Listen to this short call HERE

This is a reminder to those who are available that on Thursday July 17th at 11:00am EST we will hold a call for the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative. Welcome to those who are on the list for the first time this week. Please forward this on to anyone we may have omitted.

Thursday, July 17, 11:00 am Eastern Daylight Time

Call in number 218.339.2626
Passcode 754440

Please mute your telephone unless you are speaking. We have had some issues with background noise causing interference with the sound quality of our calls recently due to the growing numbers of participants on these conference calls.

Please note that all of the attachments are linked at the bottom of the agenda.

Collaborative Announcement

Yesterday the Collaborative released the final version of the Purchaser Guide that we have been working on for the past few months. The Purchaser Guide is a handbook for understanding the medical home model and taking action to advance its implementation. Please find the press release and download link here.

We released the newest version of the PCPCC Brochure at the Stakeholders' Working Meeting. Unlike last time we have included all PCPCC members that had signed onto the Collaborative Principles by June 26th of this year. Please find the latest version linked here.

Last week the Commonwealth Fund released an issue brief written by Susanna Ginsburg, M.S.W., that discussed the benefits and current uses of colocation of practices seeking to expand their role as Medical Homes. Please find the abstract and download links here.

PCPCC Stakeholders Meeting

For those interested in downloading or sharing the materials from yesterday's Stakeholders' Working Meeting please use this link to view the agenda which contains links to download all of the PowerPoint presentations that were used by our speakers through the course of the day.

Annual PCPCC Summit

• Friday, October 17, 2008 in Washington, DC – Renaissance Hotel. Please note that we had to change the date of the Annual Summit from October 8th due to a conflict with a religious holiday.

We will be releasing the first Save-The-Date announcement early next week.

2009 Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative Meeting Dates

Our 2009 conference dates will be approved by the Executive Committee and released on our National Weekly Call very soon.

Collaborative Outreach
The Collaborative would like to welcome the North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance, Inc.  as the newest signing members of the PCPCC. 

Additionally, please find the newest Signers document attached at the bottom of this week’s agenda.

PCMH in the Press

Julie Appleby released her front page Patient-Centered Medical Home article in Monday's USAToday. This was a major step for the promotion of the PCMH concept and for the Collaborative. To read the online version please check here.

Legislative Committee

Citing the cuts to Medicare Advantage plans and negative impacts on the Medicare prescription drug program President Bush issued the expected veto to the Medicare legislation that passed through both the House and Senate last week. However Congress united to overturn the veto with a 383-41 vote in the House and a 70-26 vote in the Senate.

PCPCC Centers
In order to make best use of our membership base and resources the Collaborative has restructured, our various task forces and projects into more formal Centers. This transition has shifted the scope of work for the Collaborative and expanded the mandates for the various subgroups. Below, please find a brief list of the functions for the Centers, for a more detailed descriptions and goals of each Center please follow the linked Center names.

• Center for Multi-Stakeholder Demonstration: Identify community-based sites to test and evaluate the concept; share information and best practices about pilots within a collaborative community; and serve as the connector to technical, quality improvement and education resources to facilitate ongoing demonstrations.
• Center to Promote Public Payer Implementation: Assist public payers as they implement and refine programs to embed the Patient Centered Medical Home model by offering technical assistance; sharing best practices and giving guidance on the development of successful funding models.
• Center for Health Benefit Redesign and Implementation: Create standards and buying criteria to serve as a guide and tool for large and small employers/purchasers in order to build the market demand for adoption of the Medical Home model.
• Center for eHealth Information Adoption and Exchange: Evaluate use and application of information technology to support and enable the development and broad adoption of information technology in private practice and among community practitioners.

Center for Multi-Stakeholder Demonstration
So far on these calls, we have received updated information from medical home projects in various stages of development across the country. Some groups have been working on practice transformation, and assisting physicians to provide services called for in the joint principles. Others have involved payers and are working to develop a system of reimbursement that uses quality measurement tools to combine a performance component to physician reimbursement.

