Medical Home System Advisory Council

The Health Care Reform Act has tasked the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) with developing a plan for implementation of a statewide patient-centered medical home system.

• The initial phase will focus on providing a patient-centered medical home for children who are eligible for Medicaid.
• The second phase will focus on providing a patient-centered medical home to adults covered by the IowaCare Program and to adults eligible for Medicaid.
• The third phase will focus on providing a patient-centered medical home to children covered by the hawk-i program and adults covered by private insurance and self-insured adults.

IDPH also will work with the Iowa Department of Administrative Services to allow state employees to use the patient-centered medical home system.

To guide the Department in achieving these goals, the Medical Home System Advisory Council will make recommendations to IDPH on the plan for implementation of a statewide, patient-centered medical home system.

The Advisory Council includes representation from health care, state agencies, academia and consumers.

The Council will provide a strategy to:

• coordinate health care services,
• monitor data collection on patient-centered medical homes,
• and provide training and education to health care professionals and families.

In addition, the use of electronic medical records and telemedicine should also be included in a patient-centered medical home system.