The Challenge:

A national healthcare company providing value-based primary and specialty care to thousands of patients in the New Orleans area sought to double the size of its patient population. This rapid growth was only possible through the acquisition of multiple, established physician practices. Due to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services timelines, the process also had to be completed in 7 months. PMOLink was brought on to plan and manage every aspect of the process, including: patient outreach and transition, physician onboarding, patient data acquisition and integration, staffing, financial integration, marketing, capacity planning, and the commissioning of the company’s largest new clinic.

Action Taken:

The PMOLink team worked alongside market executives, taking the following steps to successfully complete this growth initiative:

• Facilitated Project Planning Workshops with each of the company’s functional managers and subject matter experts to develop a project plan.
• Developed an integrated master schedule with 13 distinct project areas and all their component activities.
• Facilitated weekly project team meetings to discuss and address pressing issues.
• Maintained and tracked an Action Item register for follow-up by project team.
• Maintained a Risk Register to identify and plan responses and mitigation strategies
• Provided weekly progress reports and briefings to the company executive team
• Coordinated the activities of external contractors including call center, staffing, IT, and EMR data specialists.
• Worked with the functional manager to create and execute marketing and patient outreach strategies.
• Coordinated the acquisition and analysis of patient data from practice EMR and insurer IT systems.
• Coordinated with insurers for physician and other provider credentialing.
• Created and facilitated integration strategies for new physicians.
• Managed completion of value-based care health objectives for new patient populations.
• Developed processes for monitoring and promoting patient satisfaction.
• Conducted weekly Lessons Learned meetings with the project team.
• Developed a comprehensive hand-off manual to be used as a blueprint for future Market Expansions.
• Complied all Lessons Learned into a 75-page Model Process Report and Project Schedule.

Results:

As a result of these efforts, the company was able to more than double the size of their total market patient population, for a projected revenue increase of over $40 million per year. Approximately 4,000 patients were transitioned into the comprehensive managed care model, along with ten providers and nearly 50 new support staff. The contributions of the PMOLink Team were critical to the project successful completion.