Rep. Allyson Schwartz, D-Pa., knew she was preaching to the choir when she addressed a health care event on Thursday entitled "All Eyes on the Patient-Centered Medical Home." But that didn't diminish her vigor in boosting the medical home model, which creates incentives for doctors to coordinate patient care.

"It does work in every area of the country," she said. "It's so easy for us in Washington to say 'our hospitals are better' or 'we do this area of specialty best,' and we do. But on medical homes, there are so many different models and they all work around the country."

Robert Kocher of the White House National Economic Council went even further, saying that without medical homes, primary care would "creak to a halt."

Schwartz was the keynote speaker at the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative event, intended to examine medical homes' place in reform efforts and how the idea could best be implemented. Even though current legislation funds only pilot projects and Congress has little binding commitment to the idea, speakers at the conference were encouraged, even thankful that lawmakers started so small.

"It's a mental transformation. You have to start with changing the mindset at the lower level," said Dr. Paul Grundy, the group's president. He added that it would take an individual practice three to four years to adapt to the new model. "In some ways, I'm thankful that it's not a bigger thing."

PCPCC, which would like to see health care move from a fragmented system of specialists to one where patients get their care coordinated by a team of doctors, has been encouraged so far by reform efforts, and Grundy talked about seeing "signs of spring" in his opening remarks. The bills currently circulating Congress would launch medical home pilot programs across the country to study the most effective ways to move to that type of care. In addition, there would be incentives to promote more primary care and integration of care in the health care system.

Rep. Schwartz said in her remarks that the idea was so "obvious and straightforward" to many health care professionals that it was easily put into legislation: "In some ways, this issue got done so early we barely even talked about it."