State at a Glance: Idaho
Idaho is featured in the following reports from the National Evaluation:
- Evaluation Highlight No. 2: How are States and evaluators measuring medical homeness in the CHIPRA Quality Demonstration Grant Program?
- Evaluation Highlight No. 6: How are CHIPRA quality demonstration States working together to improve the quality of health care for children?
- Evaluation Highlight No. 7: How are CHIPRA quality demonstration States designing and implementing caregiver peer support programs?
- Evaluation Highlight No. 9: How are CHIPRA quality demonstration States supporting the use of care coordinators?
- Evaluation Highlight No. 13: How did CHIPRA quality demonstration States employ learning collaboratives to improve children’s health care quality?
- Implementation Guide No. 1: Engaging Stakeholders to Improve the Quality of Children’s Health Care
Learn more about Idaho's CHIPRA quality demonstration projects on this page:
Overview
Idaho is working with Utah, one of the 10 grantees, in a two-State partnership to implement projects in three of the five grant categories:
- Promoting the use of health information technology (IT) to enhance service quality and care coordination.
- Implementing a more comprehensive provider-based model of service delivery.
- Testing an approach to quality improvement of a State's own design
Idaho's Objectives
Idaho Children's Healthcare Improvement Collaborative (Idaho CHIC) is working to improve quality of care for all children, with particular emphasis on children with special health care needs (CSHCN). Under the demonstration, Idaho will (1) implement a strategy to improve the child health IT infrastructure in the State; (2) help practices transform into medical homes; and (3) foster collaboration among child-serving practices engaged in quality improvement activities.
Using Health IT to Improve Child Health Care Quality
Idaho is implementing a multifaceted health IT strategy aimed at improving quality measurement and enhancing care coordination. Idaho contributes content to the Medical Home Portal, an online resource that providers and family members may use to gain information on care for chronic conditions and to identify community resources and services for CSHCN. Idaho and Utah are also working to connect their health information exchanges (HIEs) and create interfaces between them and public health information systems, which may lead to better communication and more efficient care. In addition, Idaho is sharing immunization information with Utah through a secure gateway and is working to build a similar information sharing gateway for cancer.
Assessing a Provider-Based Model of Care
Idaho is supporting two pediatric primary care practices and one subspecialty practice in their efforts to become effective medical home teams and provide high-quality and coordinated care in partnership with patients and families and with particular attention to CSHCN. Participating practices have medical home coordinators (MHC), who are selected jointly by the project team and the practice, employed by the State, and embedded in the practice. The MHC coordinates patient care and services, participates in learning collaboratives, leads quality improvement projects, and patient centered medical home transformation.
The Idaho grant team is also partnering with the Idaho Division of Public Health to extend PCMHs to rural communities by embedding MHCs in rural public health districts. These MHCs each support two or three practices in their local districts. The MHCs formed a network for case management and resource sharing with other care coordinators from the Idaho Health Home Program and Idaho Primary Care Association Safety Net Medical Home Initiative, which include pediatric and family practices. The care coordinators are working on public health initiatives, including transitions and immunizations, allowing rural communities to make strides in whole patient care.
Testing an Approach to Quality improvement of Idaho's Own Design
As part of the National Improvement Partnership Network (NIPN) , Idaho has established a coalition of providers engaged in quality improvement activities: the Idaho Health and Wellness Collaborative for Children (IHAWCC). This partnership includes public and private stakeholders and a network of physicians who work together to identify priority areas for quality improvement, such as physical and behavioral health integration, and hold learning sessions to help practices improve in selected areas. IHAWCC also holds cross-State collaborative meetings with Utah's improvement partnership on several topics, including collecting the initial core set of children's quality measures.
Evaluation Questions
The national evaluation team will gather information from Idaho to address a wide range of questions about the implementation and outcomes of its efforts, including:
- How were cross-State connections developed between the Idaho and Utah HIEs?
- Did the Idaho medical home project enhance quality of care for children?
- To what extent did the cross-State Utah and Idaho improvement partnerships enhance quality of care for the region's children?
- What are the key lessons from Idaho's experience that would be useful for other States?
Learn More
This information is current as of February 2014, slightly more than 4 years after the grant award. To learn more about the projects that are being implemented in Idaho under the CHIPRA Quality Demonstration Grant Program, please contact:
Melissa Carico
Idaho Department of Health and Welfare
Division of Medicaid
3232 Elder Street
Boise, ID 83702
208-364-1936
caricom@dhw.idaho.gov
