"ACP has developed a comprehensive plan of action to reverse the downward trend in primary care medicine before it is too late," announced ACP President C. Anderson Hedberg, MD, FACP. "Our recommendations would not only change the way that primary care is delivered, but how it is financed by Medicare and other payers. Our proposals address the way that Medicare fees are determined, how payments are updated, and how to assure that pay-for-performance programs provide sufficient incentives for quality improvement and care coordination by primary care physicians."
Vineet Arora, MD, MA, chair of the ACP Council of Associates said that, based on her own experience, "and from my conversations with my peers, I can say with confidence that the dismal economic practice environment associated with primary care today is the major barrier keeping young doctors away."
"If these reforms do not take place, within a few years there will not be enough primary care physicians to take care of an aging population with increasing incidences of chronic diseases," Dr. Arora continued. "The consequences of failing to act will be higher costs, greater inefficiency, lower quality, more uninsured persons, and growing patient and physician dissatisfaction."
Providing a public policy perspective, Robert Doherty, senior vice president, ACP Governmental Affairs and Public Policy, said ACP was calling on policymakers to: