Picture doctors with the tools they need to truly enhance care. Teams of top-notch care-givers, primary care physicians, specialists, care managers, dieticians, health educators and nurses. Sharing vital information and treatment knowledge.

Picture patients at the center, surrounded by coordination and communication. Their medical information where they need it, when they need it, accurately recorded in a single medical record. Getting the care they need to stay healthy and the best treatments to help them return to health when they are ill.

Picture health care that works for everyone. Promoting wellness and providing the most appropriate treatments, resulting in healthier people, and in turn, reducing the cost burden on the entire system.

At Accountable Physician Practices and multispecialty medical groups across the country, this picture is already a reality.

And we’re only just beginning to make the case.

A recent report from Dartmouth published in Health Affairs concludes: “Instead of financing further growth in our medical education system, resources might be better directed to reorganizing delivery systems to models of FFS [Fee-For-Service] and prepaid group practice that have already demonstrated that they can deliver good care at relatively low costs.”
“End-Of-Life Care At Academic Medical Centers: Implications For Future Workforce Requirements,” by David C. Goodman, Thérèse A. Stukel, Chiang-hua Chang, and John E. Wennberg. Health Affairs, March 2006, Volume 25, No. 2.

“CAPP’s 35 MSMGs [multispecialty medical groups] share a common vision as learning organizations dedicated to the improvement of clinical care. Their features include physician leadership and governance; commitment to evidence-based care management processes; well-developed quality improvement systems; team-based care; the use of advance clinical information technology; and the collection, analysis, and distribution of clinical performance information. These features are congruent with the [Institute of Medicine’s] recommendations on key elements needed to redesign delivery systems.”

From Chapter 5, “Developing the Test Bed—Linking Integrated Service Delivery Systems: Council of Accountable Physician Practices,” by Michael A. Mustile, MD. The Learning Healthcare System: Workshop Summary (IOM Roundtable on Evidence-Based Medicine), edited by LeighAnne Olsen, Dara Aisner, and J. Michael McGinnis, National Academies Press, 2007.

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“A shift from the current care model to a more coordinated care model centered on primary care is one potential way to help stave off the healthcare dilemma.”

“It's too expensive to be a primary-care doctor,” by Debra A. Geihsler, president and CEO of Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates & Atrius Health. Boston Globe, July 25, 2007.

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Medicare Payment Advisory Committee’s March 2007 Report to the Congress: “In three of the four [metropolitan statistical] areas, beneficiaries whose main physician was in multispecialty or hospital-affiliated groups had lower average annual spending than beneficiaries whose main physician was in solo or single-specialty groups. At the highest quintile of spending, all four areas show lower average spending for beneficiaries whose main physicians were in multispecialty or hospital-affiliated groups.”

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