Alabama

Since 1997, more than 420,000 Alabama Medicaid recipients - 80 percent children - have been assured access to a basic medical home each year through Patent 1st, the Agencyís Primary Care Case Management program. The statewide program, which operates under the authority of a 1915 (b) wavier, replaced a fragmented fee-for-service system in which patients got care on a case-by-case basis and only when providers were willing to accept their Medicaid coverage.

Today, approximately 1,100 Primary Medical Providers (PMPs) provide care to assigned patients or refer them to another provider for care. Virtually all Patient 1st PMPs are also CHIP and Blue Cross-Blue Shield providers as well. The state also obtained a transformation grant that will support practices in their efforts to serve as effective medical homes by creating a statewide, central, shared interoperable electronic health information system (HIS) that links Medicaid, state health agencies, providers, and private payers.
 
Targeted population: Medicaid/CHIP.