Infectious Disease

ACP shares its plan to improve health care

April 29, 2021

2 min read

Source / information

Source:
Doherty R. ACP’s Five Part Plan to Fix US Healthcare Problems. Presented at: ACP Internal Medicine Meeting; April 29 – May 1, 2021 (virtual meeting).

Disclosure:
Doherty does not report any relevant financial information.

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Better health care benefits both patients and doctors. However, further efforts are needed to achieve this goal, according to a speaker at the AKP internal medicine meeting.

Robert Doherty, The company’s senior vice president of government affairs and public order said an ACP survey found many problems with the United States health system, including costing too much, leaving too many uncovered, undervaluing primary care, and the relationship between physicians and undermines the patient.

“The US health system is failing many Americans,” said Doherty. “America, it’s time to question the status quo.”

He discussed a five-point plan that the ACP countries had launched in January 2020 to meet this challenge.

Ensure

The first part of the ACP plan, according to Doherty, is to move to a pay-per-fund approach or a publicly funded coverage option, as well as a regulated private health insurance industry to ensure that all Americans have health insurance.

“Both a payer and a public choice model have advantages and disadvantages, but both are better than our current system,” said Doherty.

Until such a transition can take place President Joe Bidens According to Doherty, the American Rescue Plan Act supports many of the strategies called for by ACP, including incentives to expand Medicaid, provide postpartum coverage to Medicaid recipients for 12 months after childbirth, and increase premium subsidies.

Remove

The plan also provides “to remove unnecessary, inefficient billing and reporting requirements immediately and remove administrative barriers,” said Doherty.

The financial savings, which Doherty said could reach $ 628 billion, should be diverted into health insurance and research into interventions that successfully address the social determinants of health. Removing the barriers, billing issues and unnecessary reports could also give doctors up to 60 more hours a week to spend with their patients, he added.

Invest

Studies show that primary care is linked to decreases in health care spending, higher levels of satisfaction, fewer hospital stays, and lower mortality rates. Yet, according to Doherty, only 5% to 7% of health care spending is invested in basic services.

He therefore called for “greater investment in medical-led teams in basic and comprehensive care”.

Challenge

Doherty said the next part of the plan is to rise to the challenge of addressing discrimination, racism and social factors linked to poor health outcomes. This requires more investment in the country’s public health infrastructure, research and policy interventions.

“Everyone must have access to affordable coverage and health care and must not be discriminated against,” said Doherty.

Prioritize

The final part of the plan is to prioritize public health to address “current and emerging challenges,” said Doherty.

“Think for a magical moment whether ACP’s plan for health care is now in place,” Doherty said. “Nobody would have lost health insurance because they lost a job. Nobody could have afforded tests. ”

Prioritizing public health could also help combat gun violence and climate change, he said.

Call to action

Doherty ended his presentation by encouraging doctors to support the plan, saying the need for it was “even truer today” than it was 15 months ago.

“Better is possible and ACP’s vision shows the way,” he said.

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Meeting of the American College of Physicians for Internal Medicine

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