Innovations in How Doctors Provide Primary Care to Be Spotlighted at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan March 22 Forum

DETROIT, March 15 /PRNewswire/ — Michigan doctors will discuss challenges faced by primary care providers and present new, successful ways they provide primary care in a three-hour forum sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network for health care professionals. “The Future of Primary Care: How Primary Care Can Transform Health Care Delivery” begins at 2 p.m. on Thursday, March 22 at the Blues’ Lyon Meadows Conference Center in New Hudson.

“A few Michigan physician groups and others are redefining primary care in an environment of collaboration,” said Thomas Simmer, M.D., BCBSM senior vice president and chief medical officer who will open the conference. “We want the forum to help raise awareness of new approaches which are transforming primary care delivery from acute, episodic care to long-term, patient-centered care.”

“The primary care system has a key role in preventive and chronic care management and is therefore central to improving health care outcomes and reducing health care costs,” Simmer said. “The forum is an adjunct to Blues programs like Value Partnerships and BCN’s Physician Recognition and Blue Rewards programs that recognize the value of primary care by providing incentives to physician groups for enhanced delivery of patient care.”

Presenters and their physician organizations’ state-of-the-art initiatives are:

— Paul Harkaway, M.D. and president, Huron Valley Physician Association, P.C. — Advanced Medical Home Integrated Model. The Advanced Medical Home is an approach to improve health care by strengthening patient-physician relationships. It’s distinguished by more “hands-on” management by physicians and increased involvement by patients. Physicians meet patient needs through chronic disease management programs, evidenced-based guidelines, health information technology and best practices, all based on the chronic care model. HVPA’s 800 physicians primarily are affiliated with St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor.

— Kevin Taylor, M.D. and medical director, Huron Valley Physician Association, P.C. — Group Medical Appointments. A group medical appointment is a customized meeting of patients, their doctor and a behavioral health professional. The model’s benefit is that patients often are more willing to talk in a group medical appointment than in an individual appointment. More issues can be covered, more health problems addressed, and patients more effectively can be engaged in self-care using this approach.

— Ewa Matuszewski, executive director, Medical Network One, P.C. — Chronic Care Travel Team. This physician organization, based in Rochester Hills, uses an 18-member travel team to provide patients with one-on-one self- management support and telephone check-ins to augment a patient’s regular visits with the primary care doctor. The team includes nurses, dietitians, diabetes educators, exercise specialists and mental health professionals.

Other presenters include Diane Whiton, R.N., project coordinator, Michigan Primary Care Consortium, Michigan Department of Community Health. This group of private physicians and MDCH professionals aims to remove system barriers that prevent effective delivery of prevention services and chronic disease management in primary care settings.

Also scheduled are Robert Jackson, M.D. and medical director, Medical Advantage Group; Elaine McIntosh, R.N., and director of Nurse-Managed Centers, University of Michigan School of Nursing; Dennis Paradis, executive director, Michigan Osteopathic Association, and Philip Zazove, M.D. and professor, University of Michigan Department of Family Medicine.

To register for the forum, health care professionals may call 800-921-8980 or e-mail jlance@bcbsm.com. Registration is first come, first served.

The March 22 forum is the sixth in a series on emerging health care issues hosted by the Blues since 2002 to foster sharing of best practices. Past public forums focused on emergency care, computerized tomography angiography (heart scans), virtual colonoscopy, nasal vaccines for influenza and digital mammography.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, a nonprofit corporation, provides or administers health care benefits to just over 4.7 million members through a variety of plans: Traditional Blue Cross Blue Shield; Blue Preferred, Community Blue and Healthy Blue PPOs; Blue Care Network HMO, and Flexible Blue plans compatible with health savings accounts. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network are nonprofit corporations and independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. For more information, visit http://www.bcbsm.com/ .

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan

CONTACT: Helen Stojic, +1-313-225-8113, or Linda Lyles Daniels,+1-313-225-8121, both of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan

Web site: http://www.bcbsm.com/