Rhode Island General Laws Title 42. State Affairs and Government § 42-14.6-2. Legislative purpose and intent

(a) The general assembly recognizes that patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is an approach to providing comprehensive primary care for children, youth and adults. The patient-centered medical home is a healthcare setting that facilitates partnerships between individual patients, and their personal physicians, physician assistants and advanced practice nurses, and when appropriate, the patient's family. Care is facilitated by registries, information technology, health information exchange and other means to assure that patients get the indicated care when and where they need and want it in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner. The goals of the patient-centered medical home are improved delivery of comprehensive primary care and focus on better outcomes for patients, more efficient payment to physicians and other clinicians and better value, accountability and transparency to purchasers and consumers. The patient-centered medical home changes the interaction between patients and physicians and other clinicians from a series of episodic office visits to an ongoing two-way relationship. The patient-centered medical home helps medical care providers work to keep patients healthy instead of just healing them when they are sick. In the patient-centered medical home patients are active participants in managing their health with a shared goal of staying as healthy as possible.

(b) The patient-centered medical home has the following characteristics:

(c) The general assembly recognizes that Rhode Island is a national leader in all-payer patient-centered medical homes through a model developed by providers and financed through the voluntary participation of insurers. The continuation of this model, developed by the Rhode Island chronic care sustainability initiative, is recognized as critical to the future structure of the Rhode Island primary care delivery system. The general assembly also recognizes that the model created through this legislation is not the only model for patient-centered medical homes and in no way seeks to limit the innovation of providers and insurers in the future.