Innovations in Primary Care: What’s in the ACA?

December 13, 2010

One of the goals of the Affordable Care Act is improving the quality of health care while also slowing the growth of spending. This will not be easy as 30+ million individuals gain insurance and the need for chronic care coordination increases with an aging population.

In order to meet this challenge, the law aims to move the health care system away from an episodic, fee-for-service approach and towards a coordinated, preventive model of care delivery.

Important to this effort are primary care providers, who will serve as the focal point for new models such as the patient-centered medical home and the accountable care organization. The nature of these new systems of care delivery will depend in turn on a variety of factors, including the design of payment incentives, the involvement of Medicare and the private sector, the impact of state initiatives and the lessons learned from the various pilot programs authorized by the law. This briefing will explore these and other important topics.

How does the ACA support primary care? What strategies are being pursued to build the capacity of the provider workforce? How will payment reforms affect the delivery of care? What roles will states and purchasers play in this effort?

To address these questions and others, the Alliance and The Commonwealth Fund sponsored a December 13 briefing. Panelists were: Kevin Grumbach, University of California, San Francisco; Paul Grundy, IBM; Craig Jones, Vermont Blueprint for Health; and Jeffrey Schiff, Minnesota Department of Human Services. Melinda Abrams of The Commonwealth Fund and Ed Howard of the Alliance co-moderated.

Transcript

Full Transcript (Adobe Acrobat PDF)

Speaker Presentations

Melinda Abrams Presentation (PowerPoint)
Kevin Grumbach Presentation (PowerPoint)
Craig Jones Presentation (PowerPoint)
Jeffrey Schiff Presentation (PowerPoint)
Paul Grundy Presentation (PowerPoint)

Event Details

Agenda (Adobe Acrobat PDF)
Speaker Biographies (Adobe Acrobat PDF)

Event Resources