and medical homes, feel free to contact Laura Morgan or me at openminds@openminds.com. I look at them as one more very interested experiment in coordinated care models.