Transforming Safety Net Clinics into Medical Homes: Call for Proposals

The Commonwealth Fund, together with Qualis Health and the MacColl Institute for Healthcare Innovation, have launched a new initiative to transform 50 primary care safety net clinics into patient-centered medical homes. The goal of the Safety Net Medical Home Initiative is to develop and demonstrate a replicable and sustainable implementation model for medical home transformation. Through a request for proposal process, four regional coordinating centers will be selected to help transform 12 to 15 safety net clinics per region--for a total of 50 clinics--into high-performing medical homes. These regional coordinating centers--which could include professional affiliations of safety net providers/practices, state primary care associations, and state Medicaid agencies, among other entities--will receive expert technical assistance and up to $500,000 over four years to support a Medical Home Facilitator, who will lead the clinics through practice transformation and quality improvement exercises. In addition, regional coordinating centers will partner with both the safety net providers and community stakeholders to advance the medical home in Medicaid and pursue other policy reform efforts in their states. Regional Coordinating Center applications are due on November 3, 2008, and can be downloaded at http://qhmedicalhome.org/safety-net/index.cfm. For more information, please contact RFP@qhmedicalhome.org or Kathryn Phillips, M.P.H., Project Manager, at 206-364-9700 ext. 2007.