Stephanie Gold, MD, assistant professor of family medicine, and Larry A. Green, MD, professor of family medicine and Distinguished Professor of the University, at our Farley Health Policy Center, are co-authors of an issue brief on the need for immediate payment reform to sustain and improve primary care.
The brief calls for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to implement value-based payment such as the Primary Care First model for Medicare, with similar guidance for state Medicaid agencies.
The model would allow prospectively paid, risk-adjusted per member per months payments that allow clinicians to provide proper primary care and adapt to challenges. The brief notes that COVID-19 is causing practices to transform the way they provide care, which will require payment flexibility that is not available under traditional fee-for-service systems.
Their co-author on the brief, published by the Milbank Memorial Fund, is former CU faculty member Jack Westfall, MD, MPH.