Are Certain Health Centers Better Patient-Centered Medical Homes for People with Severe Mental Illness?

Patient-centered medical homes based at federally-qualified health centers (FQHCs) can benefit patients with complex health needs, such as severe mental illness (SMI). However, little is known about FQHC characteristics associated with changes in health care expenditures and utilization for individuals with SMI. Using North Carolina Medicaid claims and FQHC data from the Uniform Data System, multivariate regression identified FQHC characteristics associated with total expenditures, medication adherence and emergency department utilization among adults with SMI, controlling for time-invariant differences by health center. Few of the FQHC-level factors affected the outcomes-not even offering on-site behavioral health services. Although the FQHCs in the analysis sample exhibited considerable variation in the provision of specialty behavioral services and in staffing configurations, it may be the case that the examination of average effects across a heterogeneous group of adults with SMI mask benefits of FQHCs to certain subgroups. These findings support the conclusion that there is no "one-size-fits-all" model that works best for this diverse patient population. Study results are relevant for practices embarking on expanded medical home services for people with SMI.