Streamlining GP Practice Claims: Cheshire and Merseyside ICB’s Success with CQRS Local Pilot in Sefton Place

Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board (ICB) recently completed a CQRS Local pilot with 10 GP practices in Sefton, one of nine localities within the ICB region. Sefton Place is a diverse borough with an ageing population and has many residents living with long-term health conditions.

To learn more about the pilot’s outcomes, we spoke with the Sefton Place Primary Care team. Jane Elliott, Locality Manager for Sefton Place, explained:

“We have a local contract with GP practices which includes a wide range of criteria. Historically, practices have submitted invoices quarterly, which required significant administration time for manual checks. This process made it difficult to conduct detailed data analysis. We therefore wanted to digitise the process to make it easier and faster for GP practices to submit claims, and for the ICB to review them.”

Choosing the right solution

The ICB was approached by David O’Brien, CQRS Local System Implementation and Training Lead, who demonstrated the features and benefits of CQRS Local. The system met all the requirements outlined by the ICB commissioning team.

Pilot Phase

To ensure CQRS Local was the right solution for both the ICB and its GP practices, the ICB decided to run a pilot in Sefton Place. The pilot involved 10 GP practices who were eager to participate. In April 2024, these practices were set up on CQRS Local with either individual logins or a central log in for teams who manage multiple practices. This allowed such teams to access all relevant practice information with a single username and password.

CQRS Local assigns different user roles, with Jane Elliott, Angela McMahon and Michelle Lyons designated Tier 1 Approvers who vet all claims submitted, and Mohamed Hussain from the ICB’s Finance team, set up as a Tier 2 Approver. Following set up of the local schemes in CQRS Local, and training of both commissioner and GP practice users, the pilot ran for quarter one.

Angela McMahon, Primary Care Manager, Localities/Primary Care Estates, praised the training and support provided:

“David was excellent in the training sessions and set clear expectations for the end result which ensured everyone involved in the pilot knew what to expect. His support has been brilliant throughout the pilot.”

Pilot Success

Reflecting on the pilot’s success, Michelle Lyons, Contract Support Manager at the ICB said:

“At the end of quarter one, we didn’t have to chase for claims as the system automatically sent reminders, ensuring timely invoice submissions. For the first time, we could easily run reports on how many services the practices had delivered.” She added: “The ability to reject a claim and add a note explaining the reasons was a game-changer. Practices can also now upload supporting documents with their claims.”

Mohamed Hussain, Principal Finance Manager (Primary Care), highlighted the system’s efficiency from a finance perspective:

“As a Tier 2 Approver, my role involves approving all claims from GP practices for payment. CQRS Local made this process significantly faster, allowing us to understand our quarterly spend with ease.”

CQRS Local’s reporting functionality allows commissioning teams to set parameters for generating audit reports. This capability enabled a thorough review of the quarter one data, reducing the time needed for processing quarterly claims from several days to just one day.

One of the GP practices involved in the pilot also shared their feedback. Rachel Cummings, Practice Manager, Cumberland House Surgery said:

“We piloted CQRS Local earlier this year and found the submission process so much easier than manual claims. You can see how much money each claim is worth in total, which is useful to know for financial forecasting each quarter. The process is far quicker than a manual submission and the support team are great if you do need them. Never looked back since moving across!”

Next steps

Looking ahead, Jane shared the ICB’s plans:

“We quickly realised that the pilot was going to be a success and as such signed up all 45 practices to submit invoices for the Local Quality Contract Phase 10.”

“The success of the system speaks for itself, as we’re already adding more services to CQRS Local including National DES, Minor Surgery, Out of Area Registrations, Special Allocation Scheme (Violent and Vexatious Patients).”

The team is also engaging with colleagues who manage other localities within the ICB and has also recommended CQRS Local to their Local Authority, which is introducing a new service claim process for Sefton practices.

Jane concluded:

“We’re really impressed with the entire CQRS Local system. It’s invaluable to have all the information at our fingertips.”

Find out more about Cheshire and Merseyside ICB.