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With An Eye to the Future

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2007: Health Care Homes (HCH) Are Introduced in Minnesota

Health care homes (HCH), or medical homes, are an innovation in primary care in which primary care providers, families and patients work in partnership to improve the health and quality of life for individuals, especially those with chronic and complex conditions, including people with developmental disabilities. The idea behind health care homes is to place the patient and his or her family at the center of the individual's care, develop proactive approaches through comprehensive care plans, and offer more continuity of care through increased care coordination.

Medical home legislation was first passed by the Minnesota legislature in 2007. The legislation was identified as provider-directed care coordination for patients with complex illness in the Medicaid fee-for-service population (now called primary care coordination). This provider-directed care coordination model is patterned after other state and national health reform initiatives with proven cost-saving and quality-enhancing outcomes.

Medical Home

Also in 2007, Minnesota launched several initiatives to study and make recommendations related to health care reform. The Governor's Health Care Transformation Taskforce and the Legislative Commission on Health Care Access both met throughout the summer and fall of 2007. Both issued recommendations for health reform in Minnesota, including endorsements of medical homes.

Minnesota has adopted the term "health care homes" rather than "medical homes" in order to indicate a broader focus on improved health care coordination, community involvement and health promotion. Health Care Homes require a shift from a purely medical model of health care to a focus on linking primary care with wellness, prevention, self-management and community services. The goals of the new model are to:

  • Continue building a strong primary care foundation to ensure all Minnesotans have the opportunity to receive team-based, coordinated, patient-centered care.
  • Increase care coordination and collaboration between primary care clinicians and community resources to support whole person care and facilitate the broader goals of improving population health and health equity.
  • Improve the quality, experience, and value of care.

In May 2008, Minnesota passed the nation-leading, comprehensive health reform law that included a variety of components aimed at improving the health of the population, the quality of care, the affordability of health care and the individual patient experience. One of the main components of the 2008 health reform law was the health care homes initiative.

The law allows for providers to become health care homes and for patients to go to health care homes for their care. It also represents payment reform by creating a care coordination payment for health care homes. The Minnesota Departments of Health and Human Services collaborated to implement the various aspects of health care homes in Minnesota.

http://www.health.state.mn.us/healthreform/homes/index.html

For more information on how HCH was implemented in Minnesota, see the report entitled, "Minnesota Health Care Home Capacity Assessment: Clinics and consumers identify their readiness for health care reform and Health Care Home implementation," dated June 30, 2009. https://www.leg.state.mn.us/docs/2010/other/100117.pdf

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