The Affordable Care Act (ACA) presents a new opportunity for Medicaid programs to develop health homes for patients with multiple chronic conditions and/or severe mental illness. Through health homes, Medicaid can reimburse for critical services: comprehensive care management; care coordination and health promotion; transitional care; individual and family support; and referrals to community and social support services. States will be eligible to receive 90/10 federal matching funds for two years, thus creating a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate how coordinated care management can improve quality and potentially bend cost trends.

To begin to explore how states can develop health homes, the Center for Health Care Strategies convened a group of Medicaid stakeholders and national experts who identified six key considerations to help guide states in preliminary planning of health home models. This technical assistance tool outlines those initial considerations and includes a hands-on checklist that walks states through a list of decision points to guide health home program design.