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The discrepancy between compensation paid for family physicians' clinical expertise in maintaining patient health and that paid to procedure-based specialists to treat an unprevented illness may begin to blur in the next decade.
That's because Medicare and managed care officials have begun to acknowledge the higher-quality outcomes and lower costs that result from family physicians' services, said AAFP Board Chair Michael Fleming, M.D., of Shreveport, La.
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MICHAEL FLEMING, M.D.: |
Research consistently demonstrates that "people who have a continuous relationship with a physician have better outcomes with less cost," he said. But as fewer medical students choose family medicine, the prospect for a shortage in primary care looms. Already, rural and inner-city areas have grappled with long-term physician shortages, Fleming observed.
"The only way this situation is going to change and the only way we're going to prevent a crisis in access to care is to value the care that family physicians bring to the system," said Fleming. "The responsibility is on the payers, because if they don't act, there will be a serious issue on access to quality economical care in the future."
Fleming said government and payers have acknowledged their responsibility for changing the system to attract more students to primary care.
"During deliberations for the Future of Family Medicine Task Force 6, we had payers at the table, and they all agreed the responsibility is on them" for changing the system, he continued. "We are hoping that several will agree to demonstration projects that pay for quality and for performance, and that will do exactly what we say should be done in the Future of Family Medicine report. It can't happen soon enough."
To reach writer Leslie Champlin, e-mail lchampli@aafp.org.
FP Report is
published by the AAFP News Department.
Copyright © 2004 by American Academy of Family Physicians.