NCQA > Education & Events > Events > NCQA's National Policy Conference

2nd Annual Policy Conference:
Building the Patient-Centered
Medical Home

December 6, 2007 | Washington, D.C.

NCQA convened its second annual Policy Conference, Building the Patient-Centered Medical Home, on December 6 in Washington. This one-day conference brought together health care experts, health plans, employers, consumer advocates, providers and government officials to discuss and debate current and proposed medical home projects and define how this concept can address disparities in access and quality of care in the current American system.

Although there are several proposed variations of the patient-centered medical home, proponents seek to restructure traditional reimbursement practices, which currently encourage physician specialization, to support personalized primary care, with primary care physicians serving as coordinators of the health needs of their patients.

The medical home concept will provide a more efficient and cost-effective care delivery model for all patients, regardless of whether they have a chronic condition, an episode of illness or the need for health promotion and prevention.

Topics Discussed

Expert panelists discussed why we need the medical home concept, how can it improve the quality of care and who will pay for this new approach. The event ended with a roundtable with leaders from Capitol Hill discussing the political feasibility of implementing the medical home in the United States.

Panels were split into:

"Do We Need a Medical Home?"
"Who Will Pay for the Medical Home?"
"An International Perspective"
"How is the Medical Home Working in Communities?"
"Roundtalbe: Views from Capitol Hill"

Featured Speakers and Panels| View Agenda

NCQA Hosts and Moderators

Margaret E. O’Kane, President
Gregory Pawlson, MD, MPH, FACP, Executive Vice President
Phyllis Torda, Vice President for Product Development
Richard Sorian, Vice President for Public Policy & External Relations

Keynote Speaker
Elliott Fisher, MD, Professor of Medicine and Community & Family Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School

Do We Need a Medical Home?

Christine Carroll, Chief Development Officer, National Partnership for Women & Families
Hoangmai H. Pham, MD, MPH, Senior Health Researcher, Center for Studying Health System Change
Diane Rittenhouse, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine and Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, San Francisco
John Tooker, MD, MBA, FACP, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer, American College of Physicians

Who Will Pay For the Medical Home?

James F. Coan, Office of Research Development and Information Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
L. Allen Dobson, Jr., MD, FAAFP, Former Assistant Secretary of North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and State Medicaid Director
Paul Grundy, MD, Vice President, Global Well-being Services and Health Benefits, IBM Corporation
Dolores L. Mitchell, Executive Director Commonwealth of Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission

An International Perspective

Frede Olesen, Professor, Doctor of Medical Science, Director Research Unit for General Practice, University of Aarhus, Denmark
Cathy Schoen, MS, Senior Vice President, The Commonwealth Fund

How Is The Medical Home Working In Communities?

Richard J. Baron, MD, FACP, President, Greenhouse Internists, PC
Charles M. Cutler, MD, M.S. Chief Medical Director, National Accounts, Aetna
Barbara A. Muller, MD, FACP, Medical Director, Wellmark BlueCross/Blue Shield, Iowa
Xavier Sevilla MD, FAAFP, Chief of Pediatrics, Manatee County Rural Health Services Inc., Steering Committee of Quality Improvement and Management, American Academy of Pediatrics

Roundtable: Views from Capitol Hill

Margaret O’Kane, NCQA
Mayra Alvarez, Office of Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL)
Eugene Rich MD, Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow, Health Subcommittee (Majority), House Ways and Means Committee
John Tooker, MD, MBA, FACP, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer, American College of Physicians