Act now to save the future of primary care
In 2009, we face a severe economic contraction that threatens the foundation for future prosperity in Michigan. Health care costs act as a massive weight that this foundation can no longer support. Each year, millions of people lose coverage (or have their coverage reduced) and, as a result, lose access to vital healthcare services.

This is a true crisis, and we must act immediately.

In order to respond, we must rapidly build a strong, effective primary care base that will be a successful steward of health care resources and substantially reduce unwarranted use of services. To this end, primary care physicians must assume a broader role to help ensure that patients receive only the care they need from specialists and hospitals, and not more.

Doing so, however, leads us to a second crisis. In the past, we have failed to reinforce and maintain our primary care base; yet, we want to build the future on that base. As a result, we must invest now in primary care. How we do so is up to us, but all potential solutions present difficulties.

We must partner with patients to help them embrace healthy lifestyles, increase generic prescribing, assure judicious use of diagnostic tests and treatments, and provide proactive and coordinated care.

In short, we need to implement the patient centered medical home in a way that delivers much more than is possible under our current systems of care which are supported by outdated reimbursement models.

If we are successful in 2009 and beyond, then primary care incomes should rise as healthcare costs fall.