The incentive to acheive PCMH (any level) right now is not primarily financial and should not be entered into for financial reasons. We do believe however, that acheiving recognition will continue to have more and more financial benefits considering the healthcare emphasis seems to be rewarding improved quality care and reducing costs. At this present time, individual health plans work with recognized practices by gathering data on their individual patients and then paying you per patient for reporting that data. It would depend on your particular patient population whether or not it would be profitable for you. BCBS and UHC are the two major plans that have programs that I am aware of right now. (we have received payments from both)
The major benefit we have found is the transformation within the clinic for the good of the patient. This promotes a "team" approch to patient care - treating the "whole" patient and their needs physically, emotionally, financially, and mentally as well as incorporate family members according to the patients' wishes.
I would be happy to speak to anyone by phone further about the actual process of submitting the data to become recognized. You have to have the data first obviously. Your clinic will need to do and/or change particular things possibly. Then you have to have someone very maticulous who is willing to put in the time for gathering and submitting the information. It is not an easy process but one I believe was very worthwhile for our clinic. I attended a conference in Washington, D.C. after I had begun the process which helped solidify for me exactly how and what I needed to send the information. NCQA has a lot of information on their website and available for individual viewing.
