Dr. Coleman encouraged hospitalists to learn more about the Community-Based Care Transition Program, an initiative created under the Affordable Care Act, which provides grants for hospitals to collaborate with community partners. "I think that this is an opportunity for not only hospitals, but hospitalists, to begin taking an even greater leadership role" in what the hospitals can do and what hospitals can do very well with their partners, he said.
Dr. Williams agreed that partnerships with community physicians are a big part of the future of hospital medicine. But payers will have to step up and begin to reimburse physicians for doing that work, he said. For instance, insurers could pay hospitalists to call primary care physicians. "It would be fascinating to have some experiments with this to see how they impact continuity of care and utilization overall," Dr. Williams said.