Building a medical home requires hard work from you and your practice team. There are no shortcuts—change requires time, money, dedication, and sustained effort, and you will not see results overnight. Faced with these challenges, practice transformation may seem like a daunting prospect. But the need for change is real: Health care in the United States is moving away from a volume-based payment system and toward a value-based system. The effort you put into practice transformation will not only position you to better respond to the changing health care landscape but, with time, will also benefit your patients, your practice, and your bottom line.
The American Academy of Family Physicians defines a medical home as one that is based on the Joint Principles of the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), the Shared Principles of Primary Care, and the five key functions of advanced primary care. Through implementing medical home functions, you can improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of the care you deliver while responding to each patient’s unique needs and preferences.
No matter where you fall on the spectrum of practice improvement—managing current projects, enhancing basic concepts, or advancing to more complex initiatives—adopting the five key functions of a medical home can benefit your practice, your patients, and your bottom line.
Medical Homes and the Quality Payment Program (QPP)
The improvement activity (IA) category is a performance category in the QPP Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). It contains activities similar to the medical home functions. The IAs are designed to improve clinical practice or care delivery that, when effectively executed, lead to improved outcomes.
Practices and ECs will attest that they are a recognized PCMH. If there are multiple practices reporting under one tax identification number (TIN), at least 50 percent of practices within the TIN need to be recognized to automatically receive full credit.