One of the two fundamental components of the service plan is the proposed financial plan for the PCN. To correctly complete the templates, the PCN planning team needs to apply PCIC financial policies (available in the latest Policy Manual) and understand the types of operational funds the PCN will be receiving or be eligible for once the Business Plan is approved by PCIC.
The primary source of operational funds for PCNs are per capita payments issued for the date when the PCN is approved to become operational and then regularly on a semi-annual basis in April and October. Payments are prospective for the months remaining until the next semi-annual payment. The per capita payments are determined on the basis of informal enrollment lists of patients assigned to each participating physician. For this reason, PCN planners are encourage to request three Business Planning reports of this data from Alberta Health & Wellness throughout the Business Plan Development process. The first report should be requested in the project planning phase based upon the physicians who signed the Letter of Intent. Often during service delivery planning, additional physicians will indicate an intent to participate in the PCN. Therefore a second BP development report should be requested before submitting a draft business plan to PCI office to ensure the contents of section 4.0 closely matches the funding the PCN is eligible to receive under per capita payments. The third and final Business Plan report should be requested from AHW before submission of the final draft Business Plan to PCI office.
Guidelines for Use of Per Capita Funding Use these Guidelines when determining the Service delivery plan (Section 3.0) to ensure planned initiatives are consistent with the guidelines followed by PCI office in reviewing a service plan.
The PCN may also be eligible for Specialist Linkages funds for up to a two year period. Specialist Linkages funding allocations are determined based upon the number of clinics and the number of participating physicians involved in the PCN. Two types of application forms exist depending upon the type of specialist linkages activity being proposed. The Specialist Linkages Funding Guidelines documents explains that activities 1-7 relate to initiatives that facilitate knowledge transfer, learning opportunities, informal relationship building, networking, collaborative practice models, and general support to facilitate the above for Family Physicians and Specialists involved. The Guidelines and Application forms for Activity 8 specifically target referral process improvements.
In completing the Specialist Linkages application forms, PCNs need to specify the types of specialists that will be involved and how the used of these funds helps to support the overall service delivery plan of the PCN.
Specialist Linkages Funding Guidelines for PCNs Specialist Linkages Application Template Specialist Linkages Guidelines for Activity 8 Specialist Linkages Improvements Project Proposal Use the above forms to determine the revenue the PCN will have from Specialist Linkages activity should PCI approve the proposal. This approximated revenue should be included in the appropriate tables of the financial plan
Capacity Building grants were available only to PCNs approved during rounds 1,2, and 3 calls for Letters of Intent. These grants had a two year time limit and were developed in anticipation of a need for PCNs to have additional funding sources due to higher costs in getting established. Experience indicated that most PCNs took 12-18 months to truly become operational so PCIC have now discontinued this grants to any PCN applying in Round 4 onwards. There are only a few PCNs in rounds 2 and 3 that are still eligible to apply for these grants.
Capacity Building Grants Guidelines and Application Use of this is restricted to a few PCNs still eligible under the Round 2 and 3 calls for Letter of Intent. No PCNs applying as part of Round 4 or future Rounds for Letters of Intent may apply.