The Affordable Care Act, Medical Homes, and Childhood Asthma: A Key Opportunity for Progress

This brief focuses on how the medical home model facilitates comprehensive, patient-centered care by fostering partnerships among and between patients and their providers, including primary care doctors, specialists and emergency service providers. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) established the patient-centered medical home as a matter of policy and promotes reforms to support the creation of medical homes for patients with chronic illnesses, including asthma. This brief reviews the key PPACA provisions that advance the medical home concept in public and private health insurance and recommends ways the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) can fully utilize the medical home to advance high-quality treatment and effective childhood asthma management.