What is Primary Care First?
Primary Care First is an innovative new program from Medicare aimed at improving care quality and the patient experience, especially for patients with chronic needs or serious illnesses.
It changes how we can treat patients, the information we get access to, and how we get paid, allowing us to enhance our work and create a truly great patient experience.
How Does It Affect Me? What Changes should I Expect?
Most importantly, your Medicare benefits are not changing. This program only affects how we can provide you care, not how you – the patient – pay for it. For questions about Medicare billing, contact Medicare.
You still have the right to use or visit any doctor or hospital that accepts Medicare, at any time. Your provider may continue to recommend that you see particular doctors for your specific health needs, but it is always your choice which doctors you use or hospital you visit.
Information Sharing
The biggest change patients will see is related to the information that gets shared with us.
As part of this program, Medicare will start sharing some of your personal health information with us. This could include:
- Specialist visits
- Trips to the Emergency Room
- Hospital stays
- Surgeries
This will help provide us with a more complete picture of your health and allow us to better coordinate your care.
If you want to stop Medicare from sharing this information, you should call
1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227). TTY users should call 1-877-486-2048.
Care Flexibility
With PCF, we have more flexibility to treat you, so that we can give you an even more tailored care plan.
Visit the PCF Hub Site
For more information about the program, visit the following links:
Hub Site – https://innovation.cms.gov/innovation-models/primary-care-first-model-options
Fact Sheet – https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/primary-care-first-model-cohort-2-cy-2021-fact-sheet
Getting Started PDF – https://innovation.cms.gov/media/document/pcf-cohort2-getstartedguide
I have a question / concern. Who should I reach out to?
Contact Medicare
You may also prefer to reach out to Medicare for additional info. They can be reached:
via Phone: 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227)
via Live Chat: https://chat.mymedicare.gov/chatclient/chatrequest.aspx
For more ways to contact Medicare, visit Medicare.gov
Contact Us
For any other questions, you can contact our office during normal office hours at 215-249-9020.