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WASHINGTON Primary care needs an overhaul if it is going to work the way that it should in the U.S., according to a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. High-quality primary care is the foundation of a high-functioning healthcare system and is critical for achieving healthcare s quadruple aim (enhancing patient experience, improving population health, reducing costs, and improving the healthcare team experience), noted the 449-page report. Yet, 25 years since the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report
Primary Care: America s Health in a New Era, this foundation remains weak and under-resourced, accounting for 35% of healthcare visits while receiving only about 5% of healthcare expenditures. Moreover, the foundation is crumbling: visits to primary care clinicians are declining, and the workforce pipeline is shrinking, with clinicians opting to specialize in more lucrative healthcare fields.
Samuel T. Edwards, MD, MPH; Elizabeth R. Hooker, MS, MPH; Rebecca Brienza, MD, MPH; Bridget O’Brien, PhD; Hyunjee Kim, PhD; Stuart Gilman, MD; Nancy Harada, PhD, PT; Lillian Gelberg, MD, MSPH; Sarah Shull, PhD; Meike Niederhausen, PhD; Samuel King, MS, MDiv; Elizabeth Hulen, MA; Mamta K. Singh, MD, MS; Anaïs Tuepker, PhD, MPH
Twenty-seven years ago, the Institute of Medicine launched a primary care consensus study that, at the time, seemed highly aligned with the country’s appetite for health reform and managed care.
Primary Care: America’s Health in a New Era produced a primary care definition still used around the world; however, the report’s recommendations received no traction in the US. Similarly, a 2012 Institute of Medicine report on the integration of primary care and public health largely went unheeded.
Background
On December 13, 2016, the 21st Century Cures Act (the “Cures Act”) was signed into law and made changes to the Public Health Service Act related to health information technology. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (“ONC”), at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”), is the principal federal entity charged with coordination of efforts to implement advanced health information technology and the electronic exchange of health information. On May 1, 2020, ONC issued the Cures Act final rule, which implements provisions of the Cures Act designed to advance interoperability, support the exchange, access, and use of electronic health information (“EHI”) and address information blocking.
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Since last year, the Husch Blackwell privacy attorneys have been working with various healthcare providers from hospitals to hospices, to independent physician groups to comply with the Information Blocking rule (the Rule) implemented by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) as part of the 21st Century Cures Act. Recently, Education clients have been asking, “We’re a university – does the Information Blocking rule apply to our student health center?” We discuss the answer to that question, along with practice tips, in this blog post.
Carl Byers is a partner at F-Prime Capital. He teaches finance at Harvard University and was previously the CFO of Athenahealth from its founding through IPO.
Why can we see all our bank, credit card and brokerage data on our phones instantaneously in one app, yet walk into a doctor’s office blind to our healthcare records, diagnoses and prescriptions? Our health status should be as accessible as our checking account balance.
The liberation of financial data enabled by startups like Plaid is beginning to happen with healthcare data, which will have an even more profound impact on society; it will save and extend lives. This accessibility is quickly approaching.