Professional Issues

Photo of AAFP President Jim King, M.D., at an April update meeting of the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative

AAFP President Jim King, M.D., extolls the virtues of the medical home model of care to participants at the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative stakeholders' meeting. But it won't happen, he adds, without the right payment system.

Primary Care Collaborative Takes Action to Change Payment Systems

(05/14/2008) -- At an April 16 stakeholders meeting in Washington, the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, or PCPCC, of which the AAFP is a founding member, unveiled four project centers it has formed to integrate the patient-centered medical home into public and private payer systems. More

Budget Impasse Forces Some Physicians to Pay More for Liability Insurance

(04/29/2008) -- An impasse between the governor of Pennsylvania and that state's legislature has temporarily derailed a medical liability abatement program, thus forcing many Pennsylvania physicians to pay a higher rate for medical liability insurance. "Family physicians are now required to pay anywhere from $1,500 to $2,500 in additional liability costs that would have been abated had the program been reauthorized by the state legislature," said Andrew Sandusky, vice president of governmental affairs at the Pennsylvania AFP. More

Colorado Physicians, Trial Lawyers Tangle on Liability Measure

(04/16/2008) -- Colorado physicians have been engaged in an ongoing battle with that state's trial lawyers regarding a bill that would dramatically increase the amount of money patients and their trial attorneys can collect in malpractice awards. In March, the Colorado Senate narrowly passed S.B. 164, a bill supported by the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association that would raise the cap on noneconomic damages in civil suits by 50 percent to more than $450,000. More

Experts Call for Integration of Primary Care With Mental Health, Substance Abuse Services

(04/16/2008) -- The patient-centered medical home should purposefully include mental health and substance abuse services to improve patient care and reduce costs, said the director of the AAFP's Robert Graham Center during a primary care forum in Washington on March 29. More

Joint Commission Proposes Change in Medication Management

AAFP Objects to Retrospective Pharmacist Review

(04/09/2008) -- The AAFP has voiced objections to a new medication management standard for hospital emergency departments proposed by The Joint Commission, the accrediting organization for more than 15,000 health care organizations and programs throughout the nation. More

New Ohio Law Levels Playing Field for Physicians, Insurers

(04/02/2008) -- Ohio recently became the latest state to enact legislation requiring insurance companies to spell out the exact terms and conditions of their contracts with physicians. Ohio's Healthcare Simplification Act attempts to level the playing field between insurance companies and physicians by providing transparency and fairness in contracts and by creating a standardized credentialing form for use by all insurers. The Ohio law is based, in large part, on a similar transparency law enacted in Colorado in March 2007. More

Patient Charter Signals Change in Physician Performance Reporting

Health Plans Agree to National Set of Principles

(04/02/2008) -- Some of the largest health insurance plans in the United States have agreed to adhere to a national set of principles for collecting and reporting physician performance measurements to consumers. More

GAO Report

Primary Care Emphasis Relies on Payment Reform Measures

(02/27/2008) -- The nation's reliance on a fee-for-service payment system has resulted in an "atomized and uncoordinated system of care that rewards expensive procedure-based services while undervaluing primary care services," according to a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, or GAO. More