A national healthcare company has partnered with Murray-based Primary Care Medical Center to restructure the facility’s patient care model.
VillageMD will move the medical center from volume-based healthcare to value-based, as mandated by the Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act or ‘MACRA’. Bob Hughes is managing partner of Primary Care. He said the program will incorporate a data analytics system to track and review patient care.
“You’re adding a whole layer of cognitive services where you’re making sure that you’re doing all the things you're supposed to be doing and documenting,” Hughes said. “The other thing is that you’re managing that appropriately.”
Hughes said the program will help lower costs for patients by reaching early diagnoses and preventing future health problems. He said the center hopes to tackleKentucky’s physician shortage with the new patient care model that will free up time for physicians and recruit new providers.
“You’re going to use the physician’s time more effectively because the time spent trying to thumb through a medical record will be offloaded,” Hughes said. “You’re going to have someone there who’s doing that and who’s constantly in the computer system.”
Hughes said Primary Care serves up to 40,000 patients and he expects that number to increase. All contracts between VillageMD and Primary Care have been completed. MACRA take effect in 2019.
