2011: The Year in Review

Implementation of various components in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 continued in 2011, and the AAFP kept close tabs on how regulators proposed to interpret the law's provisions. The Academy clearly spelled out its positions on a wide range of issues legislators and health policymakers grappled with last year, not least of which were the sustainable growth rate formula used to determine Medicare physician payments and appropriate payment for family physicians and other primary care physicians. But other topics also commanded AAFP members' attention, including achieving meaningful use of electronic health records, working to improve the quality of patient care while holding the line on costs, and further defining the role of family physicians in an ever-evolving health care environment.

AAFP Presidents on Capitol Hill to Discuss SGR, GME Funding

AAFP leaders, from left, Board Chair Roland Goertz, M.D., M.B.A.; President Glen Stream, M.D., M.B.I.; and President-elect Jeffrey Cain, M.D., take a breather on the steps of the Capitol before tackling a day of meetings with Congressional and regulatory staff.

2011: The Year in Review

Medicare Payment Reform, SGR Repeal Top AAFP's Legislative, Advocacy Agenda

(1/5/2012, 4:50 p.m.) -- Medicare payment reform and the need to replace the sustainable growth rate, or SGR, formula continued to drive much of the AAFP's legislative and advocacy efforts in 2011, as the Academy repeatedly pressed Congress for fundamental Medicare payment reform. Academy leaders and staff members met regularly with both lawmakers and their staff members to generate support for payment reform that would accomplish the Academy's three main goals: repeal of the SGR, a specified payment rate for the next three to five years to allow time for various demonstration programs and alternative health care delivery models to generate sufficient data to determine which payment methods make the best fiscal and quality sense, and at least a 3 percent higher payment rate for primary care physicians delivering primary care services. More