Major American employers united with major physician groups to form a Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC). The Collaborative is the product of many months of discussion among employers, physicians and consumers on how they can work together to advance a model of care, called the patient-centered medical home, that would transform how primary care is organized and financed to provide better outcomes to patients, more appropriate payment to physicians, and better value, accountability and transparency to purchasers and consumers.

The views of the Collaborative were revealed in a joint statement submitted for the record of a hearing of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health on reform of Medicare physician payments:

"The Collaborative believes that, if implemented, the patient centered medical home will improve the health of patients and the health care delivery system. In order to accomplish our goal, employers, consumers, physicians and payers have agreed that it is essential to support a better model of compensating physicians. Compensation under the patient centered medical home would incorporate enhanced access and communications, improve coordination of care, expand administrative and quality innovations and promote active patient and family involvement.

The Patient-Centered Medical Home model will also engage patients and their families in positive ongoing relationships with their personal physicians. Further, the patient-centered medical home will improve the quality of health care delivered and help control the unsustainable rising costs of healthcare for both individuals and plan-sponsors."

Members included: Physicians: the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, and the American Osteopathic Association, collectively representing 330,000 physicians and medical students that deliver primary care services nationwide; Other Health Care Organizations: the National Association of Community Health Centers, representing more than 1,000 Federally Qualified Health Centers which serve 16 million people in medically under-served communities through 5,000 sites; Business: The ERISA Industry Committee, Exelon Corp, General Motors, IBM, National Business Group on Health, Walgreens Strategic Health Initiatives, and Wyeth, representing companies that employ over 50 million Americans, and the HR Policy Association representing the vice presidents of human resources of major American companies.

Several major consumer and patient advocacy groups, and additional employer and physician groups, are expected to endorse the joint statement and become members of the Collaborative in the very near future.

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Contacts:

Ted Godbout
Manager, Communications
The ERISA Industry Committee

Gina Jesberg
Communications Manager
Global Healthcare and Life Sciences
IBM

Contact: David Kinsman
American College of Physicians

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