For more information please contact Rohan Beesla at rbeesla@eric.org or call 202.789.2577.

Center to Promote Public Payer Implementation
With the expansion of the former State Medicaid Working Group this Center is currently in the process of reassessing our short and long-term goals. We plan to retain our current focus on state Medicaid programs, however we also plan on approaching implementation of the PCMH model in public payer programs from the perspective of the state as an employer, and federal health programs such as Medicare and the Veterans Administration.

We will send notices to the larger PCPCC in order to garner additional members in the three new subgroups.

Please contact Joe Yoon Grundy at jgrundy@pcpcc.net or call 202.789.2577 if you have any questions on this Center.

Center for Health Benefit Redesign and Implementation
The Collaborative is working with the National Business Coalition on Health and the National Business Group on Health to develop a series of guidances for employers of all sizes to begin integrating the Medical Home model into their plans with health benefit companies. We will update Collaborative members as these efforts continue to develop.

We have finalized the Health Benefits Purchaser Guide, which will be released next week on www.pcpcc.net at 12:00am EDT Wednesday morning for the Stakeholders' Working Meeting later in the day. Please feel free to check back first thing July 16th to get your copy of the Health Benefits Purchasers Guide.

If you are interested in participating with this Center please contact Rohan Beesla at rbeesla@eric.org or call 202.789.2577.

Center for eHealth Information Adoption and Exchange
The Center for eHealth Information Exchange and Adoption will serve a number of related functions. The first will to be act as a clearinghouse for information concerning the national development of various Health Technology system platforms and electronic delivery platforms for medical records. The second task is to coordinate national education concerning the importance of HIT/EMR developments to both providers and consumers of health care. The final task of the Center will be to elucidate the integral role of HIT/EMR development within the specific context of the Patient Centered Medical Home model and expand upon the provision with the Joint Principles of the Patient-Centered Medical Home as agreed to by the ACP, AAFP, AOA, and AAP.

We encourage any interested Collaborative members to join us every other week on Wednesdays from 2-3pm EDT for our regularly scheduled conference calls.

For those who are interested in participating with this Center, please contact Chris Nohrden (nohrden@us.ibm.com) or Joe Grundy at jgrundy@pcpcc.net or call 202.789.2577.

Meetings
Upcoming

• Wes Matheny – PhRMA – 950 F St. NW – 2pm EDT, Tuesday July 22nd
• Mark Miller, Executive Director - MedPAC - Location TBA - 3:30 pm EDT, Wednesday July 23
• Mark Fenrick - University of Michigan Institute of Value Based Insurance Design - Conference Call - Dial in 218.339.2626 Passcode 754440 - 12:00 pm EDT, Thursday July 31
• Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy/Foundation of Managed Care Pharmacy— 10:00 am EDT, Tuesday, August 19
• Doug Holtz-Eakin, Health Policy Advisor, McCain for President - TBA
• Samuel Lin - American Medical Group Association - 301.762.2295 - TBA
• Kavita Patel, Health Policy Advisor, Obama campaign office - TBA
• Katherine Hayes, Health Policy Advisor, Clinton campaign office - TBA
• Katherine Drats, Senate Finance Health Subcommittee - TBA
• Betsy Bartlett, National Community Pharmacists Association - TBA
• Jenny Wolf, Director of Alliance Coordination, PhRMA - TBA

