The Montana Patient-Centered Medical Home program is a team-based approach to primary care that emphasizes preventive care, focused disease management, patient engagement and outcomes-based assessments in quality of care. 

Montana's Commissioner of Insurance, Monica Lindeen, said on Monday that a newly released report indicates an improvement of patient care through the program.

"We had finished our latest Patient-Centered Medical Home report for the legislature, and while the program hasn't been in place for too long, we are already beginning to see some improvement," Lindeen said. "As a definition, it really is all about a team-based approach to medical care for individuals who are seeing a provider. The whole team comes together, the physician, the nurses, the nursing assistants, and they really are trying to  make sure that we are emphasizing proactive preventive care in disease management. In the long run, we're decreasing the amount of more expensive treatments that may be needed."

Lindeen continued.

"What we've found is that by focusing on that quality-based incentive rather than the traditional fee-for-service model, here in Montana, providers are actually seeing an improvement in lower numbers of diabetic patients with poor control over their diabetes, along with patients with hypertension that are showing better blood pressure rates than the general population," she said.

Lindeen said she was gratified by the report and that even more improvements will occur as the program continues.

The PCMH Program includes 68 primary care clinics across the state, including five in Missoula, two in Stevensville, and one in Florence.

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