The Physician Alliance approved new incentive scorecard metrics for its physician members participating in Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s Physician Group Incentive Program (PGIP) program in 2022. These requirements were emailed to all physicians and PGIP office contacts in February. 

Special action needing attention:

The Physician Alliance will contact a practice’s physician champion if the practice is at risk of losing incentive monies, have care coordination issues or isn’t responding to TPA’s requests. Practices must provide physician champion’s cell phone number (cell phone number will be used for official TPA business only and not shared with anyone outside of The Physician Alliance). This applies to both primary care and specialty practices. If your practice has not yet submitted a phone number, please click here to submit the physician champion’s cell phone number by Oct. 28, 2022.

Scorecard requirements must be completed to be eligible for incentive distributions. Contact your practice resource team member with questions relating to these requirements.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness, a great time for practices to focus on closing breast cancer screening gaps. The Physician Alliance's score for this quality metric has room for improvement.

It's estimated over 320,000 women and about 2,710 men in the U.S. are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022, according to the American Cancer Society.

Practices can use the buzz around this awareness month to contact patients needing to schedule mammograms and other breast cancer screenings. Letters, phone calls, patient portal messages, social media posts and text messaging are effective communication channels to reach patients.

The Physician Alliance also created a flyer to educate patients on the importance of breast cancer screenings. This flyer can help stimulate conversations with patients and practices are encouraged to display in waiting areas and exam rooms, and share with patients. Additional patient education materials can be found on The Physician Alliance's website.

TPA's Gaps in Care Toolkit provides letter templates, social media graphics (including specific to breast cancer screening) and more resources for members. Click here to access the member portal to view the toolkit.

If you believe functionality, ease of use, and reliability are necessities when it comes to phone solutions for your medical practice, you're correct.

When it comes to functionality, voice over internet protocol (VoIP) phone systems support the way business is done in 2022. Whether you're always in the office, or traveling between them, you'll never miss a call you want to take. VoIP systems tie directly into an app on your smartphone. You can be in your practice, at the hospital, in the car or on the go and your calls will be connected.

VoIP phone systems are HIPAA compliant and offer many other features too: 

• Automated attendant: This allows you to have your "receptionist" focus on more important tasks while making sure calls get correctly routed. Another great benefit is the auto attendant never takes lunch or sick days and always stays past 5 p.m.

• Music or messaging on hold: This feature allows you to play soothing music or even important messaging while your patients are waiting.

• Remote support: Your trusted phone vendor can access your phone system from anywhere to do moves, adds, changes or updates to phones, computers and phone lines without costly visits to the office.

• Call detail records: This is a great way to keep a historical record of your calls. These records can be converted into a CSV file and saved forever.

Another great benefit is that VoIP video conferencing can also be integrated right into the system. This is very helpful for moving your practice into the world of telemedicine.

Source: Edge Solutions, one of TPA’s Affiliate Partners, offers innovative telecommunications products and services at discounted rates to The Physician Alliance members. Contact Edge at (888) 918.3343.

Don't miss the chance to learn more about population health and quality issues impacting practices! Join The Physician Alliance staff on Tuesday, Oct. 11 from 12-1pm for a special webinar.

This webinar will focus on:

• quality metrics related to chronic conditions
• updates related to BCBSM quality programs and/or initiatives
• performance reporting and performance improvement

Webinars are complimentary and open to The Physician Alliance primary care and specialty care practices participating in the Physician Group Incentive Program (PGIP) through TPA. Register now.

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