Recently Completed Meetings

• Crystal Riley, Director of Professional Affairs, National Community Pharmacists Association, 100 Dangerfield Road, Alexandria, VA – 3:00 pm EDT, Thursday, July 10
• James A. Stockman III, MD, President - American Board of Pediatrics - Conference Call - Dial in 218.339.2626 Passcode 754440 - 9:30 am EDT, Monday July 14
• Mary Grealy, President – Health Leadership Council – 1001 Pennsylvannia Ave. NW – 2pm EDT, Monday July 14
• Janet Corrigan, President & CEO, Helen Burstin, Senior VP of Performance Measures, and Karen Adams, VP of National Priorities - National Quality Forum - 601 13th St. NW 5th Floor - 3 pm EDT, Tuesday, July 8
• Mike O'Reilly - Office of Senator Sununu - 111 Russel Senate Office Building - 2 pm EDT, Monday July 7
• Robert F. Graboyes, MSHA, PhD, Senior Healthcare Advisor - National Federation of Independent Business - 1201 F Street NW, Suite 200 - 2pm EDT, Wednesday, June 25
• Dan Leonard, President & CEO and Patricia Adams, Vice-President External Affairs - National Pharmaceutical Council - 1400 L St. NW Suite 350 Washington, DC - 10:00 am Friday, June 13
• Alan Spielman, URAC President and CEO - 1220 L Street NW, Suite 400 - 11:30 am to 1:00 pm Friday, June 13
• Jon Sheiner, Chairman Rangel’s Staff - House Committee on Ways and Means - 2354 Rayburn House Office Building – 2 pm EDT Monday, June 9
• Keith Fontenot, Deputy Assistant Director for Health and Human Resources - Congressional Budget Office – Ford House Office Building Room 452 – 2:00 pm Wednesday, June 4
• Greg Henrichsen, office of Senator Wyden – 223 Dirksen Senate Office Building – 4pm Thursday, May 15 Click here for a copy of the Healthy Americans Act
• Amber Seichrist, office of Senator Bennett – 431 Dirksen Senate Office Building – 10am Friday, May 9
• Coryn Rubin, Governmental Affairs Division, American Academy of Ophthalmology – Tuesday, May 13
• Anne Greiner & Cara Lesser, American Board of Internal Medicine – Conference Call – 3:00 pm Wednesday, May 14
• Matt Canedy, Director of Project, New Leaders’ Leaders’ Project on the State of American Health Care Project – 4:00 pm Wednesday, May 14

To Be Arranged / Follow Up

• Allied Health Groups, i.e. Physician Assistants, the Pharmacists, etc
• Sylvia Johnson, Legislative Representative – UAW
• Council of State Governments
• National Conference of State Legislators
• Mario Lopez, Congressional Hispanic Conference
• Andrew Crowshaw, HHS, integrating Secretary Leavitt’s Value Driven Health Care Program
• Association of State and Territorial Health Organizations
• National Association of County & City Health Officials
• Massachusetts Cost and Quality Council (Health Reform)
• Medical Network One, BCBS Michigan
• NBGA – Bill Jessie, Small Practices
• National Rural Health Association
• American Board of Family Medicine
• American Board of Pediatrics
• Pat Ford Roegner, CEO, The American Academy of Nursing

General PCPCC Call Schedule
Below please find the dates for the various weekly Collaborative phone calls. We are currently in the process for finding the best times to hold the conference calls for both the Center for eHealth Information Adoption and Exchange and the Center for Health Benefit Redesign and Implementation.

Please note that all Collaborative calls except the Executive Committee are held on the same conference call line. Call in number Dial in 218.339.2626 Passcode 754440.

• PCPCC Call – Thursday, 11 AM EDT - This weekly call will continue to serve as the general Collaborative update. We will continue to use this call to provide PCPCC members with information drawn from all Collaborative efforts, and the efforts of our members. We will also be providing information on all upcoming PCPCC events on this call. - 07/17, 07/24, 07/31, (no August calls), 09/04, 09/11, 09/18, 09/25, 10/02, 10/09, 10/16, 10/23, 10/30, 11/06, 11/13, 11/20, 11/27, 12/04, 12/11, 12/18
• Center for Multi-Stakeholder Demonstration - Bi-weekly – Tuesday, 2 PM EDT - 07/29, (no August calls), 09/09, 09/23, 10/07, 10/21, 11/04, 11/18, 12/02, 12/16
• Center for Public Payer Implementation - Bi-weekly – Tuesday, 3 PM EDT - 07/22, (no August calls), 09/02, 09/16, 09/30, 10/14, 10/28, 11/11, 11/25, 12/09
• Center for Health Benefits Redesign and Implementation – Bi-weekly - Wednesday, 3 PM EDT -  07/23, (no August calls), 09/17, 10/01, 10/15, 10/29, 11/12, 11/26, 12/10, 12/24
• Center for eHealth Information Adoption and Exchange – Bi-weekly – Wednesday, 2 PM EDT - 07/16, 07/30, (no August calls), 09/10, 09/24, 10/08, 10/22, 11/05, 11/19, 12/03, 12/17
• Legislative Committee – (Thursday, 3 PM EDT) Dates TBA
• Executive Committee Call – Monthly – 4pm EDT - 07/30, 09/23, 10/28

