Illinois gets $2 million federal grant to promote primary care, prevent use of emergency rooms

[April 24, 2008]  CHICAGO -- Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich announced Thursday that the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services has been awarded a federal grant of more than $2 million to help create programs that will link Medicaid beneficiaries to a medical home -- in an effort to improve access to primary medical care and reduce use of costly hospital emergency rooms. The grant will be funded over a two-year period from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

"One of the critical issues facing our health care system is how to reduce the use of hospital emergency rooms for problems that can be diagnosed and cared for by primary care facilities," said Blagojevich. "In Illinois, we have already been working hard toward that end by rolling out a primary care case management system. This federal grant recognizes those efforts and will also help us to take our programs to the next level."

With the grant, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services plans to create two programs that effectively divert people from emergency rooms if they have medical needs that can be addressed by alternative health care settings nearby. Unnecessary emergency room visits can result in significant costs to the health care system, so Illinois continues to develop programs that steer patients to more cost-effective care settings. As planned, one Emergency Room Diversion Program will be in Chicago and another will be in a rural area. HFS will work with partners in the health care field to locate new community health center sites on or near hospital campuses and also partner with the Department of Human Services, Division of Mental Health, and community mental health providers so that clients seeking care at a hospital might instead find help in a primary care or behavioral health setting nearby, depending on their needs.

"This grant continues our commitment to providing people with access to quality, affordable health care, by ensuring people get care in their medical home, the most appropriate setting for routine primary care," said Barry Maram, director of the Department of Healthcare and Family Services. "We are grateful for the federal government's recognition of our work in this area and their confidence in our ability to continue that work in the future with this grant."

Illinois launched Illinois Health Connect, a primary care case management system for its Medicaid enrollees, in July 2006. Illinois Health Connect works to assign each patient to a medical home where they can receive primary and preventative care. Through extensive outreach to doctors, through professional organizations, hospitals and direct office visits, HFS has enrolled more than 5,273 medical homes to provide primary care. Nearly 1.7 million children and adults who are in programs like All Kids or FamilyCare were sent information about selecting a primary care physician, and if they did not choose a physician, one was assigned for them.

The recent federal grants were awarded through a competitive process. The grant proposal was prepared and submitted in collaboration with the Illinois Primary Healthcare Association, an organization representing federally qualified health centers and community health clinics.

Other states receiving grant funds under this program are Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Washington.

Similar to Illinois' plans, grantees will use the funds for projects such as establishing new community health centers, extending the hours of operation at existing clinics, educating beneficiaries about new services and providing for electronic health information exchange between facilities for better coordination of care.

[Text from file received from the Illinois Office of Communication and Information]