The Edgewood Health Plan uses a combination of structural, process, outcomes, and customer satisfaction measures to evaluate its network providers’ performance. Edgewood would correctly use outcomes measures to evaluate a provider’s
Under the compensation arrangement that the Falcon Health Plan has with some of its providers, Falcon holds back 10% of the negotiated payments to these providers in order to offset or pay for any claims that exceed the budgeted costs for referral or hospital services. If the providers keep costs within the budgeted amount, Falcon distributes to them the entire amount of money held back. This way of motivating providers to control costs while providing high-quality, appropriate care is known as a:
The vision benefits offered by the Omni Health Plan include clinical eye care only. The following statements describe vision care received by Omni plan members:
• Brian Pollard received treatment for a torn retina he suffered as a result of an accident
• Angelica Herrera received a general eye examination to test her vision
• Megan Holtz received medical services for glaucoma
Of these medical services, the ones that most likely would be covered by Omni's vision coverage would be the services received by:
The following statements describe two types of HMOs:
The Elm HMO requires its members to select a PCP but allows the members to go to any other provider on its panel without a referral from the PCP.
The Treble HMO does not require its members to select a PCP. Treble allows its members to go to any doctor, healthcare professional, or facility that is on its panel without a referral from a primary care doctor. However, care outside of Treble's network is not reimbursed unless the provider obtains advance approval from the HMO.
Both HMOs use delegation to transfer certain functions to other organizations. Following the guidelines established by the NCQA, Elm delegated its credentialing activities to the Newnan Group, and the agreement between Elm and Newnan lists the responsibilities of both parties under the agreement. Treble delegated utilization management (UM) to an IPA. The IPA then transferred the authority for case management to the Quest Group, an organization that specializes in case management.
Both HMOs also offer pharmacy benefits. Elm calculates its drug costs according to a pricing system that requires establishing a purchasing profile for each pharmacy and basing reimbursement on the profile. Treble and the Manor Pharmaceutical Group have an arrangement that requires the use of a typical maximum allowable cost (MAC) pricing system to calculate generic drug costs under Treble's pharmacy program. The following statements describe generic drugs prescribed for Treble plan members who are covered by Treble's pharmacy benefits:
The MAC list for Drug A specifies a cost of 12 cents per tablet, but Manor pays 14 cents per tablet for this drug.
The MAC list for Drug B specifies a cost of 7 cents per tablet, but Manor pays 5 cents per tablet for this drug.
The following statements can correctly be made about the reimbursement for Drugs A and B under the MAC pricing system:
Dr. Michelle Kubiak has contracted with the Gem Health Plan, a Medicare+Choice health plan, to provide medical services to Gem's enrollees. Gem pays Dr. Kubiak $40 per enrollee per month for providing primary care. Gem also pays her an additional $10 per enrollee per month if the cost of referral services falls below a targeted level. This information indicates that, according to the substantial financial risk formula, Dr. Kubiak's referral risk under this contract is equal to:
Assume that the national average cost per covered employee for PPO rental networks is $3 per member per month (PMPM) and that the average monthly healthcare premium PMPM is $300. This information indicates that, if the number of health plan members is 10,000, then the annual network rental cost to the health plan would be:
One true statement about the responsibilities of providers under typical provider contracts is that most provider contracts:
The following statement(s) can correctly be made about contracting and reimbursement of specialty care physicians (SCPs):
Health plans typically conduct two types of reviews of a provider's medical records: an evaluation of the provider's medical record keeping (MRK) practices and a medical record review (MRR). One true statement about these types of reviews is that:
Stop-loss insurance is designed to protect physicians who face substantial financial risk as a result of physician incentive plans. Medicare + Choice health plans must ensure that a physician has adequate stop-loss protection if the
The Foxfire Health Plan, which has 20,000 members, contracts with dermatologists on a contact capitation basis. The contact capitation arrangement has the following features:
Foxfire distributes the money in the contact capitation fund once each quarter and the distribution is based on the point totals accumulated by each dermatologist.
Foxfire's per member per month (PMPM) capitation for dermatology services is $1.
The dermatologist receives 1 point for each new referral that is not classified as a complicated referral and 1.5 points for each new referral that is classified as complicated.
