Statement attributable to:
Omar T. Atiq, MD, MACP
President, American College of Physicians
WASHINGTON March 19, 2024 – The American College of Physicians (ACP) is encouraged by the news that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation is going to begin testing a new practice model designed to support primary care medicine. ACP has advocated for testing new models that would better support primary care practices. We are glad to see that the ACO Primary Care Flex Model is going to test the impact of increased funding for primary care on health outcomes, quality, and cost of care within the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). This new practice model is both important and promising because primary care medicine has been demonstrated to improve health and life expectancy, and reduce costs. However, despite these proven benefits, primary care medicine is in crisis. We need to improve financial support and innovative practice redesign in order to help attract new physicians to primary care and make this a more sustainable career path for primary care physicians in practice. ACP looks forward to reviewing the details of the model when they are released and working with CMS to ensure that the financial support for this model reaches the primary care practices that need it.
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About the American College of Physicians
The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization in the United States with members in more than 145 countries worldwide. ACP membership includes 161,000 internal medicine physicians, related subspecialists, and medical students. Internal medicine physicians are specialists who apply scientific knowledge and clinical expertise to the diagnosis, treatment, and compassionate care of adults across the spectrum from health to complex illness. Follow ACP on X, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Contact: Jacquelyn Blaser, (202) 261-4572, jblaser@acponline.org