 |
WEB EXTRA!
Family physicians peppered AAFP leaders with questions about reimbursement at a town hall meeting on the Future of Family Medicine project Oct. 10. The questioners were delegates and others in Orlando, Fla., for the AAFP Congress of Delegates.
AAFP officers reviewed the FFM project and its recommendations. The leaders highlighted the new model of care, which includes giving patients a personal medical home, using advanced information systems and offering family medicine's basket of services. "If no one in your practice does obstetrics, ask your patient who calls in and says she's pregnant to come in for a visit, and talk to her about prenatal care," said (then) President-elect Mary Frank, M.D., of Mill Valley, Calif. "Don't just turn her loose in the system; don't just give her a list of OB-Gyns. Get her an appointment with one."
The AAFP leaders discussed the impact of the report from the FFM project's sixth task force. The report, to be printed in the November/December Annals of Family Medicine, focuses on reimbursement and shows how using the new model could help FPs increase their productivity. That would give FPs more time for patients or, if they chose, for their personal lives.
"The findings of Task Force 6 validate that the new model of care will make a difference in our ability to do better financially," said (then) AAFP President Michael Fleming, M.D., of Shreveport, La.
(Then) AAFP Board Chair James Martin, M.D., of San Antonio agreed, saying, "The Task Force 6 report makes a model that shows this is what happens to your practice (in the new model of care), this is what it'll cost you to implement it in terms of time and staff, and this is what happens to reimbursement. I promise the employers will love this (new model of care), and the employers will pressure the insurers to make this happen. We've got to start working with employers."
Delegate Michael Fine, M.D., of North Scituate, R.I., one of several FPs with questions, objected that there was an almost absolute absence of research on the cost-effectiveness of the new model. "One of the challenges of the new model will be to get them (new model practices) going and then to test their cost-effectiveness," said Fine.
That research is on the way, Martin suggested. "BlueCross BlueShield leaders feel this (new model) will be so successful that they want to support 200 practices and help them move forward and do the (cost-effectiveness) research."
EVP Douglas Henley, M.D., said the AAFP Board of Directors would soon consider a plan for rolling out the new model of care. "Assuming the Board approves the business plan, then early next year, we'll put out a request for proposals, and from 10 to 20 practices will be selected to participate in the pilot," said Henley. A practice resources center would advise and assist the pilot participants. "We'll develop a list of services we can offer based on the results of the demonstration project," said Henley, "and then we'll offer the services to our members moving toward the new model."
FP Report is
published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2004 by American Academy of Family Physicians.