“The Department is thrilled to award these grants,” said John Folkemer, DHMH Deputy Secretary for Health Care Financing. “These projects will target real needs and create opportunities to ultimately save money in the health care system. Since we reimburse hospitals for uninsured emergency rooms visits, we should see lower health care costs and better health care.”

In medically underserved areas, patients who inappropriately use hospital emergency rooms will be redirected to nearby medical homes. For patients who are enrolled in public programs, this will mean referring them to sources of care that are already available to them. Another goal is to encourage the use of existing health information technology to appropriately refer people to a medical home.   

“These are tough fiscal times, but this is an opportunity for the Department to use our limited resources to help the community use what they have in place to serve more Marylanders,” added Colmers. 

Additional Contact Information:

Baltimore Medical System (BMS)

Kecia Wherry, Director of Development, 410-558-4964

Montgomery County’s Primary Care Coalition (PCC)

Diane Briggs, Director of External Affairs, 301-628-3425