CPC+

CPC+ National Meeting Supports Value-Based Primary Care

In May, participants and stakeholders in the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) initiative from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) gathered for the CPC+ 2018 National Meeting in Baltimore.

CMS introduced CPC+ as a five-year pilot initiative in January 2017 with the goal of strengthening value-based primary care across the United States. It offers primary care providers increased and upfront payments, support and collaboration via an online community, and a resource library with webinars and learning documents.

The 2018 National Meeting was a first-time opportunity for participating providers and stakeholders, such as payer partners and health IT vendors, to connect with other members of the CPC+ community in person and share strategies for improving care quality and reducing costs.

The meeting agenda included select plenary panels, a wide variety of breakout sessions and built-in networking opportunities, plus a roundtable discussion with featured CPC+ practices and a listening session with CMS leadership. Breakout sessions focused on topics such as building effective care teams and specialist partnerships, connecting with health information exchanges (HIEs), and using data to evaluate progress and drive care improvements.

One year of CPC+

CPC+ is now in its second performance year. According to data collected and shared in CMS’s 2017 Year in Review publication, many participants have already made significant strides toward improving foundational aspects of their practices, as well as toward strengthening collaborations across the CPC+ community.

Some significant areas of improvement include:

  • Increased rates of empanelment (pairing patients with care teams) and risk stratification.
  • Increased rates of coordination with specialists and hospitals.
  • Increased rates of access to a clinician outside business hours.
  • Development of patient-family advisory councils.
  • Improved screening for unmet social needs.
  • Improved targeting for behavioral health conditions.
  • Increased leveraging of IT beyond care plan management, including screenings, physician pairing and risk evaluation.

Additionally, practices regularly participated in CPC+’s online community platform, webinars, direct coaching opportunities and regional learning sessions, and accessed online resource materials over 100,000 times.

Qvera partners with CPC+ to bring even more value

We believe strongly in the benefits of value-based care, and we’re extremely excited about the progress CPC+ participants have already reported. But we also recognize that these efforts represent significant investments in administrative time and technology deployments.

We partnered with CPC+ last year as an approved IT vendor because we know our interface engine can resolve interoperability issues for ambulatory clinics, making it far simpler for CPC+ participants to collect, measure and report program-required data. And for small practices with limited resources, we offer a full-featured version of Qvera Interface Engine with limited channels at no cost.

QIE works with the technology you’re already using. It translates medical data from different EHRs, imaging systems and data exchanges into a common language clinics can leverage — not only to check CMS boxes, but also to deliver real, lasting benefits to your patients, your clinicians and your bottom line.

More resources

Find out how QIE supports ambulatory care providers
Small clinic, or just checking us out? Download QIE Standard for free.
Learn more about the CPC+ program