The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) signaled its willingness to work with states to improve health care delivery with its initial announcement in September 2009 of the Multi-payer Advanced Primary Care (APC) Initiative. The APC will enable Medicare to participate in state-sponsored initiatives to enhance primary care when they are conducted in cooperation with both public and private payers. On June 2, HHS outlined the details of the initiative along with an invitation for states to apply. The letter of intent deadline is June 30 and final applications are due August 17, 2010.
Eligible APC initiatives must be lead by a state and meet the following requirements:
- Have promotion of the APC model as its central purpose;
- Include Medicaid and substantial participation by private health plans;
- Have substantial support by primary care providers;
- Include mechanisms for community support of participating practices; and
- Be coordinated with state health promotion and disease prevention efforts.*
Find more in-depth information about the program here.
*Taken from the HHS Multi-payer Advanced Primary Care Practice Demonstration Fact Sheet, also found at http://www.cms.gov/DemoProjectsEvalRpts/downloads/mapcpdemo_Factsheet.pdf
