2012: Year in Review

2012 was a tumultuous year for health care and family physicians. The beginning of the year saw several legal assaults on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which eventually ended with a Supreme Court decision that the majority of the act passed constitutional muster. But movement forward on the ACA bogged down as the presidential election drew near. The re-election of President Obama seemed to settle the question somewhat, and CMS actively moved forward with setting deadlines.

This also was the year that the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) seemed to come into its own as it was incorporated into a number of government-funded projects that set higher payment rates for PCMH practices participating in pilot projects. But the lack of medical students going into primary care was cause for concern as pundits looked down the road at the number of uninsured soon to join the ranks of the insured. In response, medical education experts offered suggestions on ways to make primary care more attractive to medical students.

Finally, 2012 also saw a re-emergence of diseases that had all but disappeared thanks to anti-vaccine sentiments that threatened the nation's herd immunity. Consumers also had to be on the lookout for safety problems with drugs, perhaps most notably when contamination in a compounded drug led to 39 deaths.