Eatontown-Based House Call Practice Selected for National Initiative

Visiting Physician Services (VPS), a member of the VNA Health Group based in Eatontown, is one of the few house call practices selected among 2,900 primary care office practices nationwide to participate in Medicare’s Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) initiative that is designed to provide improved access to quality health care at lower costs.

CPC+ is a five-year primary care medical home model that launched this year that will enable primary care practices to care for their patients the way they think will deliver the best outcomes and to pay them for achieving results and improving care. The initiative is a public-private partnership between payers from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), state Medicaid agencies, commercial health plans, self-insured businesses, and primary care providers. The participating payers in New Jersey are Amerigroup New Jersey, Statewide Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and UnitedHealthcare.

“A robust primary care system is essential to achieve better care, smarter spending, and healthier people,” said Acting CMS Administrator Patrick Conway. “For this reason, CMS is committed to supporting primary care clinicians to deliver the best, most comprehensive primary care possible for their patients.”

New Jersey is the only state in the mid-Atlantic region that is participating. CMS launched this ambitious primary care quality improvement initiative in 14 regions, including the following states: Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island and Tennessee. The markets for CPC+ were selected based on density and interest shown by practices and payers.

“CPC+ is a leading edge Medicare initiative where payments for medical services will transition from a fee-for-service structure to a value-based model,” said Alex Binder, Vice President at Visiting Physician Services. “Since VPS is able to address the needs of high-risk, low-mobility patients while providing tremendous economic value to our payers – we are excited to be part of this CMS innovation initiative.”

As one of the few house call practices to participate, the results seen by VPS will help shape a new care delivery model that already has proven to be a better way to provide primary care to individuals with limited mobility and chronic illness.

CPC+ seeks to improve the quality of care patients receive, improve patients’ health, and spend health care dollars more wisely, thereby reducing unnecessary healthcare utilization. Practices will make changes in the way they deliver care, centered on key Comprehensive Primary Care Functions: (1) Access and Continuity; (2) Care Management; (3) Comprehensiveness and Coordination; (4) Patient and Caregiver Engagement; and (5) Planned Care and Population Health.

“CPC+ moves the health care system away from one-size-fits-all, to a more patient-centric approach where our clinicians can continue to deliver the care that best meets the needs of our patients and improves health outcomes”, says Binder. “We see CPC+ as the future of primary care in the U.S. and are pleased to partner with participants across the country that are aligned in this mission to transform our health care system.”

For more information about CPC+, visit: https://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/comprehensive-primary-care-plus/.

For more information about VPS, visit https://vnahg.org/visiting-physician-services.

About Visiting Physician Services

Founded in 1994 by Dr. Jon Salisbury, Visiting Physician Services is the largest physician-based geriatric house call practice in New Jersey. Their clinical staff is comprised of 8 physicians and 27 nurse practitioners and physician assistants, who work as a team serving 3,300 active patients throughout Bergen, Passaic, Union, Essex, Middlesex, Somerset, Monmouth, and Ocean Counties. Their mission is to enable patients to stay at home as they age by providing quality in-home medical care. On January 1, 2015, Visiting Physician Services joined forces with the VNA Health Group to better serve patients in New Jersey who need health care at home. The combined organization provides comprehensive home-based primary care and expanded reach and resources while helping to lower overall medical costs and hospital admissions. Visiting Physician accepts Traditional Medicare. For more information about Visiting Physician Services, please call 732-571-1000 or visit https://vnahg.org/visiting-physician-services.

About VNA Health Group

Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) Health Group is New Jersey’s largest not-for-profit visiting nurse association and visiting physician service that helps individuals and families achieve their best level of health and well-being by providing home health, hospice, palliative and community-based care and operating private-pay personal care services. A full range of primary care services is available through VNACJ Community Health Centers. Our unique joint partnership model with health systems leverages clinical and technical resources to operate Robert Wood Johnson Visiting Nurses, VNA of Englewood, VNA Health Group of New Jersey (Barnabas Health Home Care and Hospice, VNA of Central Jersey Home Care and Hospice) and Visiting Physician Services. Currently, we employ nearly 2,000 and each year, care for more than 120,000 people. For more than 100 years, we have been serving vulnerable populations such as children, older adults and those with disabling and chronic illness or facing end of life. For more information about VNA Health Group call 800.862.3330, visit www.vnahg.org and follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/VNAHealthGroup.

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