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Medical Homes

by Elizabeth on July 15th, 2008

Lately, I’ve been reading about a concept called “medical homes”.

Essentially, a primary care physician is being paid extra to coordinate a patient’s care through routine visits, screenings, specialists and hospitalizations.

According to this story about the medical home on ABC News:

The concept aims to change rushed doctor’s appointments and fragmented specialist care by creating patient care “teams,” which could include nurse practitioners, nutritionists or other medical staff. Medical homes also offer longer office hours, electronic medical records and same-day appointments.

The idea is that patients would turn to a trusted adviser, either the doctor or another team member, for preventive and routine care — and rely on that person to help coordinate needed screenings, specialist visits and other care, says Terry McGeeney, head of TransforMED, a subsidiary of the American Academy of Family Physicians that helps doctors create such practices.

Call me crazy or old-fashioned, but I thought, for the most part this is what primary care physicians and staff were supposed to do. I realize that the whole reimbursement issue is complex, but still, I’m unclear why this is a “new” concept.

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POSTED IN: Healthcare