Primaris

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This article refers to the health care company Primaris. See also Primaris Airlines.

Primaris is a nonprofit health care consulting company in Columbia, Missouri. It's mission statement is "to improve healthcare delivery and outcomes by promoting excellence, advancing knowledge and developing innovative solutions for physicians, other providers, businesses, government, patients and consumers." It has held the Medicare Quality improvement organizations contract for Missouri since the program was created. This contract was renewed in 2008 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for a three year period.

In addition, Primaris oversees the CLAIM program, Missouri's State Health Insurance Counseling and Assistance Program, which contracts through the Missouri Department of Insurance and CMS to provide assistance navigating the Medicare system. Primaris provides this service through a network of over 100 partner organizations and more than 200 volunteers trained by the company.

[edit] History

Primaris was founded in 1983 by the Missouri State Medical Association, Missouri Hospital Association and Missouri Association of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons. The company was originally named the Missouri Patient Care Review Foundation. The company later changed its name to the Missouri Patient Review Organization or MissouriPRO to reflect name changes in its federal contract with CMS. After the CMS contract changed names again, the nonprofit switched its name to Primaris. This generic name was selected intentionally to avoid a need for future changes should the federal contract be renamed.

At the time of Primaris' founding, it's primary function was to provide third-party, non-biased review of complaints about medical care provided to Medicare beneficiaries. This is primarily accomplished through reviews of medical records. This role was federally mandated by Congress through what was then known as the Medicare Utilization and Quality Control Peer Review Program. Since that time, the program evolved several times, eventually becoming the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) program. Under the current program, Primaris continues to provide medical record reviews; however, it plays a larger role working with hospitals, home health agencies, nursing homes and physicians on a variety of projects to improve CMS-specified quality measures.