Executive Committee
There are 33 members of the Executive Committee: Aetna, AAFP; AAP; ACP; AOA; BlueCross BlueShield; The Capital District Physicians’ Health Plan, Inc.; CIGNA; CVS Caremark; DMAA: Care Continuum Alliance; the Dow Chemical Company; EHE International; ERIC, GlaxoSmithKline; Health Care Services Corporation; Humana, Inc.; IBM; Kaiser Permanente; McKesson Corporation; Medco; Merck; Microsoft; Novartis; Pfizer; Priority Health; Sanofi-Aventis; Taconic IPA, Inc.; TransforMED; UnitedHealthcare; Walgreens; Wal-Mart; WedMD; and Wellpoint.

Strategic Planning

• Thursday, June 5th - Staff held strategic planning meeting
  
• Tuesday, July 15th - 2:00 - 5:00 pm EDT - Chair and Vice-Chairs to have meeting - 1400 L St. NW Suite 350, Washington, DC
• Tuesday, September 23 - Collaborative officers meeting with facilitation
• Tuesday, September 23 - 4:00 - 5:30 pm EDT - Full Executive Committee
  
  • 6:30 - 9:30 PM EDT Joint dinner with ERIC Executive Committee and Collaborative Executive Committee

Officers

• Chair – Paul Grundy, IBM

Vice Chairs

• American Academy of Family Physicians: Doug Henley
• American Academy of Pediatrics: Fan Tait
• American College of Physicians: John Tooker
• American Osteopathic Association: John Crosby

Center for Multi-Stakeholder Demonstration

• Co-Chairs: Sally Bleeks, BCBSA, Julie Schilz, Colorado Clinical Guidelines Collaborative, Shari Erickson, American College of Physicians & John Swanson, American Academy of Family Physicians

Center to Promote Public Payer Implementation

• Co-Chairs: Terry McInnis, GlaxoSmithKline & Allen Dobson, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, retired
• Subgroup Chair: Lesley Reeder, Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing

Center for Health Benefit Redesign and Adoption

• Co-Chairs: Cecily Hall, Microsoft and Duane Putnam, Pfizer, Inc.
• Co-Vice Chairs – Mark Ugoretz, The ERISA Industry Committee, Helen Darling, National Business Group on Health, and Andrew Webber, National Business Coalition on Health
• Executive Director - Jim Murray, Merck & Company

Center for eHealth Information Adoption and Exchange

• Co-Chairs: John Agwunobi, Wal-Mart & David Nace, McKesson Corporation
• Subgroup Leaders: Thom Khun, American College of Physicians, David Kibbe,American Academy of Family Physicians, and Terry McGeeney, TransforMED Inc.,

Collaborative Directors

• Executive Director – Edwina Rogers erogers@eric.org, 202.789.2577
• Director of Operations and External Affairs - Joe Grundy jgrundy@pcpcc.net, 202.789.2577
• Director of Policy - Rohan Beesla, rbeesla@eric.org, 202.789.2577
• Director of Membership - Kelli Pedas, kpedas@pcpcc.net

Advisory Board
There are 10 member organizations of the advisory board and they are: AARP, American Board of Internal Medicine, Bridges to Excellence, The Center for Excellence In Primary Care, The Commonwealth Fund, HR Policy Association, the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium, National Business Coalition on Health, National Business Group on Health, and the National Committee for Quality Assurance. We are considering additional advisory board representatives from state based groups and labor organizations.

