ACP and other organizations provide a framework for Patient-Centered Care to the House Ways and Means Committee


I applaud the physician organizations, employers and government officals that recognize the need for finally changing our episodic based health care system to an organic system that requires a management on a continuous basis. SV

May 10, 2007 (WASHINGTON) “Congress has an historic opportunity to join with the American College of Physicians (ACP), other physician organizations and employers to redesign Medicare payment policies to provide incentives for patient-centered care,” ACP told the House Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health in a written statement for the record submitted today. Thursday’s hearing was on Options to Improve Quality and Efficiency Among Medicare Physicians.

“ACP today offered a comprehensive plan for Medicare to realign payment policies to support comprehensive, coordinated, and longitudinal care for beneficiaries through a physician-directed, Patient-Centered Medical Home,” noted ACP President David C. Dale, MD, FACP.

“It is a rare opportunity to realign payment incentives to:

help physicians deliver the care that patients need and want;
recognize the value of care managed by a patient’s personal physician;
support the value of primary care medicine in improving outcomes; and
create the systems needed at the physician practice level to deliver the best possible care to patients.”

A Patient-Centered Health Medical home is a physician practice that has gone through a voluntary qualification process to demonstrate that it:

Provides continuous access to a personal primary or principal care physician who accepts responsibility for treating and managing care for the whole patient through an a patient-centered medical home, rather than limiting practice to a single disease condition, organ system, or procedure,

Supports the specific characteristics of care that the evidence shows result in the best possible outcomes for patients.

Recognizes the importance of implementing systems-based approaches that will enable physicians and other clinicians to manage care, in partnership with their patients, and to engage in continuous quality improvement,

Introduces transparency in consumer decision-making and accountability for getting better results by reporting on evidence-based quality, cost and patient experience measures of care.

In March, 2007, ACP, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Osteopathic Association released a joint statement of principles that defines the characteristics of a Patient-Centered Medical Home. The four organizations represent 333,000 physicians and medical students.
The Patient-Centered

A Patient-Centered Health Medical home is a physician practice that has gone through a voluntary qualification process to demonstrate that it:

Provides continuous access to a personal primary or principal care physician who accepts responsibility for treating and managing care for the whole patient through an a patient-centered medical home, rather than limiting practice to a single disease condition, organ system, or procedure,

Supports the specific characteristics of care that the evidence shows result in the best possible outcomes for patients.

Recognizes the importance of implementing systems-based approaches that will enable physicians and other clinicians to manage care, in partnership with their patients, and to engage in continuous quality improvement,

Introduces transparency in consumer decision-making and accountability for getting better results by reporting on evidence-based quality, cost and patient experience measures of care.

ACP