Health Homes – Care Coordination for People with Serious Mental Illness

With funding support from the National Institute of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins ALACRITY Center investigators used mixed-methods to study the implementation and outcomes of Maryland’s Medicaid Health Home Program, where community mental health programs coordinate physical healthcare services for people with serious mental illness.

Center researchers conducted a state-wide study of the implementation and outcomes of Maryland’s Medicaid Health Home program for people with serious mental illness. In the Health Home program, psychiatric rehabilitation programs coordinate and/or deliver physical health care services for people with serious mental illness. Initial results suggest that implementers view the program as a good fit with the recovery-oriented mission of psychiatric rehabilitation programs. However, interviews and surveys with Medicaid Health Home leaders and front-line providers identified effective population health management and communication and coordination with external primary care providers as implementation challenges. During this project, ALACRITY Center investigators studied the effects of the program on access to and quality of healthcare services for people with serious mental illness in Maryland. (R24MH102822, K01MH106631)

Investigators 

• Beth McGinty, PhD, MS, Co-Principal Investigator
• Gail Daumit, MD, MHS, Co-Principal Investigator
• Sachini Bandara, PhD, Co-Investigator
• Alene Kennedy-Hendricks, PhD, Co-Investigator

Publications

• Behavioral health home impact on transitional care and readmissions among adults with serious mental illness (Kennedy-Hendricks et al., Health Serv Res., 2021)
• Effects of Maryland's Affordable Care Act Medicaid Health Homes Waiver on Quality of Cardiovascular Care Among People with Serious Mental Illness (McGinty et al., J Gen Intern Med., 2020)
• Association Between the Maryland Medicaid Behavioral Health Home Program and Cancer Screening in People With Serious Mental Illness (Murphy et al., Psychiatr Serv., 2020)
• The Effects of the Maryland Medicaid Health Home Waiver on Emergency Department and Inpatient Utilization Among Individuals with Serious Mental Illness (Bandara et al., Gen Hosp Psychiatry, 2019)
• The Policy Ecology of Behavioral Health Homes: Case Study of Maryland’s Medicaid Health Home Program (Stone et al., Adm Policy Ment Health, 2019)
• Care Coordination and Population Health Management Strategies and Challenges in a Behavioral Health Home Model (Daumit et al., Med Care, 2019)
• Physical health outcomes and implementation of behavioural health homes: a comprehensive review (Murphy et al., Int Rev Psychiatry, 2018)
• An Innovative Model to Coordinate Healthcare and Social Services for People with Serious Mental Illness: A Mixed-Methods Case Study of Maryland’s Medicaid Health Home Program (McGinty et al., Gen Hosp Psychiatry, 2018)
• Measuring Variation Across Dimensions of Integrated Care: The Maryland Medicaid Health Home Model (Kennedy-Hendricks et al., Adm Policy Ment Health, 2018)