In 1983, the nonprofit Primaris was founded under the name the "Missouri Patient Care Review Foundation." We were founded as a group effort by the Missouri State Medical Association, Missouri Hospital Association and Missouri Association of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons.
At that time, Primaris’ primary function was to provide non-biased, third-party review of complaints about medical care provided to Medicare beneficiaries.
This role was federally mandated by Congress through what was then known as the Medicare Utilization and Quality Control Peer Review Program.
In 1993, Primaris began the CLAIM Program with the help of Medicare and the Missouri Department of Insurance, Financial Institutions and Professional Registration. Today this program consists of a network of over 200 volunteers and staff members who provide one-on-one answers to Missourians with Medicare questions.
When Medicare renamed our program as Patient Review Organizations (PRO), we changed our name to follow suit, becoming the Missouri Patient Review Organization or MissouriPRO. Since that time, the program continued to evolve, eventually becoming the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) program. In 2005, we changed our name to Primaris.
Under the current program, Primaris continues to provide medical record reviews; however, we play a larger role working with healthcare providers to improve quality through projects choosen by Medicare. Currently, we are in our ninth contract in this role.
About Primaris