TRENDS
Primary Care’s Challenge Tomorrow’s primary care practice should feature multiple team members, closer collaboration with other providers, and a greater awareness and usage of community resources. How will it get from here to there?
Visits to primary care clinicians are declining, the workforce pipeline is
weak and under-resourced, accounting for
shrinking as clinicians opt for more lucrative fields, and many practices are struggling
35% of health care visits while receiving
to remain open. Yet primary care is the only part of health care in which an increased
only about 5% of health care expenditures.
supply is associated with better population health and more equitable outcomes.
The foundation is crumbling.” Some of the report’s recommendations
“A strong foundation of primary care is critical to the health system,” conclude the authors of a new report from the
responsible public policy, and supported with the resources to achieve health equity. The recommendations in the report echo
cover well-trodden ground, including:
ʯ Shifting away from fee-for-service payment toward value-based models.
ʯ Increasing physician payment for
National Academies of Sciences, Engi-
those of a 1996 publication by the Institute
neering and Medicine, “Implementing
of Medicine. But those recommendations
primary care services to more closely
High-Quality Primary Care: Rebuilding the
“remain fallow,” the authors of the new report
match that of specialty services.
Foundation of Health Care.” It should be
admit. “[Twenty-five] years since the Institute
a common good, they say, made available
of Medicine report, ‘Primary Care: America’s
to all individuals in the U.S., promoted by
Health in a New Era,’ this foundation remains
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ʯ Creating new health centers, particularly in underserved areas.
ʯ Developing digital health technology.
July 2021 | The Journal of Healthcare Contracting
