Boise, ID - Idaho Primary Care Association has been awarded a three-year grant in the amount of $300,000 from the Cambia Health Foundation to work with 20 Idaho community health center (CHC) clinics to facilitate their transformation into patient-centered medical homes.

About the grant

The grant made to Idaho Primary Care Association (IPCA) represents the largest grant the Cambia Health Foundation has made in Idaho and aligns with the Foundation's objectives to explore innovative models of care delivery that promote patient activation and a focus on outcomes, while improving quality and lowering the cost of care.

This three-year project builds on the work of the Governor's Select Committee on Health Care and the work conducted in the Safety-Net Medical Home Initiative (funded by The Commonwealth Fund May 2009-April 2013) and will include work with 20 CHC clinics to help them reach high benchmark levels of quality, efficiency, and patient experience.

"Whenever we can build partnerships between the public and private sectors to improve health care in Idaho, that's a good thing," said Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter. "Medical home initiatives, including this one with the Idaho Primary Care Association and Cambia Health Foundation, can help improve the quality of care for patients across Idaho and lower health care costs."

Patient-centered medical homes in Idaho

On a parallel track, the Idaho Medical Home Collaborative representing the Governor's Office, Idaho legislators, payers, and health policy leaders will continue their work of the past two years to work to transform reimbursement policy for medical home services. The Idaho Medical Home Collaborative has also received funding from the Cambia Health Foundation.

The patient-centered medical home is a model of primary care in which patients receive well-coordinated services and enhanced access to a clinical team, and clinicians use decision support tools, measure their performance, and conduct quality improvement activities to meet patients' needs. The model holds promise not only for improving clinical quality and patients' experiences, but also for reducing health system costs.

Serving the underserved

"For many in Idaho's medically underserved communities, the care they receive is fragmented, infrequent and uncoordinated," said Scott Kreiling, Cambia Health Foundation board member. "Through this grant and our partnership with the Idaho Primary Care Association, our goal is to help shift Idaho's health care system to a patient-centered medical home model and improve health outcomes by ensuring patients have access to the high quality, coordinated care they need."

The parent organizations of the 20 Idaho partner clinics include Adams County Health Center in Council; Upper Valley Community Health Services in St. Anthony; Glenns Ferry Health Center in Glenns Ferry; Benewah Medical Center in Plummer; Community Family Clinic in Idaho Falls; Community Health Association of Spokane in Lewiston; Dirne Community Health Center in Coeur d' Alene; Family Health Services in Twin Falls; Kaniksu Health Services in Bonner's Ferry; Terry Reilly Health Services in Nampa; and Valley Family Health Care in Payette.

Idaho Primary Care Association staff will provide support the clinics to improve quality of care.

"We are very excited about this opportunity to continue assisting our community health centers transform their practices to patient-centered medical homes. We truly appreciate the support that Cambia Health Foundation is providing to continue this important work," said Tom Fronk, Executive Director, Idaho Primary Care Association.

About Cambia Health Foundation

Cambia Health Foundation is the corporate foundation of Cambia Health Solutions, a total health solutions company dedicated to transforming the way people experience the health care system. A 501(c)3 grant making organization, the foundation partners with organizations to create a more person-focused and economically sustainable health care system. Through its Sojourns program, the foundation also works to enhance quality, improve access, advance innovation and facilitate conversations about palliative care and end-of-life issues. For more information, visit www.cambiahealthfoundation.org or www.twitter.com/cambiahealthfdn.

SOURCE Cambia Health Foundation

CONTACT: Teri Barker, IPCA Director of Clinical Quality: 208-898-3825, tbarker@idahopca.org or Samantha Meese, Cambia Health Foundation: 503-225-4871, samantha.meese@cambiahealth.com 

On March 20, the House passed the Mikulski/Shelby Continuing Resolution, ensuring funds for community health centers to continue to provide primary care to their current patients, and for expansion of care to many new ones. 

“We commend Congress for recognizing the critical role health centers play in meeting the need for access to primary health care in medically underserved communities across the country,” said Tom Van Coverden, President and CEO of the National Association of Community Health Centers.  “Ensuring that the full $300 million funding increase for FY 2013 is spent by the end of the fiscal year and allocating $48 million in funding for current health center base grant adjustments will allow health centers to extend care to 1.5 million patients who currently lack access to a regular source of primary and preventive care. This is a tremendous bipartisan affirmation by Congress that health centers offer a real solution to our nation's health care access and cost challenges." 

Click here for more details on the health center funding language contained in the Continuing Resolution.  

The National Committee for Quality Assurance has announced that 16 Idaho community health centers have received Level 3 Recognition from the Physician Practice Connections-Patient Centered Medical Home (PPC-PCMH) for using evidence-based, patient-centered processes that focus on highly coordinated care and long-term participative relationships.

The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is a promising model of health care delivery that aims to improve the quality and efficiency of care. PPC-PCMH identifies practices that promote partnerships between individual patients and their personal clinicians, instead of treating patient care as the sum of several episodic office visits. Each patient’s care is tended to by clinician-led care teams, who provide for all the patient's health care needs and coordinate treatments across the health care system. Medical home clinicians demonstrate the benchmarks of patient-centered care, including open scheduling, expanded hours and appropriate use of proven health information systems. Early evaluations of the PPC-PCMH have shown promising results in improving care quality and lowering costs by increasing access to more efficient, more coordinated care. By avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations and emergency room visits, these early result are producing savings for payers, purchasers and patients. 

To receive recognition, which is valid for three years, the clinics demonstrated the ability to meet the program's key elements embodying characteristics of the medical home. The standards are aligned with the joint principles of the patient-centered medical home established with the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Osteopathic Association. All 16 Idaho CHC clinics met key program components in the following areas:

• Written standards for patient access and enhanced communications
• Appropriate use of charting tools to track patients and organize clinical information
• Responsive care management techniques with an emphasis on preventive care
• Adaption to patient's cultural and linguistic needs
• Use of information technology for prescriptions and care management
• Use of evidence-based guidelines to treat chronic conditions
• Systematic tracking of referrals and test results
• Measurement and reporting of clinical and service performance

Congratulations to the following Idaho CHCs for achieving NCQA PPC-PMCH Level 3 recognition:

Health West, Inc.

Pocatello Clinic

Aberdeen Clinic

American Falls Clinic

Downey Clinic

Lava Hot Springs Clinic

McCammon Clinic

Terry Reilly Health Services

Nampa Clinic

Caldwell Clinic

Boise Clinic

Homedale Clinic

Marsing Clinic

Melba Clinic

Family Medicine Residency of Idaho

Raymond Clinic

Fort Street Clinic

Meridian Clinic

Emerald Clinic

Benewah’s new medical center opened its doors on October 19, 2012.  The facility is 50,000 square feet, about three times the size of Benewah’s old center. Benewah serves approximately 6,000 patients from northern Idaho, eastern Washington, and Montana. 

Read more about the new facility.

Learn more about Benewah Medical Center.