The Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) cost performance category weight is 15% of the final score for the 2020 performance period/2022 MIPS payment year. CMS announced the reweighting the cost performance category from 15% to 0% for the 2020 performance period.  

Advocates and partner agencies can learn more about next steps in the NC Medicaid Managed Care rollout, with a focus on what people with Medicaid should expect next and how the Ombudsman can help. 

 

Tuesday, May 25, 2021 

12 – 1 p.m. 

HOW CAN I SEE WHICH BENEFICIARIES ARE ASSIGNED TO ME?  

Once the beneficiary has been assigned to the PCP/AMH, a provider can see these assignments by:  

• Working with your contracted health plan  
• Accessing information through the NCTracks Provider Portal  
• Using the Recipient Eligibility function in NCTracks to verify this information for a single beneficiary.  
• Using the NCTracks batch eligibility verification function.  
• If you are an AMH, you can review the beneficiary assignment file you will receive from the health plan.  

Providers cannot currently view their assigned beneficiaries as a list in NCTracks. DHHS will announce new functionality prior to the launch of NC Medicaid Managed Care, where providers will receive a monthly report to view the beneficiaries assigned to them. 

NCDHHS Extends Open Enrollment for Medicaid Managed Care through May 21, 2021.  Read about it in this announcement. 

In NC Medicaid Managed Care, most beneficiaries choose their health plan and primary care provider (PCP) or Advanced Medical Home (AMH), which is a type of primary care provider. During open enrollment from March 15 through May 21, 2021, beneficiaries will enroll in a health plan and select their PCP/AMH.  If a beneficiary does not select a health plan, they will be automatically enrolled in one by the NC Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).  If a beneficiary does not select a PCP/AMH, then the health plan will assign one to them.  First, DHHS will auto-enroll the beneficiary in a health plan. Once the health plan receives the beneficiary information, the health plan will auto-assign a PCP/AMH to the beneficiary. 

On Monday May 10, 2021, the FDA amended the December 11, 2020 emergency use authorization (EUA) of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine authorized for use in adolescents 16 or older to include adolescents 12 -15 years of age.   The FDA has determined that Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine has met the statutory criteria to amend the EUA, and that the known and potential benefits of this vaccine in individuals 12 years of age and older outweigh the known and potential risks, supporting the vaccine’s use in this population.  

In December 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the 2021 Quality Payment Program Final Rule that includes the new MIPS Promoting Interoperability Health Information Exchange Bi-Directional Exchange (PI_HIE_5) measure. 

This measure allows eligible clinicians or groups to attest that they are engaged in bidirectional exchange with an HIE to support transitions of care as an alternative to meeting the Support Electronic Referral Loops by Sending Health Information AND the Support Electronic Referral Loops by Receiving and Reconciling measures (PI_HIE_1 and PI_HIE_4).

Learn more about how to meet this measure at the NCHIEA Teletown Hall on Wednesday, May 26, 2021, at 12 p.m.

Practice Consultant Terri Roberts from Area Health Education Centers (AHEC), will discuss: the new QPP/MIPS measure; its meaningfulness to practices; and how NC HealthConnex can help with attestation. 

Register Here [hiea.nc.gov]

Pediatric Practices who have not already signed up for the COVID-19 Vaccine Management System (CVMS) should have received an email from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NC DHHS) with important updates on the COVID-19 vaccine program.  See below for more details. 

The Advanced Medical Home webinar series provides Medicaid primary care practice staff and clinicians with more information on North Carolina’s AMH model and how to function at the highest AMH Tier possible when Medicaid Managed Care goes live in July 2021. This webinar, the last in this series, will provide a review of the Advanced Medical Home requirements, update on the glide path payments and more.

 

THURSDAY, MAY 13 | 5:30–6:30 PM
Advanced Medical Home Refresher

REGISTER NOW

The Northwest AHEC Practice Support Team is committed to promote understanding and improve the orientation of Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) for North Carolinians. In order to support these goals, we will share a publication on SDOH each month on our Practice Support Blog. 

The social determinants of health, or the areas in which people are born, grow, work, and age, have a profound impact on health. This month we are highlighting the article Screening for Social Determinants of Health in Free and Charitable Clinics in North Carolina.

This publication summarizes findings by Wake Forest Baptist Health researchers Deepak Palakshappa, MD MSHP, Mark Scheerer, Charles Thomas Alexander Semelka, MD, and Kristie L. Foley, PhD. Utilizing a web-based survey, this research team examined free and charitable clinics level of participation in screening for Social Determinants of Health among their 80,000 uninsured and underinsured patient population. The article examines how they can address the needs of patients even more effectively.

The article describes in detail the survey used to collect the data, how the responses were obtained and the final analysis of the data that was received. In addition to the methods of the study, the article details what the authors and researchers learned from the results. Although the results represent findings from a small sample of North Carolina free and charitable clinics, it’s findings reveal a microcosm of the barriers facing the healthcare system and how it can slowly but surely address the needs of all people.


Source:

Palakshappa D, Scheerer M, Semelka CT, Foley KL. Screening for Social Determinants of Health in Free and Charitable Clinics in North Carolina. J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2020;31(1):382-397. doi: 10.1353/hpu.2020.0029. PMID: 32037338. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32037338/


Full text article - https://muse.jhu.edu/article/747795

Pediatric Practices who have not already signed up for the COVID-19 Vaccine Management System (CVMS) should have received an email from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NC DHHS) with important updates on the COVID-19 vaccine program. See below for more details.