NASHP/PCPCC Joint Medicaid Taskforce
We are proud to announce that the Joint Medicaid Taskforce has selected the participating states which will be attending the upcoming July Summit focused on implementing the Patient-Centered Medical Home concept in state Medicaid programs.

We are planning two additional webcasts and an in-person meeting in Washington, DC on July 24 and July 25th.

The selected states are: Colorado; Idaho; Louisiana; Minnesota; New Hampshire; Oklahoma; Oregon; and Washington.

For more information on the selection process and the Summit please check the press release attached below.

Inclusion of the Medical Home Concept in Health Reform Efforts
One of the major projects PCPCC staff is engaged in at the moment is meeting with advocates of various health reform proposals in this election year, and discussing the role that the Medical Home might play in those proposals. This includes meeting with a variety of organizations and advocates, including:

• Employer Trade Associations such as HR Policy Association, the Federation of American Hospitals, the Business Round Table, and the ERISA Industry Committee;
• Think Tanks such as The Brookings Institution, The Heritage Foundation, The New America Foundation, The Urban Institute, The Hudson Institute, and the American Enterprise Institute;
• Presidential Candidates;
• Plans developed by Congressional representatives: The Healthy Americans Act sponsored by Senators Wyden and Bennet, H.R.5348 introduced by Representatives Langevin and Shays, or Representative Pete Stark;
• Midwest Regional Reform Effort – 8 states; each state has a group and there is a Regional Group.

To read the online version of the health reform insert please click here.

Website
There has been extensive work to bring the PCPCC website completely up to date over the past week. We are happy to announce that in terms of general content and structure, we have finally accomplished this goal. Additionally, we have been refining the site navigation to make it far more intuitive and easy for users to access any information they may need.

Currently we are completely reworking our Center Working Rooms. Please stay tuned as we begin rolling out a much more user friendly functional system to track data from across the nation, where subscribed users will be able to communicate with one another to learn more about the Collaborative's various projects, demo sites, and initiatives.

We will continue to expand upon the site and define the appropriate role that it will play within the Collaborative as well as to non-members who are seeking to learn more about the Patient Centered Medical Home model.

If you have any questions, concerns, or difficulty in using the website please contact our webdesigner Loren Vandegrift (Loren@songlinedesign.com).

Legal
We are happy to announce that the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative has received notification on approval for our 501(c)(6) tax exempt status.

We are still waiting on confirmation for the nonprofit foundation 501(c)(3) Patient Centered Primary Care Foundation. Both entities have the appropriate papers filed in DC for incorporation, IRS employer identification numbers received and bank accounts opened at Eagle Bank on K Street.

The Collaborative has retained Robin Johnson, of Balch & Bingham LLP (rjohnson@balch.com), as legal counsel.

Public Relations
Health2 Resources is our public relations firm for the PCPCC. They have already done significant work to promote the activities of the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative.

Please give us any comments or feedback concerning the PCPCC brochure as we are updating it for the July 16th Stakeholders Meeting.

If you have any questions concerning our PR work please feel free to contact any PCPCC staff member or Katie Capps at (kcapps@health2resources.com).

Membership
As members of the Collaborative, you are aware of the amazing rate of growth the PCPCC has undergone over the past year. To assist us in maximizing our efforts to expand our membership base, and to reach out to other major organizations dealing with health reforms or new reimbursement systems we have hired Kelli Moler Pedas as our membership consultant. Kelli Pedas can be reached at kpedas@pcpcc.net.

