reports

Evaluation of the Maryland Multi-Payor Patient Centered Medical Home Program

Final report. Columbia, MD: IMPAQ International.

IMPAQ International, Columbia, MD, USA; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA

The Maryland Health Care Commission (MHCC) has contracted with IMPAQ, International, LLC and its partners to conduct an independent evaluation of the Maryland Multi-Payor Patient Centered Medical Home Program (MMPP) pilot. The MMPP pilot is a three-year program testing the effectiveness of the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model of primary care in 52 Maryland practices. A patient centered medical home is defined in Maryland law as a primary care practice organized to provide a first, coordinated, ongoing, and comprehensive source of care to patients to: foster a partnership with a qualifying individual; coordinate health care services for a qualifying individual; and exchange medical information with carriers, other providers, and qualifying individuals.
A unique feature of the MMPP pilot as compared to many other PCMH programs nationally is that Maryland’s PCMH law requires the five largest State-regulated health insurance carriers to financially support the program by providing up-front and incentive payments to qualifying MMPP practices. Other state and federal payors have voluntarily joined the program.
This issue brief describes the evaluation findings for the MMPP pilot. Specifically, the evaluation of the MMPP assessed the impact of the PCMH model on the following domains: 1) practice transformation; 2) provider satisfaction; 3) patient satisfaction and experience, including access to care; 4) quality, utilization and costs of care; and 5) health care disparities.
The evaluation consisted of several components, including site visits and interviews with participating practices, patient and provider surveys, and administrative data analyses. This issue brief presents selected key findings of the MMPP evaluation. Additional findings and further explanation are available in other MMPP evaluation issue briefs.