NEWS & EVENTS

 Quality Health Plans, Inc. Placed Into Receivership 

Effective Monday , October 17, 2011, Quality Health Plans, Inc. ("Quality") was ordered into receivership by the Second Judicial Circuit Court in Leon County, Florida. The Florida Department of Financial Services is the court appointed Receiver of Quality.

Quality is a health maintenance organization that was organized in August 2001 and obtained its Florida Certificate of Authority in October 2002. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida, the Medicare only HMO provides health care coverage to approximately 10,000 Medicare beneficiaries in 32 Florida counties. Medicare premiums and contracts are administered through a federal agency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ("CMS").

Quality members’ health care coverage continues uninterrupted. Quality members are urged to carefully read any letters they receive from Quality or CMS.

http://www.myfloridacfo.com/receiver/QHP/intro.htm

Meaningful Use and EHR Assistance from Santa Fe College

Meaningful Use is a HOT topic these days. PCN is partnering with Santa Fe College's Health IT program. Please contact Tracy Jones at Santa Fe College at 352-381-3730 if you are in need of an intern to assist your practice in the conversion to Electronic Health Records.
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Free Pediatric Psychiatric Consultations Available

The University of Florida Child Psychiatry Access Program allows for the FREE consultation with a psychiatrist for PCN providers with questions. Please contact 877-506-2720 if you need a consult for a pediatric patient with a psychiatric disorder.
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Exclusive Professional Liability Insurance Program

(Gainesville, Fla) - For some time now Physicians' Care Network (PCN) has been exploring avenues to help lower the cost of medical liability insurance for your practice. This is typically one of the largest expenses in a medical practice. With reimbursements going down and expenses going up, we are doing everything we can to help our members. The goals of this program are to:

• Lower long-term costs
• Make future costs more predictable
• Work together to improve quality and patient safety
• Bring PCN members together as a more cohesive group.

Our intent is to build a community based program that will last through the next malpractice insurance crisis and shield our physician members from huge upward rate swings. To have our program survive (and thrive) for the long haul, we must outperform the population of Florida physicians from a loss perspective. We can achieve this by building elements into the program such as quality standards, risk management initiatives and patient safety initiatives.

For this program, your physician-only Board of Directors has selected First Professionals Insurance Company ("FPIC" or "First Professionals"). FPIC is the market leader in Florida for medical professional liability insurance. FPIC has been awarded a rating of A- (excellent) by A.M. Best Company, the independent company that rates financial strength.

PCN has negotiated an exclusive professional liability insurance program with FPIC that provides a 25% discount on base rates for our members. In addition to the PCN program discount. you may also gualify for FPIC's claims-free discount. which may be as much as an additional 25% discount.

• 5 years claims free - 10% discount
• 10 years claims free - 20% discount
• 15 years claims free- 25% discount

As is standard in the industry, FPIC will look to pick up prior acts coverage. Also, if retirement is a possibility within the next five years, please know that FPIC will work through any vested retirement "tail" issues.

PCN has also negotiated for FPIC to offer risk management and patient safety training sessions to PCN members who become policyholders - at no cost. These sessions will include topics such as Medical Specialty Analysis, Practice Assessment, Claim Analysis, Risk Management Products and Services, Root Cause Analysis, Loss Prevention Plan and Compliance Plans.

We expect that most medical practices will realize initial premium savings at the kickoff of this program. However, the long-term cost savings of this program are expected to be far more beneficial. Therefore, the most important thing we can do is to get this program started. We are targeting a kickoff date of December 1 st. We anticipate that insurance companies and insurance agents who stand to lose business will attempt to minimize participation in this program, even offering to slash costs. The future benefits of this program offer the most value and, for this reason, it is important that we act together as a cohesive group to launch this program and resist those who seek to keep physicians fragmented by offering short-term benefits.

We are very excited about this new medical professional liability insurance program and the potential for PCN members to save money now and in the future. For information on how to participate in this new program, please phone the PCN office at 352.371.9999.
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