November 16, 2017
WASHINGTON, DC—The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) is proud to announce a new national recognition program for school-based health centers. The School-Based Medical Home (SBMH) recognition program is the first and only national program that recognizes school-based health centers providing full-spectrum care to children and adolescents in a safe and accessible location—their school.
There are over 2300 school-based health centers in 49 states that provide comprehensive medical care to children and adolescents largely in communities with high percentages of low-income families. These centers provide medical, mental health, and often dental and vision care to students in a clinic located in the school building.
“The School-Based Medical Home program ensures high quality, coordinated school-based care for underserved children and adolescents who may have no other source of health care,” said Patricia Barrett, Vice President, Product Design and Support. “We are proud of this new recognition program that provides the best standards of practice for our nation’s youth in their schools, where they spend so much of their time.”
The concept for the school-based recognition program stems from a collaboration between Montefiore School Health Program, the Primary Care Development Corporation (PCDC), and the New York School-Based Health Alliance (NYSBHA) which recognized the need for tailored standards for school-based clinics.
“NYSBHA is thrilled to have this collaboration with Montefiore and PCDC recognized by the NCQA,” said Sarah Murphy, executive director for the New York School-Based Health Alliance. “School-based health centers are unique and forward-thinking, and with their focus on prevention, the resulting improvements in children’s health, academic performance and overall healthcare cost savings demonstrate the value of this model of care.”
“This is a tremendous breakthrough for school-based health providers,” said Margaret Rogers, DNP, of Montefiore School Health Program, who also serves as NYSBHA’s past chair. “The School-Based Medical Home Standards will benefit both the students, who will be receiving high quality care, and the providers, who will gain recognition and potential reimbursement enhancement for the outstanding work they are doing to take care of our young people.”
The SBMH recognition program is a hybrid model that evaluates how school-based health centers perform as a medical home, provide episodic care for students with urgent or emergent needs and act as a collaborative care center for students and the community served. School-based health centers seeking recognition demonstrate they meet NCQA PCMH requirements and complete the school-based health center subset of requirements in the same evaluation.
NCQA is hosting a webinar for school-based centers and others interested in this new recognition program on Thursday, December 7 at 2:00pm. Click here to learn more and register for the webinar.
To learn more about how to achieve recognition, visit this link.