West Virginia

West Virginia is transforming its primary care system into the Medical Home model.  A comprehensive strategy is evolving, facilitated by CMS Medicaid Transformation Grants, where the medical home is a fundamental design principle.  The approach involves the establishment of a Health Improvement Institute with the major stakeholders at the table. The initial focus is on the Medicaid population and will expand to all West Virginians.  The Institute had its third meeting in July 2008.  There are four work groups, each developing focused strategies:  one is focused on new models for provider engagement and training; a second on accelerating the adoption of health information technology; a third on measurement/reporting/reimbursement and the fourth on strategies to accelerate self-activation of the population.  West Virginia is also developing a Learning Community of practices that will serve as the testing ground for pilots and demonstrations on differing approaches to reimbursement, use of incentives, pay for performance, adoption of electronic health information and member engagement.