Preview of PCMH Congress 2017

November 3-5, 2017 Orlando, FL

The 2017 PCMH Congress, the NCQA’s annual meeting (November 3 – 5 at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando, Florida), is a chance for health care providers and decision makers to come together in order to gain a better understanding of the advances in patient-centered care. The Congress caters towards attendees who want to gain insight into how clinical practice can intersect with managed care to leverage the numerous advantages of the patient-centered medical home model (PCMH). Attendees seeking recognition will gain valuable knowledge on the recently redesigned PCMH recognition program, while already attendees with PCMH recognition will be able to attend workshops aimed at optimizing care integration strategies to reduce waste and improve outcomes. The Congress is also a chance for health care professionals to network with other experts and peers who are also focused on transforming health care though implementation of better patient-centered care.  

To help inform and excite attendees, First Report Managed Care has curated an abridged overview of the meeting and the educational sessions that would best serve managed care professionals attending the conference. Please refer to the final program and meeting website (www.pcmhcongress.com) for a complete list of all sessions, workshops, speakers, exhibiting sponsors, and other events.

Education Tracks & Session Types

The PCMH Congress includes three education tracks for attendees, including beginner, intermediate, and advanced. 

Additionally, the conference will be divided into a series of sessions, workshops, and industry-supported symposia. Topic types for the sessions include: 

•ACO Models

• Advanced PCMH

• Behavioral Health Implementation

• Case Studies for PCMH ROI

• Community-Based Care & Integration

• MACRA Implementation

• The Medical Neighborhood

• PCMH Fundamentals

•Performance Reporting & Quality Improvement

• The Patient Voice

• Unique Practice Settings

HIGHLIGHTED SESSIONS

Friday, November 3, 2017 

•9:25 am-10:25 am

Measuring Primary Care Mental Health Implementation: Procedures, Processes, and Metrics
Rodger Kessler, PhD, ABPP, chair of research and evaluation for the Doctor of Behavioral Health Program at the College of Health Care Solutions at Arizona State University, will provide integration outcomes and process metrics to support new NCQA Behavioral Health Distinction integration within the PCMH program. Attendees will gain an understanding of the how collecting a measure of degree of primary care integration works. Dr Kessler will also present data from an expert panel on behavioral health integration metrics.  

•11:45 am-12:45 pm

Population Health: Impact on the Medical Home Neighborhood  
This workshop will help attendees to better understand how the Merit Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) track of MACRA impacts how practices can implement PCMH models. Dominic H Mack, MD, MBA, executive medical director of the Georgia Health Information Technology Extension Center at Georgia Health Connect, will identify the four components of MIPS that could alter how PCMH models function. His presentation will explore how the success of PCMH programs under MACRA could improve the entire health care system. Attendees will also gain knowledge on policies impacting EHR incentive programs, how health reform impacts population health, and solutions for implementing incentive programs to serve under-resourced communities. 

•2:15 pm-3:15 pm 

Patient-Centered Community Care Model: Does The Investment Pay Off?
Emma Gray, MBA, MHA, PCMH CCE, senior vice president of population health at IKS Health, will present data showing how investing in a community care service can provide significant return-on-investment (ROI).
This presentation will explain how administrative burdens, physician burnout, and patient overload can impact patient access to primary care services and hurt population health. Ms Gray will show how a Community Care Consortium can help providers deliver better team-based care while reducing the burden. During this session, Ms Gray will provide real- world projected and achieved ROIs based on the community care intervention.

•3:25 pm-4:25 pm

A Case Study Examining Alignment of a Provider and Payer Partnership to Achieve the Quadruple Aim
Nancy Yates Street, MBA, MS, PMP, LSSBB, PCMH CCE, assistant vice president of population intelligence at Cooper University Health Care, and Cari Miller, MSM, PCMH CCE, a manager of value-based programs at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of NJ, will present a case study showing how a payer-provider partnership helped improve outcomes, reduce costs, and improve patient satisfaction. Attendees of this workshop will gain an understanding of how quality measures are reported to payers, how to foster collaboration between stakeholders, and how to maximize cost savings and risk reduction. 

