In February 2007 the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American College of Physicians (ACP), and the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) published their landmark Joint Principles on the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH). This approach promises comprehensive primary care for children, youth, and adults in a partnership between individual patients and a team of health care professionals at the practice level. The team coordinates care across all elements of the health care system. Increased quality, patient safety, use of technology, performance incentives, accountability, and patient-centeredness are all hallmarks of the patient- and family-centered medical home model.

By 2010 the medical home model had become one of the most talked-about concepts in health care and the rising star of health care reform and its newest concept, the Accountable Care Organization or ACO. The model was also evolving, with different iterations in the make-up of the medical home team, the way in which care coordination is managed, and the relationship with other members of the "medical neighborhood" -- behavioral health, oral health, social services, and specialty and inpatient care. even the name was evolving, with "health homes" and "advanced primary care" now used to describe some patient-centered medical home models.

Now, by the time of the Fifth National Medical Home Summit in 2013, the patient-centered medical home is firmly established and widely recognized as the foundation of health care improvement and the achievement of the Triple Aim. This year's Summit will bring together the leading authorities and practitioners in the medical home field to discuss how it is working, where it has proven outcomes, what lessons have been learned, where it needs improvement, and what issues and challenges lie ahead. A major focus in the opening plenary session will be actual patient and family involvement in the medical home structure and decision making processes, followed by an afternoon of six mini Summits on major medical home themes -- patient-centered "Always events," tools to help with racial disparities, care coordination and care management, key nursing roles, the road to ACos, and innovation in the safety net. Attendees will see how the model is actually right now in a variety of different settings serving Medicare, Medicaid, commercially insured, and uninsured patients. Special plenary session presentations on the final morning will challenge medical homes to deal with some difficult issues -- health equity, obesity, oral health, primary care residency programs, and employer engagement.

Two preconferences are offered to give attendees a rich pre-Summit experience. one will highlight the available medical home accreditation/recognition programs -- AAAHC, Joint Commission, NCQA, Planetree, and URAC. The second will highlight the various reimbursement models in play -- P4P, direct pay, episodes of care, capitation, and shared savings. Finally, the popular Medical Home Training Program will again allow individuals to take a deeper dive into the subject matter and earn a certificate. As always, the Summit permits registrants to enjoy the complete Summit experience online through both real time and archived access to all Summit presentations.