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The press release published jointly by the offices of the two senators began thus: “As part of their ongoing work to address primary care challenges and reform physician payment models, U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) released a Request for Information (RFI) to accompany the introduction of the senators’ bipartisan Pay PCPs Act, legislation to better support and improve pay for high-quality primary care providers.” And it quoted the two senators as stating that “Primary care is a critical part of the health care equation. Overwhelming evidence shows that primary care both improves health outcomes for patients and drives down health costs. There are many issues to address in primary care, and we look forward to receiving feedback on our legislation through the RFI to make a meaningful difference to health care success.”
Per that, “The Pay PCPs Act would task the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) with establishing hybrid payments to reward primary care providers who provide the best care to their patients — care that reduces patients’ emergency visits, hospitalizations, excess specialist services, and other big cost drivers — and reward patients with better health outcomes. The bill would provide Medicare beneficiaries with reduced cost-sharing for certain primary care activities and services, and would also create a new technical advisory committee to help CMS more accurately determine Fee Schedule rates.”
As we noted, the leaders of APG expressed strong support for the legislation. And in that regard, Healthcare Innovation Editor-in-Chief interviewed APG’s Susan Dentzer following the announcement of the introduction of the legislation, to get her perspectives on the legislation, and also on the broader issues around empowering physicians to plunge more fully into value-based contracting. Below are excerpts from that interview.