Panel Management Support Program

UPDATE (Aug. 15, 2024): To serve you better, the AMA is phasing out paper cheques. This means that we will no longer be issuing cheques for AMA benefit programs. 
 
To ensure that you receive timely payments from eligible programs, you will need to sign up for direct deposit. This can be done through your AMA Member Dashboard (login required) or by contacting AMA membership services at [email protected]. 
 
Please note that we are experiencing higher than usual call volumes, but if you leave a detailed message with your full name and member number, we will return calls in the order that they are received. 
 
Thank you for your cooperation and understanding! 

The Panel Management Support Program (PMSP) is a temporary program, funded by Alberta Health, which provides eligible physicians financial support for costs related to panel management and practice improvement activities. This funding was announced in October 2023 when the Modernizing Alberta's Primary Health Care System (MAPS) final panel reports were released.

In the recommendations coming out of the MAPS final reports, the government laid out immediate actions to address urgent issues in primary care and to provide Albertans more access to family physicians. Part of these actions included financial incentives for physicians participating in panel management:

“…allocating $57 million over 3 years to provide family doctors and nurse practitioners with support to help manage costs related to their increasing number of patients. Each provider has the potential to receive up to $10,000 annually”
 
The PMSP provides family physicians and rural generalists with financial support to help manage the costs related to caring for an increasing number of patients. Funding through the PMSP is intended to be an immediate action to address urgent issues in primary care.

Panel management and practice improvement activities support the Patient’s Medical Home and strengthens continuity of care for Albertans. Alberta Health requires that PMSP funds be used to fund staff, technology and/or other practice resources in order to reduce the time, cost and effort spent on administrative tasks involved in providing comprehensive, longitudinal primary care.

Quick links:

• Eligibility requirements
• Payment conditions and amounts
• Receiving payments
• Summary of PMSP data collection and payment schedule
• Questions?
• Frequently asked questions

Eligibility Requirements

Eligible primary care physicians can now begin receiving funding in quarterly installments. The PMSP is anticipated to provide ongoing funding until March 31, 2026.

Eligible family physicians and rural generalists who meet the following requirements are eligible to receive funding through the PMSP:

• Must be entitled to receive payment of benefits under the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan AHCIP.
• Must be a general practitioner, family practitioner, or family medicine specialist practicing in a community-based primary care clinic. This includes physicians practicing at Primary Care Network clinics and Alberta Health Services-operated family medicine clinics.
• Must be registered and in good standing with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA).

Payment conditions and amounts

Alberta Health sets out the conditions for payment and requires family physicians and rural generalists to sign a declaration in order to receive payment. The declaration is an agreement that PMSP funding will be used to support panel management and practice improvement activities.

Eligible costs must have been incurred when the physician was eligible for the PMSP.

Primary care physicians will be allocated funding based on panel size. Family physicians and rural generalists with a minimum panel size of 500 will receive funding as follows:

Alberta Health calculates panel sizes by allocating patients to eligible physicians according to CPAR and/or the patient's visit history.

Physicians live on CPAR are allocated patients from their CPAR panel and "topped up" through the remaining allocations 2-5.

Physicians not on CPAR are allocated patients through billing in allocations 2-5.

• Allocations 2-5 are based on the past 18 months of billing data. Patients who have not been seen in the last 18 months will not be allocated unless they are on a single CPAR panel.

Receiving payments