PCC, National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions and Purchaser Business Group on Health announce new attributes of advanced primary care
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO, December 1, 2020—The Primary Care Collaborative (PCC), the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions (National Alliance) and the Purchaser (formerly Pacific) Business Group on Health (PBGH), announced today ways the Shared Principles of Primary Care can be applied and realized in practice. These organizations jointly released a new set of attributes to characterize advanced primary care (APC), a practice that shifts the focus of primary care toward quality.
The attributes further develop the Shared Principles, created by over 100 organizations under the auspices of the PCC and FMAHealth and introduced in October 2017. To date, more than 350 organizations representing diverse healthcare stakeholders have adopted them. As employer groups, the National Alliance and PBGH have each developed employer-identified attributes of APC that were brought together by the PCC and aligned.
The announcement of the APC practice attributes was made by Elizabeth Mitchell, PBGH’s President and CEO, in the closing keynote address of the PCC’s annual conference, held online Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. In her announcement, Mitchell outlined how employer-identified attributes of APC conform to the Shared Principles and explained the new set of APC characteristics.
The three organizations see the set of attributes as a next step on the path to achieving APC. The PCC expects that these attributes will evolve as other stakeholders in primary care learn about them and seek to leverage them in their work to transform primary care delivery and payment. The work ahead includes developing ways to assess if a primary care practice has achieved APC according to these new attributes, including measures reported by and about patients, as input into purchasing and contracting decisions.
The seven new attributes of APC include: enhanced access for patients; optimize time with patients; realigned payment methods; organizational and infrastructure backbone; disciplined focus on whole-person health; behavioral health integration; and referral and care management. The document shows how these attributes align with each Shared Principle, which include comprehensive and equitable and team-based and collaborative.
In addition to being rooted in the Shared Principles of Primary Care, the set of attributes was developed out of the National Alliance’s “Improving Healthcare Value with Advanced Primary Care” and PBGH’s “Advanced Primary Care: Defining a Shared Standard.”
Statements from the leaders of the three organizations issuing the Attributes of Advanced Primary Care:
Ann Greiner, President and CEO of the Primary Care Collaborative:
“We applaud the leadership of the PBGH and the National Alliance, who understand that primary care is the foundation of a high-value health system. The articulation of practice attributes is critical to turning our vision for advanced primary care into reality. We are pleased that the attributes focus on comprehensive, whole-person care and recognize that we will not achieve this unless we both invest more in primary care and pay primary care differently.”
Michael Thompson, President and CEO of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions:
“Investing more in primary care makes sense as long as we define what we are purchasing. For example, it is not advanced primary care unless behavioral health is being integrated into the practice.”
Elizabeth Mitchell, President and CEO of the Pacific Business Group on Health:
“PBGH’s jumbo employer members understand that primary care is essential to a healthy workforce and that primary care practices need resources to provide optimal care. Advanced primary care as defined by these attributes will help to ensure that our employees stay healthy and that front-line, community-based physicians have the support and resources needed to provide essential preventive services and chronic disease management within communities. COVID-19 has exposed how vulnerable our primary care system is and the need to dramatically increase our investment in primary care.”
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In the Primary Care Collaborative, the following is available for comment about the announcement:
- Ann Greiner, Primary Care Collaborative President and CEO
To arrange for an interview, contact:
Stephen Padre
Communications Manager, Primary Care Collaborative
spadre@thepcc.org
202-417-3911
About the Primary Care Collaborative
About the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions
The National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions (National Alliance) is the only nonprofit, purchaser-led organization with a national and regional structure dedicated to driving health and healthcare value across the country. Its members represent private and public sector, nonprofit, and Taft-Hartley organizations, and more than 45 million Americans, spending over $300 billion annually on healthcare. To learn more, visit nationalalliancehealth.org and connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
About the Purchaser (formerly Pacific) Business Group on Health
PBGH is a coalition of large private employers and public institutions dedicated to transforming health care throughout the country with innovative strategies to improve health care quality and control costs. Representing 41 public and private organizations across the U.S that collectively spend $100 billion annually purchasing health care services for more than 15 million Americans, PBGH has a long history of developing, incubating and launching successful operational programs on behalf of and in partnership with large employers. PBGH exclusively represents the interests of large employers and public institutions buying health care services on behalf of working Americans and their families.
