One aim of the Affordable Care Act was to boost primary care, and one of the law's strategies was to create 10% incentive payments for primary care services provided by some physicians and other practitioners.
Medicare's final rule specifies that primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, and physician assistants whose practices comprise mostly primary care would qualify for the payments as of Jan. 1.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services excluded hospital inpatient care and emergency department work from qualifying practitioners for the incentive. Although many leaders in primary care endorsed the incentive program, several also said that the provision is not without disadvantages and limitations. Dr. Roland Goertz, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, discussed the new primary care incentive program.
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RN: What do qualifying physicians need to do to receive the incentive payments?
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RN: Are there any disadvantages to the provision?
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RN: Will this provision have an impact on the shortage of primary care physicians?
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RN: What is the next step toward addressing the primary care physician shortage?
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Once that has been addressed, we need to continue to close the income gap between primary care and other specialty physicians and continue to implement the patient-centered medical home.
These actions will make the primary care specialty of family medicine more attractive to medical students and will invigorate the primary care medical education process.
The broken Medicare physician payment SGR formula is the most important factor affecting all of medicine.
Source DR. GOERTZ