New level of distinction now available to Patient-Centered Medical Homes

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Patient-Centered Medical Homes benefit from submitting results of patient assessments to the group that awards PCMH designations. What does it mean for your practice?

If your practice has been designated a Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) or you’re thinking of seeking the designation, now you have an opportunity to add another layer of recognition. The organization that determines whether a primary care practice can be considered a PCMH has recognized a group of PCMHs for taking additional steps toward quality improvement.

Sixty primary care practices that had previously obtained the PCMH designation from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) now can add the term “Distinction” to their title. They earned the additional recognition by submitting Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey results to the NCQA.

“In a way, practices that earned CAHPS Distinction are ahead of their time. One day everyone will-or should-be using patient-feedback to guide their practices,” Andy Reynolds, NCQA assistant vice president for marketing and communications, tells Medical Economics. “The practices that earned [the designation of] distinction took the first step by collecting and reporting their patients’ feedback in a systematic way.”

“NCQA CAHPS distinction means a practice excels at listening to patients-a key to high-quality, 21st-century primary care,” NCQA President Margaret O’Kane says in a statement. “I commend these practices for taking great interest in their patients for laying the groundwork to track quality improvement.”

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