PCC webinar: Matching Patients to Primary Care to Drive Better Health

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s landmark report, Implementing High-Quality Primary Care, recommends "all individuals should have the opportunity to have a usual source of primary care” and suggests a role for payers in making this a reality. When patients are matched to a primary care practice or individual, preventive and pro-active care, care coordination, and trusted relationships are possible. Matching patients to an individual or team is also necessary in value-based payment models. In this webinar, an expert panel discusses proven strategies for increasing patient matching to primary care practices and how purchasers and payers can increase the share of enrollees with a usual source of care.

Thanks to Ann Kempski for planning and implementing all aspects of this webinar.

Resources related to patient empanelment/patient matching in primary care 

Person-Centered Care: Why Taking Individuals’ Care Preferences into Account Matters (spoken about during the webinar by panelist Brandon Wilson)
from the Center for Consumer Engagement in Health Innovation (at Community Catalyst)

A Primary Care Physician for Every American, Science Panel Urges by Noam Levey  

Higher Primary Care Physician Continuity is Associated with Lower Costs and Hospitalizations by Bazemore, et al.  

Tracking Progress on Person-Centered Care for Older Adults: How Are We Doing? by Center for Consumer Engagement in Health Innovation and LeadingAge LTSS Center at UMass Boston. A survey of Americans over the age of 50 finds stark racial and income disparities in whether patients’ care preferences are taken into account by healthcare providers.  

Racial and Ethnic Inequities in Health Care Coverage and Access, 2013-2019 Analysis conducted by the Commonwealth Fund indicates the share of Black and Hispanic adults with a usual source of care—defined as a personal doctor or other healthcare clinician such as a health clinic where someone would usually go if they were sick—rose almost 4 percentage points between 2013 and 2019. This modestly reduced disparities with White adults, who are most likely to have a usual source of care among the three groups, but Whites have experienced a slight decline since 2019. The improvement on this key measure stalled for Blacks and Hispanics after 2016 and is attributed primarily to a stall in the number of states that have expanded Medicaid.

How States Are Using Comprehensive Medicaid Managed Care to Strengthen and Improve Primary Health Careby Rosenbaum, et al., 2020 (for Commonwealth Fund). 
A review of state Medicaid contract language relating to primary care suggests wide variation in state approaches to ensuring and encouraging primary care access.  

Primary Health Care That Works: The Costa Rican Experience by Pesec, et al. With multi-disciplinary teams that serve geographically empaneled populations, Costa Rica built a robust system of primary care. The proportion of the population with access to primary care increased from 25% to 93%.