Mercy Health physicians practices participate in historic partnership

Mercy Health - Toledo, which provides advanced, quality care with compassion in your neighborhood, announces that 17 of its primary care practices are among more than 2,900 practices nationwide participating in Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+). This program is a partnership between the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), state Medicaid agencies, commercial health plans, self-insured businesses, and primary care providers and is designed to provide improved access to quality health care at lower costs.

“The new CPC+ program offered by CMS will allow Mercy Health primary care providers to continue providing and enhancing our comprehensive primary care program,” said Mark Cockley, MD, chief medical officer, Clinical Integration, Mercy Health - Toledo. “Mercy Health will continue to expand the preventive and alternative care model to better suit our populations need. The CPC+ program supports our vision of establishing and providing world class care in Northwest Ohio and throughout Ohio and our Kentucky regions.”

The participating Mercy Health practices include:

• Mercy Health – Defiance Clinic, 1400 East Second Street, Defiance
• Mercy Health – Defiance Clinic Internal Medicine, 1400 East Second Street, Defiance
• Mercy Health – Napoleon Clinic, 1426 North Scott Street, Napoleon
• Mercy Health – Swanton Primary Care, Turtle Creek Circle, Suite F, Swanton
• Mercy Health – Bay Meadows Family Medicine, 3851 Navarre Ave, Suite 200, Oregon
• Mercy Health – Greenwich Primary Care, 65 West Main Street, Greenwich
• Mercy Health – New Washington Primary Care, 202 West Mansfield Street, New Washington
• Mercy Health – Plymouth Primary Care, 25 Spring Street, Plymouth
• Mercy Health – Willard Hospital Primary Care, 1100 Neal Zick Road, Willard
• Mercy Health – West Park Family Medicine, 3425 Executive Parkway, Suite 100, Toledo
• Mercy Health – Tiffin Primary Care, 2495 W Market Street, Tiffin
• Mercy Health – Sunforest Primary Care, 3900 Sunforest Court, Suite 240, Toledo
• Mercy Health – Horizons Family Medicine, 2741 Navarre Avenue, Suite 401, Oregon
• Mercy Health – St. Vincent Internal Medicine, 2409 Cherry Street, Suite 207, Toledo
• Mercy Health – Starr Avenue Family Medicine, 2020 Starr Avenue, Toledo
• Mercy Health – Clinton Street Family Medicine, 111 Clinton Street, Maumee
• Mercy Health – Woodville Family Medicine, 1100 W Main Street, Woodville  

“A robust primary care system is essential to achieve better care, smarter spending, and healthier people,” said Acting CMS Administrator Patrick Conway. “For this reason, CMS is committed to supporting primary care clinicians to deliver the best, most comprehensive primary care possible for their patients.”

Through CPC+, CMS will pay primary care practices a care management fee to support enhanced, coordinated services on behalf of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries. Simultaneously, participating commercial, state, and other federal insurance plans are also offering enhanced payment to primary care practices designed to support them in providing high-quality care on behalf of their members.

For patients, this means that physicians may offer longer and more flexible hours; use electronic health records; coordinate care with patients’ other health care providers; better engage patients and caregivers in managing their own care and provide individualized, enhanced care for patients living with multiple chronic diseases and higher needs.

The five-year model started on January 1, 2017, with CMS soliciting a diverse pool of commercial health plans, state Medicaid agencies and self-insured businesses to work alongside Medicare to support comprehensive primary care. Public and private health plans in 14 regions across the country signed letters of intent with CMS to participate in this model: Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas and Missouri’s Greater Kansas City region, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, New York’s Capital District-Hudson Valley region, Ohio and Kentucky’s Cincinnati-Dayton region, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania’s Greater Philadelphia Region, Rhode Island, and Tennessee. The markets were selected in August 2016 based on the percentage of the total population covered by payer partners who expressed interest in joining this partnership.

Eligible primary care practices in each market were invited to apply to participate in the winter of 2016. Through a competitive application process, CMS selected primary care practices within the selected markets to participate in CPC+. Practices were chosen based on their use of health information technology; ability to demonstrate recognition of advanced primary care delivery by leading clinical societies; service to patients covered by participating payer partners; participation in practice transformation and improvement activities; and diversity of geography, practice size, and ownership structure.

CPC+ is administered by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMS Innovation Center). The CMS Innovation Center was created by the Affordable Care Act to test innovative payment and service delivery models that have the potential to reduce program expenditures while preserving or enhancing the quality of care.

For more information about CPC+, visit: https://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/comprehensive-primary-care-plus/