Four Kentucky counties within the Cincinnati-Dayton region of Ohio have been selected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center as one of seven geographic markets to carry out the Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative.

Designed to strengthen the primary care system and lower costs through improvement, the CPC initiative will offer a blended payment model from public and private payers to primary care practices selected to participate in the CPC initiative.

Up to 75 primary care practices will be selected within the Cincinnati-Dayton region to participate in the CPC initiative. Those counties include Adams, Brown, Butler, Champaign, Clark, Clermont, Clinton, Greene, Hamilton, Highland, Miami, Montgomery, Preble, and Warren in Ohio and Boone, Campbell, Grant, and Kenton in Kentucky.

• Improved care coordination
• Increased access to care for patients
• Preventive care delivered
• Patient and caregiver engagement in managing care
• Individualized, enhanced care for patients living with multiple chronic diseases and higher needs.

A quick, five question eligibility tool is available to help determine your practice’s eligibility. This eligibility tool is not the practice application for the CPC initiative; however, completion of the eligibility tool includes leaving a point of contact email address for the practice so the hyperlink to the online application can be emailed when it is released in June.

According to Bruce Bagley, MD, medical director for quality improvement at the AAFP, “This initiative has an aggressive timeline. CME and the rest of us have no interest in having this fail. This must go forward, go well, and must be successful. It is designed to succeed.”

• Dr. Rich Baron, Director, Seamless Care Models Group, CMS Innovation Center, Members of the Comprehensive Primary Care initiative team, will be giving a webinar on Tuesday, June 19, 2012 10.30AM – 12 noon ET that will focus on the Comprehensive Primary Care initiative’s service delivery model, including the 5 Comprehensive Primary Care functions, and the milestones participating practices will need to achieve in the first year. The process for applying will also be covered, including information about the application itself. This webinar will be recorded and posted after the event. Please register at: http://www.omnovia.com/register/52431339619342. You will receive an email with a link to the webinar.

• Early June: Application period opens
• Early July: Application period closes
• Early August: Practice selection complete at the CMS Innovation Center

*This aggressive timeline is subject to change.

• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center website
• A webinar, “CPCI Selected Markets: Preparing Your Practice for Participation,” with PowerPoint slides hosted by TransforMED
• “Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative…The Future is Now” written by TransforMED CEO Terry McGeeney, MD, after the CPC initiative was announced
• The American Academy of Family Physicians website
• The Health Collaborative website