Accounting
We are pleased to announce that the Collaborative has grown so large that we now require the expertise of a professional Certified Public Accountant to assist us is making the best use of PCPCC resources. Please find information on the Collaborative's new CPA below:

Jon B. Deane
Murphy Deane & Company, PLC
703.796.1041
jon.dean@mdctax.com

Hill Briefings

• September 13, 2007: Senate briefing co-sponsored by Senator Durbin (D-IL) and Senator Burr (R-NC) to educate Senate staffers on the concept of the Patient Centered Medical Home
• July 18, 2007: Senate briefing with Dr. Allen Dobson, Director of the North Carolina Medicaid program, presenting on the NC Access program
• July 18, 2007: House briefing with Dr. Allen Dobson, Director of the North Carolina Medicaid program, presenting on the NC Access program
• June 28, 2007: House briefing with Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Rep. Timothy Murphy (R-Pa) speaking in support of the Medical Home model

Hearings

• May 6, 2008: The Senate Finance Committee held a full committee hearing entitled “Seizing the Opportunity for Health Care Reform.” There were only two witnesses at the hearing were former Secretaries of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala and Tommy Thompson. While the PCMH was not specifically cited by either witness both strongly emphasized that primary care was quickly entering a workforce crises and that the only means of realistically addressing the primary care shortage would be to reform the payment system, particularly in Medicare. Additionally, both witnesses agreed that one of the most promising means of addressing increasing health care expenditures is to establish systems of coordinated care.
• February 12, 2008: The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions held a hearing on Addressing Healthcare Workforce Issues for the Future. Included in this hearing was a witness testimony from Kevin Grumbach, M.D., Director, UCSF Center for California Health Workforce Studies Professor and Chair UCSF Department of Family and Community Medicine, San Francisco, CA, which we strongly recommend that all PCPCC members take the time to read through. http://help.senate.gov/Hearings/2008_02_12/2008_02_12.html.
• May 10, 2007: The House Ways and Means subcommittee on Health held a hearing on Options to Improve Quality and Efficiency Among Medicare Physicians. This was in large part the introduction for many Congressional members to the concept of the Medical Home. For full testimonies from the witnesses and Chairman Stark's announcement check the following link - http://waysandmeans.house.gov/hearings.asp?formmode=detail&hearing=558.

Grant Funding
The PCPCC looks forward to working with interested parties in constructing proposals to secure additional grant funding from institutions looking to support both public and private sector Medical Home research and demonstrations.

There may be an opportunity at CMS’s Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for some community grants. The information is linked below, and we hope anybody with knowledge of the HRSA’s goals and projects, or people who have worked with that organization in the past can coordinate strategy with the PCPCC staff to submit a strong application for that grant. It seems they are specifically focused on the Medical Home:

www.hrsa.gov/patientsafety
ftp://ftp.hrsa.gov/patientsafety/pspcinformation.pdf

We are developing a target list of organizations such as the Commonwealth Fund, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and numerous employer foundations for future collaboration on projects surrounding the Medical Home concept.

We are currently looking to hire a professional grant writer to work with the PCPCC on these efforts.

Upcoming Conferences and Events

• July 15 – The World Research Group will be holding a webinar entitled “3rd Annual Achieving Return on Investment for Wellness.” If you are interested in participating on this webcast please check here for registration and event information.
• August 4-5 - The PCPCC has been invited to speak at the 6th Annual Leadership Summit on Healthcare Quality, taking place in Boston. Please click here to check the agenda for the event.
• September 7-8 - Paul Grundy and Bruce Bagley will be participating in the keynote presentation at DMAA: The Care Continuum Alliance's annual meeting which is focused on the Patient-Centered Medical Home model. For more information please check this link.
• October 27-28 - The Collaborative has been asked to provide speakers for the Partners Center for Connected Health Symposium. We will be working closely with the Partners Center to coordinate the best possible presentation on the PCMH model and the PCPCC's work in supporting the concept. For more information please check this link.
• December 2-3 – World Health Congress Executive Forum on the Advanced Medical Home for Employers will be held in Washington, DC. We will provide additional details as they are released.