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CMS unveils new primary care payment pilot

by: Grant Huang Sep 28, 2011

Primary care practices would have a shot at collecting some extra cash while trying a new, more comprehensive clinical approach under a new CMS pilot program. The Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative (CPCI) is a four-year program that pay you an extra $20 per patient, per month, on top of regular Medicare fee-for-service charges. The $20 rate, dubbed a “monthly care management fee,” is good for the first two years; then the rate falls to $15 per patient, per month. Additional cash: If after two years, the total cost incurred by participating practices is less than that of non-participating practices, a portion of the savings is shared with participants.

Physician group lists top 5 don'ts for primary care

by: Grant Huang Jun 7, 2011

You've heard it before -- you can improve your patients' health outcomes and waste fewer Medicare dollars by avoiding useless procedures and tests. Now a physician group has published a top-five list of don'ts for primary care doctors to avoid. Highlights include cautions against imaging scans for back pain within the first six weeks unless "red flags" are present and support for prescribing generic statins for lipid-lowering drug therapy. These are two of the five items listed by the non-profit National Physicians Alliance (NPA), which actually released three separate "top five" lists for internists, family practitioners and pediatricians.

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