The Patient-Centered Medical Home’s Impact on Cost and Quality, Annual Review of Evidence, 2013-2014

The Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC) has released its annual report, published with support from the Milbank Memorial Fund. This year’s report provides new evidence that the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) improves care and reduces costs. The publication includes an aggregation of PCMH outcomes from a combination of 28 peer-reviewed studies, state government program evaluations, and industry reports, the largest number of PCMH evaluations in a single year. The data supports the assertion that the PCMH can lead to a reduction in health care costs, inappropriate emergency department utilization, and inpatient hospitalizations:

14 Peer-reviewed scholarly publications

• Six of the 10 studies reported reductions in cost (60 percent)*
• 12 of the 13 studies reported improvements in utilization (92 percent)*
  * Not all 14 studies measured both cost and utilization.

7 State government reports

• All seven reported reductions in cost (100 percent)
• Six reported improvements in utilization (86 percent)

7 Industry reports

• Four reported reductions in cost (57 percent)
• Six reported improvements in utilization (86 percent)

The report serves as a go-to resource for policymakers, providers, payers, and patients on the most recent evidence regarding the PCMH and its impact on the health care marketplace.