Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland signed a bill that would establish 44 patient-centered medical homes in a statewide pilot project.
The medical homes bill was the rare legislation that met overwhelming approval from both parties — it passed both the Republican-controlled Senate and Democrat-controlled House of Representatives unanimously.
In a medical home, patients are cared for by a primary care physician who leads a medical team that coordinates all aspects of preventive, acute and chronic needs of patients using the best available evidence and appropriate technology, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. The medical home model typically pays doctors differently — rewarding them for managing a patient’s chronic disease rather than the often-derided fee-for-service model under which physicians are paid based on the number of tests and procedures they produce.
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An increasingly popular concept in healthcare, medical homes are seen by advocates as a way of providing more comprehensive care at lower costs.
Practices selected for participation would be eligible to be reimbursed for up to 75 percent of the costs of new information technology needed to convert to a medical home. Practices would also receive “comprehensive training” on how to operate as medical homes. The advisory group is charged with working with the state’s medical and nursing schools to develop training plans.
One drawback of the bill may be that it doesn’t identify any specific sources of funding for the medical homes project. Instead, an advisory group is charged with finding grants, federal funds or private donations to pay for the program.
