Grantee Name
Excellus Health Plan, Inc.
Funding Area
Primary Care
Publication Date
May 2016
Grant Amount
$300,000
Grant Date:
May 2009 – September 2013
Numerous studies have demonstrated that comprehensive and integrated primary care is a cost-effective means to reduce health care fragmentation and its associated costs.
The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is a promising model in which highly connected, coordinated, and inclusive patient care is overseen by a team of care providers, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and other care coordinators. Excellus BlueCross BlueShield (Excellus), MVP Health Care, and physicians in upstate New York partnered to create the Rochester Medical Home Initiative (RMHI) to test the viability of the PCMH model. Excellus and MVP Health Care provided $8 million to fully fund the demonstration. Excellus also compensated participating primary care physicians for providing additional case management and trained them to implement PCMH principles into their practices. In 2009, NYHealth awarded Excellus a grant to support an independent research evaluation of RMHI’s demonstration of the PCMH model.