Health is Primary to Focus on Policymakers in 2017. Health is Primary will be directing much of its outreach and advocacy next year to new members of Congress, the Trump Administration and health care policy makers. The campaign’s goals are to ensure widespread awareness of the value of primary care and increase support for the shift to value based payment. As part of this, Health is Primary will be a sponsor of the Alliance for Health Reform Summit series on key health care issues, including insurance and access, chronic disease management and primary care workforce. Stayed turned for more information on policymaker outreach and opportunities to support this effort.
2017 Campaign Calendar Will Be Released in December. Health is Primary will release its 2017 calendar in December, which includes recommendations on how to be a primary care champion. Primary care is critical to a high functioning, cost effective health care system and we need your voice – share our messages with your patients, write an op-ed, engage on social media. See ‘ten things you can do’ on healthisprimary.org/act to get started.
November is Family Caregiver Month. The campaign has released tear sheets for patients on reducing caregiver burnout. Click here to read the AAFP News coverage of this effort.
Health is Primary at AHIP Medicare Conference. Family Medicine for America’s Health President and Board Chair, Dr. Glen Stream, spoke at AHIP’s Annual Medicare Conference in late October. Dr. Stream discussed payer/provider collaboration. He emphasized the need to accelerate the shift to value based payment for primary care, to ensure alignment and harmonization of metrics across payers and to ensure physician access to actionable clinical information from payers in real time.
Update from the Strategy Implementation Team
Join a Focus Group about Student Choice of Family Medicine & Primary Care. The FMAHealth Workforce Education & Development Tactic Team is conducting online focus groups to get feedback on what impacts a student’s choice to pursue family medicine and primary care. The Team will be holding several focus groups in the coming months and seeks participation by stakeholders who represent medical students, residents, medical school and residency faculty, program directors, clerkship directors, primary care interest group advisors, community preceptors, and department chairs to join in the discussion.
The team will also seek participants outside of the family medicine specialty, including internists, pediatricians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners in order to provide diverse perspectives in the dialogue.
While the immediate goal of the focus groups is to promote better understanding of medical student specialty choice, the after-effect of forming new alliances for the task of addressing America’s primary care shortage is potentially of equally significant value.
If you are interested in joining this discussion, please contact [email protected].
FMAHealth Reducing Health Disparities Team begins planning for 2017 Starfield Summit – Expanding the Role of Primary Care in Achieving Health Equity. Planning is underway for the second Starfield Summit to be held in Portland, OR from April 22-25 2017. The Summit is designed to build on the success of the first Starfield Summit (held in April 2016 in Washington, DC) and afford a diverse and dynamic group of attendees the opportunity to build on existing coordinated networks that tap into the strength of those partnerships and create new coalitions and collaborations to pave action oriented paths toward health equity and social accountability.
At the Health Equity Summit, thought leaders in health inequalities, primary care clinicians and their organizations, public health experts, educators, researchers, trainees, advocates, policy experts, social service organizations, patients and community members will come together to create a blueprint for family medicine and primary care’s role in eliminating health disparities. Those interested in health equity research, practice transformation, and education will gain valuable insights into best practices and will have the opportunity to network with like minds for information exchange and collaboration.
To learn more and stay abreast of the latest news, visit the Health Equity website at: http://www.starfieldsummit.com/starfield-ii
