Physician practices and readiness for medical home reforms: policy, pitfalls, and possibilities

Abstract

Objective: To determine the proportion of physician practices in the United States that currently meets medical home criteria.

Data source/study setting: 2007 and 2008 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.

Study design: We mapped survey items to the National Committee on Quality Assurance's (NCQA's) medical home standards. After awarding points for each "passed" element, we calculated a practice's infrastructure score, dividing its cumulative total by the number of available points. We identified practices that would be recognized as a medical home (Level 1 [25-49 percent], Level 2 [50-74 percent], or Level 3 [infrastructure score ≥75 percent]) and examined characteristics associated with NCQA recognition.

Results: Forty-six percent (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 42.5-50.2) of all practices lack sufficient medical home infrastructure. While 72.3 percent (95 percent CI, 64.0-80.7 percent) of multi-specialty groups would achieve recognition, only 49.8 percent (95 percent CI, 45.2-54.5 percent) of solo/partnership practices meet NCQA standards. Although better prepared than specialists, 40 percent of primary care practices would not qualify as a medical home under present criteria.

Conclusion: Almost half of all practices fail to meet NCQA standards for medical home recognition.

Figure 1

Proportion of Patient Visits to “Not Recognized” Primary Care Practices by Race/Ethnicity and Poverty Strata