Do you have a primary care strategy...really?

Join Dr. Stan and his guest Scott Conard, MD, as they discuss the pivotal role of primary care in population health.  Employers offering healthcare need to be particularly intention about assuring they have a true primary care strategy to provide covered members with quality care. 

 

That care should be as free as possible from financial and access barriers.

 

The doctors discuss the characteristics of advanced primary care,  the role of non-physician advanced providers and the looming shortage of family and internal medicine physicians.

 

Employers purchasing healthcare also need to understand the payment model of the PCPs their members see. Are those providers paid for the volume of patients they see? Only paid for face-to-face contact?  Paid based on patient outcomes and overall health achievements?

 

With the American population experiencing higher rates of obesity, overweight, diabetes, hypertension and other "diseases of civilization," a primary care strategy must include more than periodic sickness visits. 

 

Dr. Conard offers a template for creating a primary care strategy.

 

Resources:

Primary Care in the United States: a Handbook of Charts and Facts

Advancing Primary Care: a  Purchaser Playbook for Action (National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions)

Primary Care Collaborative

Achieving Value through Advanced Primary Care (National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions)

Converging Health (Dr. Conard)