Transforming Community Health Centers into Patient-Centered Medical Homes: The Role of Payment Reform

This report examines how changes in the way federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) are financed could support the transformation of these critical safety-net providers into high performing patient-centered medical homes. 

Preliminary recommendations to encourage health centers to serve as patient- and community-centered medical homes include: establishing recommended standards for patient- and community-centered medical homes that apply to FQHCs; structuring payment incentives to promote medical homes; including FQHCs in state Medicaid medical or health home projects; adapting payment approaches, including adding monthly case management fees; and encouraging the Health Resources and Services Administration to use quality-of-care measures in making funding decisions. Download the full report here...