Page 5 - New and Emerging Customer Types

When forming MCPs, the organisations in question, will have to decide on the form the legal entity takes and how it is best placed to deliver the service most appropriate for the population.
Currently there are three approaches that NHS England has taken to developing MCP’s
• Virtual Integration
• Partial Integration
• Full Integration
An MCP can take place without any new contract being procured, an option referred to as a “virtual MCP”.
This involves existing providers, including practices, coming together under an “alliance agreement” which allows them to take decisions about care in a more joined up way, but doesn’t fundamentally change responsibilities for the delivery of different elements of care. In addition, under this model, each general practice will continue to deliver its own GMS service.
Local commissioners will decide what the scope of the ACO Contract will be, based on their engagement. Where a commissioner decides that a more joined up system can be better enabled by bringing services together under a single unified contract, then they can use the ACO Contract to procure this.
The ACO Contract has been developed with vanguard sites nationally, (see geographical representation of Vanguard sites) with the aim of allowing services such as community nursing or mental health care to be commissioned, where agreed, alongside primary care under a single contract.
Where the MCP is delivering this scale of work, alongside the General Medical Service (GMS) and Personal Medical Services (PMS), in addition to out of hospital care, this is termed as a fully integrated model and can only work under the ACO contract.
The most significant changes that General Practice will see, when developing an MCP will be in relation to the fully integrated model, as this will require GPs to suspend their GMS/PMS contracts (with the option of reactivating at a future date) so that the MCP can provide the same primary medical services.
GPs can participate as employees, subcontractors or part owners of the MCP, depending on their preference.
If you would like further information on the MCP vanguard and the different approaches taken across England, please use the attached linked to access NHS England’s
“NEW CARE MODELS: Vanguards - developing a blueprint for the future of NHS and care services”
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