American College of Physicians and WellPoint Collaborate to Give Physicians the Tools They Need to Successfully Participate in Medical Home Programs

PHILADELPHIA --(Business Wire)--

Physician practices in 14 states that participate in WellPoint's affiliated health plans' patient-centered primary care programs will be eligible to have licensed access, at no cost, to Medical Home Builder 2.0, an online practice-management tool developed by the American College of Physicians (ACP).

This online tool is just one of the many features physician practices may benefit from by participating in the patient-centered primary care programs which reward physicians - financially and through added resources and data sharing - for coordinating all aspects of their patients' care, making that care more accessible and affordable while strengthening the doctor-patient relationship.

"By offering the Medical Home Builder as a valuable resource to physician practices that take part in the patient-centered primary care programs, we can promote additional improvements in the quality, outcomes and cost-effectiveness of patient care," said Doug Wenners, senior vice president of Provider Engagement and Contracting for WellPoint. "We are pleased to work with ACP on this effort as it underscores our commitment to equip clinicians with the tools and resources to do what they do best: manage all aspects of their patients' care."

The agreement between ACP and WellPoint will offer access to ACP's Medical Home Builder 2.0 for up to 20,000 clinicians.

"Medical Home Builder 2.0 helps primary care practices improve clinical quality, streamline fundamental business operations, and identify and implement key features of the patient-centered medical home," said Michael S. Barr, MD, FACP, MBA, who leads ACP's Medical Practice, Professionalism & Quality division.

Physician practices that use ACP's Medical Home Builder 2.0 become part of an online community of practices committed to improving patient care and identifying office efficiencies. The web-based tool offers 23 self-paced modules that address the key attributes and expectations of a patient-centered medical home, improving clinical care, and practice management. Each learning module includes:

Background information: an explanation of key principles, research, and important concepts for members of the team.
Practice Biopsy: a self-assessment that covers the expectations of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), URAC, and the Joint Commission. The Practice Biopsy helps practices identify opportunities for improvement or validate efforts already undertaken.
Case Study: "How It Works in Practice" describes the efforts of a practice as it works through the findings generated through each module.
Module-specific Resource Library: each module's Resource Library includes relevant references, guides, and sample policies in a variety of formats. The resources from each module are aggregated in a master Resource Library that now includes over 800 sources of information -- a virtual bookshelf to access at any time.
Reporting functions to help track progress over-time, identify opportunities for improvement and compare practices.

Participating physician practices will have access to Medical Home Builder 2.0 beginning in January 2013.

About the American College of Physicians

The American College of Physicians (www.acponline.org) is the largest medical specialty organization and the second-largest physician group in the United States. ACP members include 133,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internists specialize in the prevention, detection, and treatment of illness in adults. Follow ACP on Twitter (News - Alert) (www.twitter.com/acpinternists) and Facebook (News - Alert) (www.facebook.com/acpinternists).

About WellPoint, Inc.

At WellPoint, we believe there is an important connection between our members' health and well-being-and the value we bring our customers and shareholders. So each day we work to improve the health of our members and their communities. And, we can make a real difference since we have more than 33 million people in our branded health plans, and approximately 64 million people served through our subsidiaries. As an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, WellPoint serves members as the Blue Cross licensee for California; the Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensee for Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri (excluding 30 counties in the Kansas City area), Nevada, New Hampshire, New York (as the Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in 10 New York City metropolitan and surrounding counties and as the Blue Cross or Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in selected upstate counties only), Ohio, Virginia (excluding the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.), and Wisconsin. In a majority of these service areas, WellPoint's plans do business as Anthem Blue Cross, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia and Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, or Empire Blue Cross (in the New York service areas). WellPoint also serves customers throughout the country as UniCare and in certain California, Arizona and Nevada markets through our CareMore subsidiary. Our 1-800 CONTACTS, Inc. subsidiary offers customers online sales of contact lenses, eyeglasses and other ocular products. Additional information about WellPoint is available at www.wellpoint.com.