Be A Champion for Primary Care. With the first week of October dedicated to National Primary Care Week, the Health is Primary campaign will be promoting stories and statistics throughout the month of October that demonstrate the value of primary care and how it delivers on the quadruple aim. Click here for ideas and resources that can help you promote the benefits of primary care.
Health is Primary at the National Business Coalition on Health (NBCH) meeting. An all-star panel of primary care innovators (moderated by T.R. Reid) presented at the NBCH’s annual conference in Orlando. Dr. Clint Flanagan talked about working directly with large and small employers around the country through his Colorado based direct primary care practice, Cathie Pettit with DirectNet of North Carolina highlighted how they have used PCMH practices to achieve a negative growth rate in health care costs for their clients and Dr. Manisha Sharma talked about breaking the mold of care delivery for Medicaid patients. Health is Primary will continue to work to make the case for primary care with employers of all sizes.
Healthy Aging in Medical Economics. Dr. Glen Stream wrote an opinion piece on primary care and healthy aging that appeared in Medical Economics. Click here to read the piece.
Health is Primary at America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) conference. Dr. Glen Stream will participate in AHIP’s National Conference on Medicare, Medicaid and Duals. Dr. Stream’s presentation will focus on best practices in payer/provider collaboration.
In case you missed. AAFP Board Chair, Wanda Filer, M.D., MBA wrote her final column as AAFP President on the Health is Primary campaign. Read her piece here.
Update from the Strategy Implementation
FMAHealth Practice Tactic Team Launches Two Projects
The Practice Tactic Team is launching two projects: Physician Readiness and Bright Spots projects. These two projects are essential components of the larger Pathways to Transformation project. The Pathways to Transformation project, which will be included in future monthly updates, is focused on creating a set of pathways to make it as easy as possible for practices, small and large, employed and independent, urban, suburban and rural, to take the next steps in transforming their own practices.
Physician Readiness Project
The Physician Readiness Project, led by Practice Core Team leader Jason Marker, M.D., will hold its second meeting this week in a series of focus groups assessing physicians’ readiness to transform their practices at a time when there is great pressure to do so. Focus group discussions will be held with physicians at many stages of change: from those who see no value in changing their practice, to those who are contemplating change but uncertain whether and how to begin, to those who are actively making changes to meet the challenges of MACRA and
CPC+. Utilizing professional facilitation, the project will seek to identify and understand the barriers and the opportunities that exist at each stage of practice transformation, from the point of view of practicing physicians around the country. This information will be used by the Practice Team as part of a demonstration project to assist physicians by making it as easy as possible to identify and overcome obstacles as they transform their practices. The team will keep you updated on progress through these monthly updates as the project unfolds.
If you would like to be part of this project, contact Jack Janson at [email protected].
Practice Bright Spots Project
The Practice Team is launching a Practice Bright Spots Project, led by Practice Core Team member and recent past president of the California Academy of Family Physicians, Jay Lee, M.D. Jay is assembling a team to identify and interview practices that have made the leap to advanced models of person-centered, team based primary care. The project’s primary purpose is to determine how these practices have made the transition. The team will work with selected practices to learn what tools they found helpful, what resources are required and how these practices are able to thrive when others struggle to make similar kinds of changes in an environment that can be exhausting and lead to burnout.
If you would like to learn more about this project, let the team know by contacting Jack Janson at [email protected].
FMAHealth Technology Tactic Team Creates Vision of the Future for Health IT
The Technology Team held a Visioning Summit in Washington, DC in April. The summit brought together a diverse set of forward thinking experts and family physicians from Family Medicine for America’s Health (FMAHealth) insiders, core team members, guests and practicing physicians. Building on the work of the Summit, the Technology Team has created a Technology Vision Statement that envisions and defines how health care information technology can help primary care physicians and practices achieve the quadruple aim in the United States. To date, the Vision Statement has been shared among FMAHealth Tactic Teams in order to gain feedback. The next step will be to invite those who have signed on as Advisors to review the vision document and give the team their feedback. If you would like to be an Advisor to the Technology Team (or other Tactic Teams), make sure to go to this address and let us know: http://cfarsurveys.polldaddy.com/s/fmahealth-engagement.
The Technology Team will be collaborating with an artistic partner to create graphically designed elements that would showcase the physician’s office of the future and act as accompanying material to the Vision Statement. The team is exploring the idea of coordinating its efforts with the Connecticut Institute for Primary Care Innovation (CIPCI), a collaborative enterprise working on the office of the future. The team is also evaluating a number of publishing options in order to share the Vision Statement with multiple audiences.
If you would like to learn more about the Vision Statement, contact Jack Janson at [email protected].
