LANSING – Around since at least the 1960s, medical homes for children certainly aren’t a new concept, Dr. Lawrence Reynolds told a group of lawmakers at an informational breakfast here Thursday.

“It’s as developed as any idea with merit can be developed,” said Reynolds, a Flint pediatrician and president of the Michigan chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

What Michigan needs to do is implement them.

“Our challenge has been how to bring this concept to practice and to show improvements in health outcomes and the value added,” he told lawmakers.

A recent study in Grand Rapids might just help. A study of the first two years of Kent County’s Children’s Healthcare Access Program (CHAP) showed that emergency room visits and hospitalizations among the county’s 15,000 CHAP eligible children dropped 14 percent and 12 percent respectively. Among CHAP clients with greater needs, ER visits and hospitalizations dropped 35 percent and 62 percent. (For a Grand Rapids Press article on the CHAP program, click here.)

The immediate social benefits of CHAP, the study said, exceeded the costs by 20 percent, returning $1.20 for every $1 invested.

If the hospitalization rate for children on Medicaid across Michigan was the same as for those with private insurance, the estimated cost savings for one year would be $300-$400 million.

Simply put, a medical home is a partnership between a child, a child’s family and the pediatric primary care team that oversees the child’s health within a community-based system. A medical home becomes a place where children can always go for regular checkups, immunizations and routine medical matters rather than using the local emergency room, which drives up costs.

A medical home also helps families find doctors who accept Medicaid — no small chore these days — arranges transportation to and from appointments and solves translation issues, which are a common barrier to care for many. In addition, medical homes provide on-site social workers to connect families with services outside the doctor’s office.

Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons, R-Alto, who attended the informational breakfast, which was sponsored by the Early Childhood Investment Corporation, Michigan’s authority on early childhood, and the Michigan chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the case for health care and support of early childhood "is too strong" for the Legislature to ignore.

"No one should be exempt from quality health care, least of all children," said Lyons, who represents eastern Kent County, home to the Kent CHAP.

Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker, R-Antwerp Township, said health care in general will be an important issue under discussion in the Legislature in the next couple of years, as it is nationally today. Schuitmaker's district covers Kalamazoo County where another CHAP-style project is seeking funding.

"We have an excellent CHAP program in Kalamazoo. It's been great to see results that show improving outcomes for children. That's a good thing."

Schuitmaker called CHAP's goal of coordinating care in a holistic approach that draws together medical, mental health and dental services especially important.

Judy Y. Samelson, CEO of the Early Childhood Investment Corporation, called the Grand Rapids CHAP model “genuinely exciting and promising news about the health of young children in Michigan.”

Of the 140,000 Michigan children starting school for the first time this week, 20,000 will have undiagnosed health conditions, which makes it difficult for them – and for those around them – to learn, Samelson noted.

“Good health is a starting point” for school readiness, she said. “We need to get at the front end of this issue.”

As a 25-year board at the Hurley Medical Center in Flint, she saw first-hand the rising use of emergency rooms by families seeking medical help for their children. For many families who did not have access to primary care, the emergency room was the safest place to seek care.

She said the CHAP model is an opportunity to improve health outcomes for children and reduce emergency room use and costs.

“This could seriously impact Michigan and school readiness, if we get it right.”

Wayne County is piloting a CHAP effort. Kalamazoo, Calhoun and Shiawassee counties are in the planning phase, and Genesee and Saginaw counties are exploring the concept.

Also speaking at the legislative breakfast were Dr. Tom Peterson, medical director of Kent County CHAP; Maureen Kirkwood, program manager of Kent County CHAP; Dr. Teresa Holtrop, medical director of Wayne County CHAP; Jametta Lilly, project director of Wayne County CHAP; Dr. Tom Akland, medical director of Southwest Michigan CHAP; and Denise Sloan, executive director,Michigan chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

For more information on Kent County CHAP, click here. For more information on Wayne County CHAP, click here. FOr more information on the Southwest Michigan CHAP, click here.