Medical homes need time to deliver results

Aliterature review conducted by the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative of 45 peerreviewed studies on medical home effectiveness found that the common sentiment was it takes time for these models to show results.

“Overall, studies this year showed us that the longer a practice had been transformed, and the higher the risk of the patient pool in terms of co-morbid conditions, the more significant the positive effect of practice transformation,” according to the study by the collab- orative, a coalition of providers, payers and others that advocate for the medical home model.

The peer-reviewed findings, based on studies published from Nov. 1, 2015, through Feb. 28, 2017, also supported that claim, since a majority of the studies that reviewed four years or more of data showed positive results, whereas many of the studies looking at two years of data or less had mixed or insignificant results, the group found.

This was true for a medical home overseen by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan and for others as well.

For instance, a 2016 study on Oregon’s medical home model, which launched in 2011, found that the program ultimately reduced total service expenditures per person by 4.2%, or about $41 per person per quarter.

“Policymakers should realize that not supporting initiatives that show mixed or slightly negative results before they have had time to mature could be detrimental to the implementation and spread of positive ideas,” according to the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative.