As physician groups and insurance companies explore various ways to implement the medical home concept, another organization has developed a set of nine principles that it said seeks to advance the concept from the consumer’s—rather than the physician’s—perspective and is distributing them to state and federal lawmakers to help guide healthcare system reform proposals.
The National Partnership for Women & Families, a Washington-based consumer healthcare and workplace advocacy group formerly known as the Women’s Legal Defense Fund, developed the guidelines along with more than 20 other organizations such as AARP, the Alzheimer’s Association, the American Diabetes Association and the Service Employees International Union.
In the second consumer principle, which calls on the patient-centered medical home to take responsibility for coordinating its patients’ healthcare across care settings, it’s noted that medical homes should also have systems in place “to help patients with health insurance eligibility, coverage and appeals.” Under the third principle, which states that “the patient has ready access to care,” the new guidelines note that “the medical home is not a ‘gatekeeper,’ but rather facilitates connections to other providers and services, as appropriate.”
