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TransforMED Partners with Johns Hopkins Lipitz Center

03/19/2009

TransforMED partners with Johns Hopkins Lipitz Center to provide resources for Medicare Medical Home Demonstration (MMHD) provider education and assistance

The Roger C. Lipitz Center for Integrated Health Care at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health received a $1.7 million grant from the John A. Hartford Foundation to provide technical assistance designed to help medical practices qualify for and participate in CMS's three-year Medicare Medical Home Demonstration project. The MMHD is mandated by the 2006 Federal Tax Relief and Health Care Act.

Under the direction of Charles E. Boult, MD, MPH, MBA, the Lipitz Center will develop and make available to MMHD participants information, education, and technical assistance that draws on lessons learned from the Hopkins-developed Guided Care model. In the Guided Care model, a specially trained registered nurse is based in a primary care office and works closely with physicians, chronically ill patients and community services to improve quality of life and reduce the need for expensive inpatient health services. Early research has shown that Guided Care improves the quality of health care and physician satisfaction, while reducing health care costs and family caregiver strain.

In return for care management fees and incentive payments, practices participating in the MMHD program will provide their patients with comprehensive, coordinated, evidence-based care. Practices will be required to provide patients with convenient access to care, track patients' health status through the use of health information technology, and support patients' management of their conditions.

Using TransforMED's Medical Home Implementation Quotient (MHIQ) online tool, participants will be able to self-assess their readiness to become recognized as a medical home. The MHIQ also provides tips and resources to help practices implement medical home processes and improve performance before completing the CMS/NCQA medical home recognition process.

The program includes a variety of education and information resources, including 2-day regional Learning Collaboratives; a free, asynchronous, CME-granting, online course for physicians titled "Physicians in Medical Homes"; a free online course for nurses titled "Guided Care Nursing"; information about selecting Health Information Technology (HIT) and Electronic Health Records (EHR); and an implementation manual for practices that want to adopt Guided Care.

The Lipitz Center program will also inform practices of TransforMED's fee-based Medical Home Facilitation services, where they can elect to get help from experienced Practice Enhancement Facilitators in transforming their practices into medical homes.

Other partners in the project include the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the American College of Physicians (ACP), the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), the Johns Hopkins Center for Teaching and Learning with Technology, and The Institute for Johns Hopkins Nursing.

Find out more about...

CMS's Medicare Medical Home Demonstration - http://www.cms.hhs.gov/demoprojectsevalrpts/md/itemdetail.asp?filterType=none&filterByDID=0&sortByDID=2&sortOrder=ascending&itemID=CMS1199247

Technical assistance for the Medicare Medical Home Demonstration - http://www.medhomeinfo.org

Guided Care -- http://www.guidedcare.org

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health - http://www.jhsph.edu

The Roger C Lipitz Center at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health – http://www.jhsph.edu/lipitzcenter

About TransforMED

The Leawood, Kan.-based TransforMED LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Established in 2005, TransforMED provides ongoing consultation and support to physicians looking to transform their practices to a new model of care that is based on the concept of a patient-centered medical home. TransforMED is an active member of primary care communities and recognizes and supports the unique value that primary care offers to patients and the health care system. TransforMED shares and supports the idealism and altruism of primary care physicians and the strong commitment to their communities and patients through continuing patient relationships and independent decision making. TransforMED offers practices both products and services, including consultation and advice on implementing the patient centered medical home model. To learn more about TransforMED, visit www.transformed.com.