Patient Centered Medical Home

The Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) is a model of care that places patients at the center of a coordinated health care system and strengthens the relationship between patients and their physicians and care teams.

For patients in Texas, the PCMH model can help improve continuity of care, access to appropriate services, and coordination among health care professionals.

Evidence demonstrates that PCMHs can improve quality of care and the patient experience while supporting care coordination and reducing avoidable health care costs. Practices that adopt PCMH principles commit to continuous quality improvement, patient engagement, and coordinated, evidence-based care.

From a Texas policy perspective, supporting patient-centered medical homes can help advance high-quality, accessible, and affordable care while allowing physicians and patients to determine how care is most appropriately delivered. Policies should support voluntary adoption of effective care models, reduce administrative burdens on physicians, and ensure that payment and quality programs recognize the value of comprehensive, coordinated primary care.  

What Are the Building Blocks of PCMH?

Because primary care practices and the patients they serve vary across Texas, there is no single approach to implementing a PCMH. However, established principles provide a framework for practices seeking to strengthen primary care and improve patient outcomes.

A PCMH model should support health care delivery that is:

• Accessible,
• Family-centered,
• Continuous,
• Comprehensive,
• Coordinated,
• Compassionate, and
• Culturally Effective.
  
  

The PCMH concept was formalized in 2007 through the Principles of the Patient-Centered Medical Home, developed by four major primary care physician organizations: the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, and American Osteopathic Association. The principles established a framework for delivering comprehensive, coordinated, accessible, and patient-centered primary care.

Since then, the PCMH model has gained broad support across the medical community, including from the American Medical Association and other physician organizations. The model has also informed the development of quality improvement, care coordination, and payment initiatives designed to strengthen primary care.

For Texas, the principles of the PCMH remain relevant to policies that support strong physician-patient relationships, continuity of care, care coordination, and meaningful access to primary care. Policy approaches should recognize the needs of Texas patients and physicians while avoiding unnecessary administrative requirements that can divert physician time away from patient care.