During the first quarter, Foxfire's PCPs made 450 referrals to dermatologists and 100 of these referrals were classified as complicated. One dermatologist, Dr. Shareef Rashad, received 42 of these referrals; 6 of his referrals were classified as complicated. Statements that can correctly be made about Foxfire's contact capitation arrangement include:
Before or during the orientation process, health plans generally provide new network providers with a provider manual. One of the primary purposes of the provider manual is to
Member satisfaction surveys help an health plan determine whether its providers are consistently delivering services to plan members in a manner that lives up to member expectations. Member satisfaction surveys allow the health plan to gather information about
The provider contract that Dr. Nick Mancini has with the Utopia Health Plan includes a clause that requires Utopia to reimburse Dr. Mancini on a fee-for-service (FFS) basis until 100 Utopia members have selected him as their primary care provider (PCP). At that time, Utopia will begin reimbursing him under a capitated arrangement. This clause in Dr. Mancini's provider contract is known as:
The following statements are about the organization of network management functions of health plans. Select the answer choice containing the correct response:
When the Rialto Health Plan determines which of the emergency services received by its plan members should be covered by the health plan, it is guided by a standard which describes emergencies as medical conditions manifesting themselves by acute symptoms of sufficient severity (including severe pain) such that a person who possesses an average knowledge of health and medicine could reasonably expect the absence of immediate medical attention to result in placing the health of the individual in serious jeopardy. This standard, which was adopted by the NAIC in 1996, is referred to as the
The following statements are about factors that health plans should consider as they develop provider networks in rural and urban markets. Three of the statements are true, and one of the statements is false. Select the answer choice that contains the FALSE statement.
For this question, if answer choices (A) through C) are all correct, select answer choice (D). Otherwise, select the one correct answer choice.
Understanding the level of health plan penetration in a particular market can help a health plan determine which products are most appropriate for that market. Indicators of a mature health plan market include
The method that the Autumn Health Plan uses for reimbursing dermatologists in its provider network involves paying them out of a fixed pool of funds that is actuarially determined for this specialty. The amount of funds that Autumn allocates to dermatologists is based on utilization and costs of services for that discipline.
Under this reimbursement method, a dermatologist who is under contract to Autumn accumulates one point for each new referral made to the specialist by Autumn’s PCPs. If the referral is classified as complicated, then the dermatologist receives 1.5 points. The value of Autumn’s dermatology services fund for the first quarter was $15,000. During the quarter, Autumn’s PCPs made 90 referrals, and 20 of these referrals were classified as complicated.
Autumn’s method of reimbursing specialty providers can best be described as a
Dr. Eve Barlow is a specialist in the Amity Health Plan’s provider network. Dr. Barlow’s provider contract with Amity contains a typical most-favored-nation arrangement. The purpose of this arrangement is to
The Gladspell HMO has contracted with the Ellysium Hospital to provide subacute care to its plan members. Gladspell pays Ellysium by using a per diem reimbursement method.
The per diem reimbursement method will require Gladspell to pay Ellysium a
In most health plan pharmacy networks, the cost component of the reimbursement formula is based on the average wholesale price (AWP). One true statement about the AWP for prescription drugs is that
The following statements are about some of the issues surrounding the contractual responsibilities of health plans. Select the answer choice containing the correct statement.
One true statement about the compensation arrangement known as the case rate system is that, under this system,
During the credentialing process, a health plan verifies the accuracy of information on a prospective network provider’s application. One true statement regarding this process is that the health plan
In contracting with providers, a health plan can use a closed panel or open panel approach. One statement that can correctly be made about an open panel health plan is that the participating providers
One reason that an health plan would want to use the actual acquisition cost (AAC) pricing system to calculate its drug costs is that, of the systems commonly used to calculate drug costs, the AAC system
With respect to contractual provisions related to provider-patient communications, nonsolicitation clauses prohibit providers from
The method that the Autumn Health Plan uses for reimbursing dermatologists in its provider network involves paying them out of a fixed pool of funds that is actuarially determined for this specialty. The amount of funds that Autumn allocates to dermatologists is based on utilization and costs of services for that discipline.
Under this reimbursement method, a dermatologist who is under contract to Autumn accumulates one point for each new referral made to the specialist by Autumn’s PCPs. If the referral is classified as complicated, then the dermatologist receives 1.5 points. The value of Autumn’s dermatology services fund for the first quarter was $15,000. During the quarter, Autumn’s PCPs made 90 referrals, and 20 of these referrals were classified as complicated.
In determining the first quarter payment to dermatologists, Autumn would accurately calculate the value of each referral point to be
The provider contract that Dr. Huang Kwan has with the Poplar Health Plan includes a typical scope of services provision. The medical service that Dr. Kwan provided to Alice Meyer, a Poplar plan member, is included in the scope of services. The following statement(s) can correctly be made about this particular medical service: