Health Extension Partner State: Idaho

Building off the initiatives in place, including the Idaho Medical Home Collaborative, Idaho joined the North Carolina IMPaCT Learning Community to get training and technical assistance to develop the infrastructure needed to support its medical home practices. Idaho also wished to adapt key elements of North Carolina’s successful continuous quality improvement system. Idaho aligned its objectives with CMS’s Triple Aim and sought to design a plan that would improve patient and provider experience, create a payment system that focused on value as opposed to volume, and decrease excessive spending.

What Primary Care Extension Looks Like in Idaho:

Strong Partnerships Aligned Around a Common Goal: Important partnerships have been formed with the North Idaho Health Network (NIHN), the Idaho Community Care Network (ICCN), the Idaho Primary Care Association, multiple health systems, and practitioners. Moreover the core public and private sector stakeholders leading Idaho’s IMPaCT project have solidified their partnerships and now collaborate on broader transformation activities within the state.

Effectively Distilling Information Learned from North Carolina: Idaho’s site visit to North Carolina was a crucial learning experience during the IMPaCT project. Subsequently, Idaho made great strides in educating stakeholders throughout the state on the potential for health care transformation by sharing the successful aspects of the Community Care of North Carolina (CCNC) model and how those methods could be adapted to meet the needs of Idaho.

Building Capacity: The foundation established through the NC IMPaCT Project has enabled Idaho to build the vision, capacity and momentum needed to transform its primary care system. Idaho has been awarded a State Innovations Model (SIM) design grant, which builds directly on Idaho’s plan to adapt North Carolina’s model developed during the IMPaCT Project. As a result, Idaho will now be in a position to move forward on key considerations they need to address to develop the infrastructure necessary to implement real change in its health care system.

 

Collaborators within Idaho

Denise Chuckovich

Deputy Director, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare
Email: ChuckovD@dhw.idaho.gov

 

 

Tom Fronk

Executive Director, Idaho Primary Care Association
Email: TFronk@idahopca.org

 

 

Paul Leary

Administrator, Idaho Medicaid
Email: LearyP@idaho.gov

 

 

Susie Pouliout

CEO, Idaho Medical Association
Email: Susie@imed.org

 

 

Neva Santos

Executive Director, Idaho Academy of Family Physicians
Email: IdahoAFP@aol.com

 

 

Larry Tisdale

Idaho Hospital Association
Email: LTisdale@teamiha.org