Rhode Island’s investment in primary care transformation: A case study.

INTRODUCTION: Rhode Island has received national recognition as a leader in statewide, multipayer, multistakeholder initiatives that focus on investments in primary care as a strategy to build a strong delivery system foundation that delivers high-quality, affordable health care. METHOD: For this case study we summarize key structural, process and outcomes factors and lessons learned from internal and external evaluations and project based and stakeholder-engaged quality improvement efforts that helped Rhode Island become the most improved U.S. health system over the past 5 years. RESULTS: Rhode Island's Office of the Insurance Commissioner through a collaborative process contractually established per-member, per-month payments to practices that engaged in the statewide transformation program to the patient-centered medical home model of care and paid incentives for achieving quality, patient experience, and hospital utilization targets. DISCUSSION: Critical lessons learned include the importance of engaging stakeholders in systems change, measuring and monitoring primary care spending, and continuous learning and best-practice sharing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).