“Tell me you don't know how to support primary care without telling me you don't know how to support primary care.”

That's what I thought as I read a recent article¹ describing how a major medical center, facing a shortage of primary care physicians, came up with a solution to better serve their patient population who couldn't access primary care. It's a common problem, and I like hearing how our colleagues around the country are trying to solve it. But here's the paragraph that deflated me:

“Faced with that gap [in access to primary care], the health system is introducing … a service that gives patients around-the-clock access to virtual primary care through an artificial intelligence [AI] platform developed with New York City-based [company].”

A BETTER SOLUTION

Listen, I get it. When faced with a problem as large and complex as lack of access to care, health systems are desperate for a solution. Plus, AI is a sexy topic right now. But here's an even better solution: To better support primary care, we need to better support primary care!

Sometimes I feel like a broken record as I restate these facts, but they need to be said again:

• Every dollar invested in primary care can result in $13 of downstream savings,²

• Less than 5% of health care spending in 2022 went to primary care,³ and we could more than double that spend because the savings would pay for the extra investment,⁴

• Primary care not only saves money; statistically, when an area has more primary care physicians, quality of care also improves.⁵

Up-front investment in real family doctors (not AI chatbots) is not easy, but the payoff is clearly worth it. And patients want it: Those with access to primary care are more satisfied.⁶

We need our health care administrators and policymakers to see how treating primary care as more than just the “front door” to the health system can benefit the entire system. We are not just another cost center on a profit-and-loss statement. We are the best strategy to save money and improve care. We make our patients and communities happy and healthy.

HOW TO CONVINCE THEM

I wonder if what might help win over the hearts and minds of our administrators and policymakers is what I just experienced at FMX in Anaheim, Calif. — energized family physicians. Every year after attending the American Academy of Family Physicians' annual conference, I feel energized not only about my own patients and the updated clinical tools I get to bring back to my practice, but for what family doctors do. We are the most versatile tool in the health care toolshed. From hospital wards to the exam room, from the emergency department to the nursing facility, from the streets with the unhoused to the computer screen with telehealth, we are improving the care of our communities one person at a time. Maybe I drank the Kool-Aid, as they say, but one thing is for sure: I love family medicine.