Testimony--Achieving Person-Centered Primary Care: The Patient-Centered Medical Home

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this invitation to testify on person-centered care for older adults in ambulatory care settings. I am Melinda Abrams, assistant vice president at The Commonwealth Fund, where I direct the Patient-Centered Primary Care Initiative. The patient-centered medical home is an approach to providing person-centered care in primary care settings. This model organizes care around the relationship between the patient and the personal clinician. In February 2007, four primary care specialty societies representing more than 300,000 physicians released joint principles outlining and defining key characteristics of a medical home.