Fort Smith, Ark. – According to the state officials, the Arkansas Department of Human Services Program Director Ballard and Arkansas Medicaid Medical Director Dr. Golden accepted the Center for Evidence-based Policy’s inaugural Evidence-Based Innovation Award for the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) program.
The award recognizes a team or state official for using evidence to innovate state-run, publicly funded efforts that achieve improvement in health outcomes, quality, or cost for their state’s population.
The PCMH program aims to support primary care in Arkansas by enhancing the patient experience, promoting preventive and long-term disease management, and reducing cost to the program.
Primary care practices, in return for receiving a monthly care coordination fee, must provide services such as 24/7 access to care, track next available appointments, assure that beneficiaries with higher risk scores or chronic conditions have two care plans completed per year, and conduct screenings for literacy and social determinants of health.