Seizing the Opportunity: Early Medicaid Health Home Lessons

This Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) brief, supported by NYHealth and the Missouri Foundation for Health, draws from the experiences of early health home adopter states, including New York State, to outline elements critical to the implementation and sustainability of the Medicaid health home model.

Medicaid health homes, made possible through the Affordable Care Act, provide states with a mechanism to support better care management for people with complex health needs with the goal of improving health outcomes and curbing costs. States implementing health homes receive enhanced federal support for a limited time period. As of March 2014, 15 states have 22 approved state plan amendments to implement Medicaid health homes. Six early adopter states—Iowa, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, and Rhode Island—have collectively enrolled more than 875,000 Medicaid beneficiaries in health homes.

In October 2013, CHCS convened states that were early health home adopters to glean implementation lessons and identify key themes to health home sustainability. This brief summarizes these finding to inform other state looking to develop effective health home programs.

CHCS also developed a fact sheet, “Medicaid Health Homes: Implementation Update,” and an infographic, “Medicaid Health Homes: State Update,” that summarize key points in establishing Medicaid health homes.