Saturday, November 4, 2017 

•9:10 am-10:10 am

Patient Centered Oncology Care Pilot: Impact on Care and Lessons Learned
Kashyap Patel, MD, an oncologist at Carolina Blood and Cancer Care; Patricia Barrett, MHSA, vice president of product design and support at the NCQA; and Manasi Tirodkar, PhD, MS, a research scientist at the NCQA, will present data on NCQA’s Oncology Medical Home Recognition program. This session will cover the NCQA’s efforts to improve how the current recognition programs serve oncology care. The speakers will present data from an oncology care pilot study.

•2:00 pm-3:00 pm

MACRA: Maximizing the MIPS Categories
As the MACRA transition begins, practices that are focused on quality improvement and measurement are best poised to thrive under the new payment model. This session will provide attendees with the information needed to prepare for MIPS and avoid a negative impact on reimbursement. Nicole Harmon, MBA, PCMH CCE, senior director of practice advancement strategies at the Healthcare Association of New York State, and colleagues will present strategies for achieving clinician collaboration in order to contain costs and improve outcomes.

•3:10 pm-4:10 pm

Creating PCMH Programs for Large Communities
Susanne Madden, MBA, PCMH CCE, CEO of The Verden Group’s Patient Centered Solutions, and Amanda Ciadella, PCMH CCE, a senior consultant at Patient Centered Solutions, will discuss how to develop programs that help larger communities of physicians gain PCMH recognition. The session will cover strategies for engaging large groups of physicians, such as health systems or extended physician communities, about the PCMH program.  

Sunday, November 5, 2017 

•8:40 am-9:40 am

Nurse Annual Well Visits and Chronic Care Management: New Medicare Services Provide Revenue for an Expanded Medical Home Team

This session will cover how to leverage nurses for preventive care appointments in order to take advantage of new Medicare codes and Annual Well Visits reimbursement from insurers. Karen Fitzpatrick, MD, PCMH CCE, medical director at the West Virginia University Family Medicine, will discuss the basic requirements for annual well visits and chronic care management visits—with a focus on how these reimbursements can be maximized. This session will also go over how fee-for-service revenue can still be used to deliver high value care. 

•12:10 pm-1:10 pm

Methods and Strategies for Behavioral Health Integration Into Primary Care
There is currently a critical need for education on the integration of mental health services into primary care. A panel including Sandi Ford, ARNP, Stephanie Hofrichter, LCSW, and William Kuzbyt, PsyD, JD, CAP, LHRM, all off PanCare of Florida, Inc, will present strategies for seamlessly transitioning into a behavioral health care integration model. The session will also  outline the three unique behavioral health integration models.

Featured Sessions: Michael S Barr, MD to Lead Two Featured Sessions

Michael S Barr, MD, executive vice president of the quality measurement and research group at NCQA, will lead both the opening and closing sessions at the 2017 PCMH Congress.

During the opening session, entitled “The Redesigned PCMH Recognition Program: Lessons Learned,” Dr Barr and Christina Borden, assistant director of  recognition policy programs and resources at NCQA, will discuss the successes and challenges of the new PCMH recognition program. 

The focus of the opening session will be the streamlined PCMH recognition process, with anecdotal evidence from a panelist of NCQA staff and providers who have experienced success with the new model.

On Sunday, November 5, the closing session, “Healthcare Policy Update: Controversies, and Promises,” will also be moderated by Dr Barr. This session will also feature Paul Cotton, director of federal affairs at NCQA, and  Shari M. Erickson, MPH, vice president of governmental and medical practice at the American College of Physicians (ACP). 

This session will focus on how the current uncertainty surrounding health reform in the United States affects PCMH and PCSP practices. Topics will include the move from fee-for-service to value-based payments under MACRA, strategies practices can adopt to prepare for a potential repeal of the ACA, and ideas for how patient-centered practices can help impact positive policy change in Washington.