Frequently Asked Questions
Q. PSO, NEPA, IPA. It's alphabet soup. What do the letters
mean?
A. PSO stands for Professional Services Organization. NEPA stands
for New England Physician Alliance. IPA stands for Independent Practice
Association.
Q. What is the relationship between the PSO, NEPA, and the
IPA?
A. The PSO is a joint venture between Lifespan and NEPA; Lifespan
and NEPA are equal partners in the PSO.
Q. What is NEPA?
A. NEPA is made up of the three different IPA organizations-The Miriam
Hospital, Rhode Island Hospital, and Newport Hospital IPAs-not the
individual physicians. NEPA's Board is comprised of physician representatives
of the three IPA's. These same NEPA Board members also serve as members
of the PSO Board of Directors, along with two non-physician members
who represent Lifespan.
Q. Why so many layers? It sounds like a lot of bureaucracy
to me.
A. NEPA and the PSO represent a wide variety of physicians practicing
at three very different hospitals. Physicians have felt it important
to retain their unique organizational identities by maintaining separate
IPA's. NEPA was formed to serve as an "umbrella" over the three IPA's
to allow organizational collaboration when necessary. The structure
has worked very effectively to allow the individual IPA's to focus
on matters of importance to their own members within their own hospitals,
but also produce some consistency and cohesiveness.
Q. What is NEPA's role exactly?
A. NEPA activities include delegated credentialing on behalf of some
third-party payers and oversight of and guidance to PSO regarding
member services. As noted in an earlier issue of PSO Points, NEPA
has been very active in the development and support of the RIMS initiative
to make legislators and the community aware of the unique problems
confronting physicians in Rhode Island.
Q. What does the IPA do? Who runs it?
A. The IPA is the mechanism through which physicians access PSO services.
Each IPA-Rhode Island Hospital's, The Miriam Hospital's and Newport Hospital's-has
its own Board of Directors, membership policies, expenses, dues, and
issues of concern. What they all have in common is the work they do
on behalf of their members-credentialing and advocacy on behalf of physicians
with their respective hospitals.
Q. What does the PSO do for me?
A. The PSO is the mechanism through which a variety of services are
made available to physicians. Some of these services include:
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DRConnect |
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Wide Area Network (WAN) Connection Services for Remote Locations | |
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Support for Home or Mobile Connection | |
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Voice over IP | |
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Video/Audio Conferencing |
For further information, contact Bill Florio at 444-4112.
Payer Relations
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Currently acting as a "messenger" to a variety of health insurers, such as Multi-Plan, interested in contracting with PSO physicians in Rhode Island | |
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For non-risk contracts, providing contract review and negotiation services for individual physicians or groups on a fee-for-service basis | |
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Provide manage care education to PSO members |
For more information about Payer Relations services, contact Judy
Randall at 444-8103.
Practice Support
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Operating a successful billing service for 174 physicians | |
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Offering Medical Manager practice software licenses at a competitive price | |
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Conducting training sessions in HIPAA compliance and coding | |
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Coordinating a monthly meeting of Practice Managers to identify and help resolve physician issues of every day practice |
For more information on Practice Support services, contact Bill Florio
at 444-4112.
Q. I don't get it. I belong to the PSO. Why should I join
the IPA?
A. Physicians can't join the PSO, they join the IPA at their primary
hospital. Membership in the IPA then allows you access to PSO services.
Q. How do you spend the money you collect in dues every year?
A. Every attempt is made to keep expenses as low as possible and,
in fact, dues have dropped dramatically since the inception of the
IPA's and NEPA. Dues are used to pay for two basic elements: Administrative
costs of your IPA and administrative expenses of NEPA. While the expenses
of each IPA are somewhat different, in general there are three major
expense areas:
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A stipend to compensate the IPA President for time spent on IPA activities | |
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The cost of Directors & Officers insurance to protect the Board from any legal action that may result from its activities | |
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A NEPA assessment to each IPA, based on the number of that IPA's members, to support the administrative expenses of NEPA |
