Under the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is initiating a new provision that is designed to help primary care practices deliver better patient-centered care.
As part of this provision, Medicare is partnering with both commercial and state health insurance plans to offer supplementary support to primary care doctors who offer more coordinated patient care. This joint effort, which is referred to as the Comprehensive Primary Care initiative, is based on practices conducted by large employers as well as the top private health insurers in the private sector.
This will start as a demonstration project that will be available in five to seven health care markets throughout the nation, and public and private health care payers that are interested in participating must submit a letter of intent by Nov. 15. Of those selected markets, Medicare and its partners will enroll interested primary care providers into the effort.
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According to HHS, this initiative will allow doctors to help patients with serious or chronic diseases follow personalized care plans, give patients around-the-clock access to care and health information, deliver preventive care, engage patients and their families in their own care, and work together with other doctors for better coordinated care.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will pay primary care practices a monthly fee for these services along with the typical Medicare fees that these practices would receive for providing Medicare-covered services.
"We know that when doctors have time to spend time with their patients and can better coordinate care with specialists, people are healthier and we have lower costs in the health care system," says CMS Administrator Donald Berwick, M.D.
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