The Patient-Centered Primary Care Home Program is part of Oregon's efforts to fulfill a vision of better health, better care and lower costs for all Oregonians.
The Oregon Legislature established the Patient-Centered Primary Care Home Program in 2009 through passage of House Bill 2009. The goals of the program are to develop strategies to identify and measure what a primary care home does, promote their development and encourage Oregonians to seek care through recognized Patient-Centered Primary Care Homes.
In 2010, the Oregon Health Policy Board charged the Oregon Health Authority with providing access to patient-centered primary care for all members of the Oregon Health Plan, state employees and Oregon educators. The ultimate goal is that 75 percent of all Oregonians will have access to care in a Patient-Centered Primary Care Home by 2015.
The program works with diverse groups of Oregonians from across the state, the PCPCH Standards Advisory Committee, to define what a primary care home looks like and set the standards for recognition.
Beginning in 2011, the Patient-Centered Primary Care Home Program, in partnership with the Northwest Health Foundation, convened a task force to inform recommendations that would support broad implementation of the primary care home model across Oregon. The task force membership included clinicians, patients, public health, and healthcare delivery technical experts from across Oregon. The program is now working to implement the recommendations of the task force, as outlined in the final task force report.
Today, the Patient-Centered Primary Care Home Program administers the application, recognition, and verification process for practices applying to become Patient-Centered Primary Care Homes. The program also provides a variety of technical assistance to help primary care clinics transform to patient-centered primary care homes. The program also works with stakeholders across Oregon to support adoption of the primary care home model.
Primary Care homes and Coordinated Care Organizations
Primary care homes are at the heart of Oregon's health system transformation efforts. Coordinated Care Organizations are required to include recognized primary care homes in their networks of care to the extent possible. Expanding the availability of primary care homes will provide better access to care now and strengthen the primary care networks as CCOs emerge.
Policy makers that have additional questions about the PCPCH Program can contact us at PCPCH@oha.oregon.gov