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Featured blog post: Primary care and healthcare reform-Where do we fit in?

Hospitalist Leadership Connection, July 7, 2009

In the healthcare reform discussion, one thing that most people agree on is the need to revamp primary care and primary care reimbursement. One congressional committee has published a discussion draft on the House healthcare reform bill.

This bill calls for increasing Medicare reimbursement by 5% (10% if the physician practices in an area defined as a health professional shortage area) for primary care services. These services are defined as evaluation and management services, including new and established patient office visits and “other physicians services as the Secretary determines are associated with ensuring accessible, continuous, coordinated, and comprehensive care for individuals enrolled under this part.”

The Bill defines primary care practitioners as physicians who a) specialize in family medicine, general internal medicine, general pediatrics, or geriatrics AND b) have allowed charges for defined primary care services that account for at least 50% of their total allowed charges. . . Read more of this post by Kirk Mathews, MBA, on HospitalistLeadership.com.

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