Home Forums Discussions Meaningful Use NCQA - PCMH Level 3

We at MedPeds Medical Clinic in Weatherford, TX - Dr. Nusrat Khan, are pleased to announce that we have been awarded PCMH Level 3. We believe we could not have done so without the tecnology that AC provides. It made the tenuous process easier and working with Updox was vital!!!
We are a single physician office in a small rural town and we want all practices to know that you don't have to be a big corporate practice to give good, quality healthcare that is patient centered.
Please feel free to contact us for any information, or questions.
817-596-3700 office number

what is pcmh level 3?

That's great. How many employees were/are required??

PCMH stands for Patient Centered Medical home - Level 3 is the highest you can get - there are level 1, 2, 3
The organization that recognized us is NCQA - The National Committee on Quality Assurance
You can check out the website - ncqa.org
It is hard to explain if you don't know anything about it but it is quite a process to get recognized. It is a great exercise for the clinic and provides high quality care for the patient.

There are no specific requirements as far as employees etc. you can read the qualifications on their website.

Congratulations! I would get your staff some serious Texas barbecue now that you achieved this level. I am looking at it as well.

Do you mind speaking on the financial benefits (if any) to a solo physician office of being certified PCMH? I am solo FP and have contemplated seeking this status, however I'm not certain the cost/headache/hassle factors will payoff financially to make this worth all the mammoth effort required to achieve.

Can you talk about direct financial incentives v.s. future financial prospects being certified PCMH?? thank you.

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.

thank you for that very helpful summary.