Tx Acad Fam Phys CEO Tom Banning outlines an excellent plan to help save America’s family physicians.
(Edited for posting)
“Now is the time for dramatic action. We have a once in a generation opportunity to transform our health care system to deliver better, more cost effective care.
ALL payers must immediately pivot to a prospective payment for primary care. PCPs do not represent an insurable risk in any reasonable actuarial model. Primary care represents only 3-5 % of the total healthcare spend.
Doubling the primary care spend would likely add less than a dollar to total premium cost, yet potential downstream savings would be enormous.
Pay primary care practices between $70 – $100 per member per month. Practices would be held accountable and would report quality and utilization data, so no one would be allowed to game the system.
Unburden PCPs from the complex broken fee-for-service system and give those practices the revenue and cash to stay open.
Allow them flexibility to serve patients remotely through telemedicine. This change could transform our health care system over the long term so it truly serves our patients and the physicians who serve them.”
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