primary cares initiative – The Health Care Blog

How eConsults Can Help PCPs Benefit From the Primary Cares Initiative

Feb 28, 2020• 1

By CHRIS JAEGER MD, MBA

The Primary Cares Initiative provides new value-based payment models aiming to enhance the delivery of primary care to promote efficiency and quality while decreasing healthcare costs. In the second part of this two-part series, we explore how eConsults directly support this new initiative across several key metrics.

Introduction

The Primary Cares Initiative aims to enhance the delivery of primary care through value-based payment models. In Part One of this two-part series, we broke down the five payment models offered through this initiative, including two performance-based models (Primary Care First) and three risk-sharing plans (Direct Contracting). Alongside previous programs such as Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH), the Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC+) program, and the Medicare Advantage Value-based Insurance Design (VBID), the Primary Cares Initiative represents the most recent push for enhancing primary care within health care systems.

Yet, as programs such as these continue to emphasize primary care providers as a locus of optimal care, the question becomes: how can primary care providers (PCPs) best work within initiatives such as these to enhance care delivery efficiency and effectiveness, and what kinds of services and technologies can support this?

The Primary Cares Initiative: How Value-Based Payment Models Aim to Strengthen Primary Care

Feb 11, 2020

By CHRIS JAEGER MD, MBA

In April 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the Primary Cares Initiative, which is expected to reduce administrative burdens and improve patient care while decreasing health care costs. Learn more about the Primary Cares Initiative and its proposed value-based payment models in part one of this two-part blog series.

Introduction

While the health care landscape has never been static, rarely has it seen such radical changes as it has within recent decades. The population of the United States continues to age, and the prevalence of chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and anxiety or depression contribute to a substantially increased demand for care. These factors are pushing a shift from a provider-centric model toward more efficient outcome-based models that put the patient at the center and heavily rely on primary care as the steward of patient care.

Primary care is a vital resource in dealing with the many factors altering the health care landscape. A 2019 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that for every 10 additional primary care physicians (PCPs) per 100,000 people, patients saw a 51.5-day increased life expectancy.

To promote further adoption of primary care-based models, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced a set of payment models meant to further transform primary care through value-based options under the new Primary Cares Initiative. This voluntary initiative will test financial risk and payment arrangements for primary care physicians (PCPs) based on performance and efficiency, including five new payment models under two paths: Primary Care First (PCF) and Direct Contracting (DC). These models, slated to hit 20 states in 2020, seek to address the many difficulties in paying for, and incentivizing, valuable primary care within current payment models.