MINNEAPOLIS, February 14, 2008—A column in Monday's Wall Street Journal praises the efforts in Illinois to provide Medicaid patients with a medical home, which medical columnist Benjamin Brewer, M.D., defines as "an accessible, lower-cost point of entry into the health-care system than a hospital emergency room."

The medical home concept is one of the cornerstone's of the MMA's recommendations for health care cost reform in this year's Legislative session.

In a column titled "Finding a Medical Home May Be Just What the Doctor Ordered," Brewer says he was impressed with the economics underlying Illinois Medicaid's plan. Overnight, his practice ballooned by almost 2,000 Medicaid patients. Illinois Medicaid reimbursed the practice with about $2 per patient, plus office visit fees.

"Two bucks a month may not sound like much for all that work and responsibility," Brewer writes, "but it should just about cover the costs for our electronic medical records, computers, quality tracking and annual IT support. For the insurer and for patients, there should be savings and better health. Patients who don't have a medical home incur higher health costs and report more illness."

How significant is the medical home for patients? Brewer calculated that patients without some form of coordinated care have twice the rate of being hospitalized or using the emergency department over the past last year compared to those with a a medical home that keeps track of their medical needs.

Brewer calls for fair payment for primary care services that require a lot of what is now largely uncompensated work beyond an office visit. "The cost would be peanuts, and the benefits of improved care could be enormous," he says.

He maintains that primary care is so cheap that the average person doesn't value it properly. The reason health care costs are unmanageable is catastrophic illnesses, hospital charges and the costs of administration and marketing. The medical home, which provides inexpensive, high-quality care, suggests a way around all that.

Most Americans could afford $20 per month primary care with $4 prescription drugs from Wal-Mart, he concludes. Combine these economies with tax deductibility for individuals, and the medical home becomes "a slam dunk" solution to the cost crisis everyone faces today.

Read Brewer's column