Primary care physicians should exert broader control in managing their patients’ chronic diseases and be compensated accordingly for their enhanced role in overall care coordination, a new study from the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions concludes.
According to the report, The Medical Home: Disruptive Innovation for a New Primary Care Model, expanding the oversight and treatment role of primary care physicians could mean short-term financial pain for hospitals and some health plans, and could aggravate the current manpower shortage without broadening the scope of ancillary providers’ practice. But the study also found that the long-range benefit is clear. Pressure to adopt a medical home approach is driven by two critical factors--the shrinking number of primary care physicians and the growing incidence/prevalence of chronic disease among the U.S. population. Download the report.
