CCNC Update: January 2013
In the News
Medication Access and Review Program goes live. On December 17, CCNC began hosting and providing technical assistance for the Medication Access and Review Program (“MARP”). The application helps nonprofits manage prescription assistance programs for low-income patients. The MARP database includes more than 3,600 medications offered by pharmaceutical manufacturers through approximately 140 patient assistance programs.
MARP helps users keep abreast of the ever-changing nuances of these programs, as well as tracking the value of medications. The application also helps identify drug-to-drug interactions, duplicative therapy, patient allergies, drug-to-food interactions and minimum/maximum dosages. MARP is already seeing heavy use: from December 17 through year end, MARP hits totaled 4,667,454, with 1,243,460 total pages viewed.The North Carolina Office of Rural Health and Community Care developed this application with funding from the Duke Endowment and North Carolina Foundation for Advanced Health Programs.
NCQA issues changes/clarifications. NCQA has announced “clarifications and policy changes” for the PCMH 2011 Standards and Guidelines. The revised standards define “personal clinician,” require additional documentation, and make changes in requirements impacting meaningful use and electronic health records. Details on the latest changes are also available on CCNC's PCMH page.
Publications
NC physician leaders address chronic pain issue. See the Nov/Dec 2012 issue of the Journal of Opioid Management for a great article on improving the use of narcotics in treating chronic pain by Ed Bujold, MD of Granite Falls and colleagues Jessica Huff, MPH, Elizabeth W. Staton, MSTC, and Wilson D. Pace, MD. The abstract is available here and you can purchase the entire article here (scroll down to the Nov/Dec articles).
Other News
Cape Fear on the move. Community Care of the Cape Fear has moved to new office space at 1209 Culbreth Drive in Wilmington. For details, see coverage in the Greater Wilmington Business Journal.
Updated Medicaid Resource Guide posted on CCNC website. A new guide aimed at helping providers understand Medicaid eligibility and covered services has been posted on the Medicaid section of CCNC's Patient Management Toolbox. The guide provides online links to various NC Medicaid databases and policy documents, helping providers locate the most up-to-date information. Thanks to DMA Managed Care Consultants Rosemary Long and Tiffany Ferguson-Cline for their assistance in updating this useful guide.