Idaho’s “Target for a Healthy Idaho" initiative will provide each person access to a medical home under the direction of a primary care provider. This state plans to concurrently address multiple system weaknesses, including its current shortage of primary care physicians and the supporting team of professionals. Idaho will focus first on technology to provide the foundation for patient-centered medical home. This aspect of the plan will be implemented in 2008. Two planning bodies have been formed to carry out this (and other) work. Idaho Health Quality Planning Commission is tasked with coordinating and implementing health information technology, including that envisioned to support medical homes, and the Select Committee on HealthCare is working to further develop the recommendations made as part of the Target for a Healthy Idaho. Also, two major commercial health plans are rolling out pilot medical home models.
Medicaid & SCHIP: require all appropriate participants to enroll in a medical home system called Healthy Connections. Medicaid pays medical home providers for identifying diabetic patients on a registry and provides enhanced payments for evidence-based procedures. "Idaho Medicaid has partnered with the Family Medicine Residency of Idaho and the Idaho Primary Care Association to develop a pay-for-performance pilot program focusing on managing chronic diseases. This program began by focusing on best practices in the care of diabetes, and will expand later to care of asthma, cardiovascular disease, and depression. The program uses recognized standard clinical criteria that reflects best clinical practices and will adjust reimbursement to reward these care practices. There are 326 Medicaid patients participating." Source: Medicaid Initiative Status Report, December 2006.
