Enjoy Thursday’s NCMS Morning Rounds!
August 13, 2020
NCMS Is Pleased to Offer FREE PPE
The NCMS heard your calls for crucial personal protective equipment (PPE) during this pandemic and mobilized to secure a $5 million grant from the NC General Assembly to provide FREE PPE to independent practices across North Carolina. Thanks to your conversations with legislators, the efforts of the NCMS advocacy team and our existing purchasing ability via ActionPPE, we are ready to begin distribution of this valuable resource to ensure you can effectively and safely care for your patients.
To be eligible for FREE PPE provided by the NCMS via the $5 million appropriation from the NC General Assembly, each practice must certify that they meet all the following criteria:
• Your practice is organized in accordance with North Carolina General Statutes Chapter 55B and registered with the North Carolina Medical Board as a professional corporation or professional limited liability company with the purpose of practicing medicine.
• Your practice currently provides or contracts for professional medical services.
• Your practice is not owned, managed, or otherwise controlled by an entity defined in G.S. 131E-76(13).
• Your practice is not managed by a practice management company unless the practice management company is majority owned by North Carolina licensed physicians.
You can complete the confirmation form here.
Once the confirmation form is completed, PPE will be shipped to each office location you provide. Learn more about the available PPE and how it will be shipped at the NCMS Free PPE webpage.
The goal of this distribution effort is to ensure that 100 percent of independent practices in North Carolina have the PPE needed for today, but also PPE reserves for an uncertain future. Please continue to order PPE supplies as you normally would and consider this free PPE as stockpile when possible.
The NCMS also offers a variety of PPE through our ActionPPE group purchasing arrangement. Learn more about this purchasing option here.
If your practice is in critical need or have other questions, please contact Jennifer Crowley or Kathy Scott.
Updates on Launch of Medicaid Managed Care
The NC General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Medicaid and NC Health Choice met Tuesday to hear from state health officials on, among other topics, the anticipated launch of Medicaid managed care on July 1, 2021. This new ‘go-live’ date for the state’s move to Medicaid managed care was mandated in SB808 – Medicaid Funding Act, passed during the most recent legislative session.
NC Department of Health and Human Services staff told legislators open enrollment for Medicaid beneficiaries will begin on March 15. The program will launch statewide July 1, 2021, officials said, rather than a phased roll out by region, and is anticipated to cover between 1.6 million and 1.8 million North Carolinians.
Medicaid beneficiaries will be able to choose from among the five health plans awarded state contracts to provide Medicaid services:
• AmeriHealth Caritas (statewide)
• Healthy Blue (statewide)
• United HealthCare (statewide)
• WellCare (statewide)
• Carolina Complete Health (regions 3, 4, 5 – see a map of the regions here)
While the health plans are working to ensure they are ready to enroll and serve patients, the state is working to formulate the per-patient reimbursement rates for providers and submit them to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for approval by November.
Read a complete summary of this committee meeting on our legislative blog here as well as a summary of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services – COVID-19, during which NC DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen, MD, MPH spoke with legislators.
Getting Ready for Medicaid ‘Go-Live’
Carolina Complete Health Network (CCHN) has announced the immediate availability of three innovation grants for contracted AMH Tier 2 practices interested in considering attesting to Tier 3 before the anticipated go-live of the state’s Medicaid transformation to managed care.
The project will assess each selected practice’s current state, identify any gaps in achieving Tier 3 readiness and collaborate with the practice to address those gaps before the July 1, 2021 go-live date.
CCHN is pleased to be able to fund the project. The only cost to participating practices is staff time and availability. This innovation project brings together CCHN’s Enhanced Provider Engagement services and Emtiro Health’s robust AMH consulting services.
In the News
We Need New Antimicrobials to Prevent the Next Infectious Disease Crisis, STAT, 8-12-20
Learning Opportunity
The Health Equity Summit will be held Wednesday, Aug. 19 from 2 to 5 p.m. This meeting is designed to bring together a diverse group of leaders, innovators and health equity champions from across the country to connect, amplify and accelerate conversations around health equity strategies, solutions and cross sector collaboration for a healthier tomorrow. University of North Carolina Center for Health Equity Research Director Giselle Corbie-Smith, MD, will be a featured speaker. Learn more and register here.
If you have policies you’d like your NCMS Board of Directors to consider, please complete the Board input form here. Thanks for reading!