Health Care Homes
News & Announcements

Registration is now open for Learning Days 2019 “Redefining Health | Redesigning Care” on April 9-10, 2019 at the Continuing Education and Conference Center on the University of Minnesota St. Paul Campus.

Register for Learning Days through the MDH Learning Center (formerly known as the MDH LMS).

Visit the HCH Learning Days 2019 webpage for instructions on how to register and find additional information on the conference venue and lodging.

Connecting Communities with Data: An Introduction and Practical Guide
Learn how to build effective community partnerships and strategies for sharing data. Course includes practical tools and resources. Developed in collaboration between MDH Health Care Homes and the MDH Office of Health Information Technology.

This course is free, available on demand and may qualify for CEU credit. Register through the MDH Learning Center (formerly known as the MDH LMS). For help with Learning Center registration, visit the HCH Website.

Quality Improvement Foundations
This online course explores the fundamentals of quality improvement, including charters, PDSA, the 5 Whys, process maps, defining opportunities, and the Model for Improvement. A collaboration between MDH Health Care Homes and the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement.

This course is free, available on demand and may qualify for CEU credit. Register through the MDH Learning Center (formerly known as the MDH LMS). For help with Learning Center registration, visit the HCH Website.

MDH is organizing website content into different categories to better serve our visitors. The website addresses (URLs) will also change. We will post the date of the website address change when it occurs with a reminder to update any bookmarks and links to the HCH main webpage at that time.

The Minnesota Department of Health announces the following clinics as newly certified Health Care Homes:

• HealthFinders Collaborative – Faribault Clinic
• HealthFinders Collaborative – Northfield Clinic
• Olmsted Medical Center – Lake City
• Olmsted Medical Center – Skyway

Find currently certified Health Care Homes on the HCH Interactive map.

View our newest video “The Psychology of Change: Creating an Environment Where Improvement Can Thrive".

Visit the Health Care Homes YouTube playlist for more videos on how Health Care Homes certification is transforming primary care and improving health for patients, families and communities.

The Health Care Homes program published a Request for Comments in the State Register on September 24, 2018, stating that the Minnesota Department of Health and the Minnesota Department of Human Services are requesting comments on possible amendments to the Health Care Homes rule.

For more information visit the Health Care Homes Rulemaking webpage.

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) is awarding Learning Community Partnership grants to three organizations totaling $81,906. The grants support advancing the work of Health Care Homes (HCH) through partnering with a local public health agency and a behavioral health organization in a Learning Community to address shared goals to improve the health and health outcomes of a community. The grants are intended to increase and strengthen partnerships between primary care, local public health, behavioral health, and other community-based organizations through the use of data and information to support shared population health goals. The award will fund activities from September, 2018 through June 30, 2019.

The organizations selected for this award are:

• Lakewood Health System, Staples, $30,000
• North Memorial Health, Robbinsdale, $23,214
• North Metro Pediatrics, PA, Coon Rapids, $29,692

For more information visit the HCH Learning Collaborative Request for Proposals webpage.

The Minnesota Departments of Human Services and Health (DHS and MDH) contracted with the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) at the University of Minnesota to conduct a study of the costs of HCH care coordination for adults.

Using a case-study approach, the study targets six non-acute primary care clinics in Minnesota that are HCH certified.

Read the Minnesota Health Care Home Care Coordination Cost Study (PDF).

The Health Care Homes (HCH) and Integrated Health Partnerships (IHP) brief overview (PDF) introduces both programs and describes how HCH certification is fundamentally structured to support value-based care arrangements (such as IHPs).

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has released a report updating the status of Minnesota's 15 Accountable Communities for Health (ACH) as they strive to improve health across the state. Accountable Communities for Health meet the clinical and social needs of a population through community partnerships and person-centered, coordinated care across a range of providers. Minnesota is evaluating whether the model of care providers and communities working together results in improvements in quality, cost, and experience of care. About $5.6 million, or 14 percent, of Minnesota's State Innovation Model funds are dedicated to 15 ACH grant projects.

The report, Advancing Health Equity (PDF)"Accountable Communities for Health: Perspectives on Grant Projects and Future Considerations", includes the following highlights:

•An overview of the Accountable Community for Health model
•A summary of successes and challenges as the efforts completed more than half of their 2-year funding cycle
•Examination of similar approaches in at least four other states, and
•Recommendations and considerations for developing the model in the future

Please visit the Accountable Communities for Health page of the Minnesota Accountable Health Model website to download a copy of this report.

For questions contact Health.HealthCareHomes@state.mn.us.