Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Physicians' Innovation Network (PIN)?
The Physicians' Innovation Network (PIN) is a national nonprofit service organization dedicated to assisting communities with establishing and sustaining coordinated systems of charity care based on the Project Access model.
Project Access was developed in 1995 by physicians in the Buncombe County Medical Society in Asheville, NC, and is a system that provides healthcare to the low-income, uninsured. Project Access patients see physicians for free (both primary care doctors and specialists) and get all other healthcare services they need at no cost (hospital, lab, x-rays, rehabilitation, medications, etc.).
What does PIN do?
PIN associates use lessons learned from other Project Access systems nationwide to help lead other communities through their own transformational processes of developing a Project Access program. While the staff of PIN serve as guides to these communities, they also recognize the importance of each community taking ownership of and responsibility for its successes. In doing so, PIN operates as a behind-the-scenes, caring mentor.
What are some of the specific ways PIN can help?
PIN has the expertise to help you:
- Engage your physicians to create an integrated care system for low-income, uninsured
- Secure critical partners in your community by surfacing and validating expected return-on-investment
- Communicate your message to build community support
- Evaluate your systems performance and impact on community health
- Conduct pacing/milestone events to create and maintain momentum and build political will
- Utilize your community's existing healthcare resources
- Collect, manage, and utilize system information
- Build the infrastructure for a Project Access system
Will Project Access work in any community?
Project Access can work in most any community that has primary care providers (clinics, private physicians), some physician specialists, and a hospital. With the help of PIN, Project Access can be tailored to fit the unique characteristics of each community. Communities as small as 22,000 and as large as more than 1 million people have successfully started Project Access systems.
How does a community implement a Project Access system?
One proven way is for the physicians of a community to organize and make a public commitment to provide charity care through an organized system. The commitment of physicians is used to leverage support from other partners in the community to create a comprehensive system that provides a full continuum of care to patients. PIN can help with these critical steps in implementation.
How long does it typically take to start a Project Access system?
It can take as little as 6 months or as long as 2 to 3 years to start a Project Access system. This can depend on the complexity of a communitys healthcare safety-net system, the availability of funding and the readiness of community partners. Engaging the help of experienced technical assistance providers through PIN can accelerate the process of developing and implementing a Project Access system.
Who should attend a site visit?
PIN recommends that the following key individuals participate in a site visit:
- President of local medical society/academy of medicine/medical association
- Executive director of local medical society/academy of medicine/medical association
- Private sector physicians
- Area hospital executive staff
- Clinic director from federally funded or county/state-funded clinics
- Free clinic director
- Community health coalition director
- County commissioner/city council member
- Pharmacist
What does it cost to start and run a Project Access system?
Typically, two kinds of funding are required for a Project Access system. Seed funding is required to help start a Project Access system, to pay for outreach materials, convening meetings, purchasing information management software, obtain technical assistance, visit other PA communities, recruit and hire staff, etc. Operational funding is often required from year to year to pay for medications and for administration of the system (enrolling patients, tracking physician pledges and referrals used, collecting data on services provided, etc).
What community partners, in addition to primary care and specialty care physicians, help make Project Access work?
Different communities have different partners that participate. Those can include:
- Hospitals
- City and/or county elected officials
- Health clinics and community-based indigent care clinics
- United Way
- Faith communities
- Local or state foundations
- Pharmacies/pharmaceutical manufacturers
- Chambers of commerce
- Medical insurance claim form processors
- Area health education centers
- Social service agencies
- Health coalitions
PIN can help identify these partners, and share the successes of other communities with Project Access systems.
Does PIN help foster dental providers?
A few communities have been able to include dental services in their systems.
Is there a way to know the value of the services patients receive in a Project Access system?
HCFA claim forms submitted by physicians and hospitals are used to track value of services provided to patients (not used for billing). This information is reported to community partners to quantify the services that their support has leveraged.
How many communities have a Project Access-type system?
There are more than 20 communities in the U.S. that have operational charity care systems based on Buncombe County Medical Society Project Access. The Physicians' Innovation Network is helping more than 30 others that are in the Project Access implementation phase and more than 75 that are in the exploratory phase.
Where are these Project Access communities?
Project Access systems exist all across the U.S., with North Carolina having the largest number of operational Project Access communities. Click on the "Project Access Communities" button for a current list of communities across the nation.
How can an individual or community engage the services of PIN?
PIN is happy to help communities work towards providing healthcare for the low-income, uninsured, through a Project Access system. Contact us.