Healthcare system reform has been talked about for many years, but as long as providers and payers (insurance companies) did not support change, little was likely to happen. Patients traditionally have been the most clueless in what to do, which points to the irony and desparate state of conservatives with their Consumer directed health care (CDHC) ideas. What they are saying is let’s put the emphasis on the least qualified group and expect better healthcare. I don’t think so.
Well today I read an important policy document from a group that has a large say in possible reform, The American College of Physicians, and from what I read, I think they are beginning to get it finally!
Some document highlights:
The Solution: A Patient-Centered Health Care System
The solution to such inadequacies is to redirect federal health care policy toward
supporting patient-centered health care that builds upon the relationship between patients
and their primary and principal care physicians and supports the systems needed to
achieve better results. This would involve applying systems-based models that have been
proven to work in other nations’ health systems (adapting them to the unique
circumstances and needs of the United States) and in successful patient-centered health
programs within the U.S.
What is a Patient-Centered Health Care System?
A patient-centered health care system is one that:
* Provides continuous access to a personal primary or principal care physician who
accepts responsibility for treating and managing care for the whole patient
through an advanced medical home (AMH), also known as a patient-centered
medical home,* rather than limiting practice to a single disease condition, organ
system, or procedure,
* Supports the specific characteristics of care that the evidence shows result in the
best possible outcomes for patients.
* Recognizes the importance of implementing systems-based approaches that will
enable physicians and other clinicians to manage care, in partnership with their
patients, and to engage in continuous quality improvement,
* Introduces transparency in consumer decision-making and accountability for
getting better results,
* Creates new financing, reimbursement and delivery models that support the
ability of physicians and patients to provide and receive patient-centered care,
* Assures that all individuals will have access to care through a patient-centered
medical home (PC-MH) by providing affordable health insurance coverage to all
and creating models that will provide everyone with the option of receiving care
through a PC-MH.
I read this document, and am beginning to feel vindicated for many of my views about controlling healthcare at its source and for making everything accountable. I will say that this patient centered care does not look much like CDHC in the least. The primary care provider is in control and is responsible, and I believe that is more realistic!
A proper payment system to cover everyone would still be needed, and if a single payer system is coupled with a primary care patient centered system as talked about in this document, well I believe we would be on our way. The primary care providers would have to be held accountable to standards that both the system and the patients would be aware of. Also, if not enough primary care providers were available to give all a medical home, that would point to the need for more providers, which should then be quickly addressed!
I like this document as a recognition for needed change and part of the blueprint for getting there!.