The Changing Face of Primary Care- An Overview
                     
The Changing Face of Primary Care: An Overview
The shortage of PCPs in the United States has been a well-publicized and well-documented issue. However, the 
solutions to the various issues faced by primary care in the country have been obscure even after the 
implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The complications in finding the solutions to the challenges faced 
by primary care stem from factors ranging from policy reform to changing demographics. According to a New 
England Health Institute report, primary care in the country is facing a crisis due to the shortage of PCPs and 
the increase in demand for such physicians.
Factors Complicating Primary Care Physician’s Tasks
According to a report by the American Medical Association one of the biggest challenges faced by primary care 
physicians is the increasing number of visits by elderly patients. The report clarifies that the average visit 
duration has increased due to the fact that an increasing chunk of the total visits by adults to PCPs is to elderly 
patients. The report also specifies numerous factors that complicate the tasks faced by PCPs in the country, 
such as the need for PCPs to balance acute care and preventive care, the increasing diversity of the population, 
and, the recent changes and expanding choices in drug therapy.
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The Changing Face of Primary Care: An Overview
The Impact of Reforms
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has numerous provisions that are applicable to it and some of 
the crucial ones are providing pay-for-performance models, expanding access to primary care services, and 
models that transition primary care practices away from fee-for-service based reimbursement and toward 
comprehensive payment or salary-based payment. The Act also lays out financial policies that promote 
systematic coordination of care by primary care physicians across the full spectrum of specialties and sites of 
care, such as medical homes, pay-for-performance programs, and capitation arrangements. Section 5405 
clarifies the Primary Care Extension Program under the Act and provides support and assistance to primary 
care providers, in order to enable providers to integrate such matters into their practice and to improve 
community health by working with community-based health connectors.
The Impact of Health IT
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has released a report which concludes that the
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The Changing Face of Primary Care: An Overview
implementation of health IT measures in relation to primary care workflows has resulted in gains in 
productivity and patient volumes, and decreases in various practice expenses. Other conclusions include a 
need for emphasis on relationships with software vendors and a need for financial alignment between those 
stakeholders paying for EHRs and those receiving potential benefits.
Outsource Primary Care Billing Services to MedicalBillersandCoders
In light of the many challenges faced by PCPs and the need for integration of this new system, a holistic and 
professional approach towards the various aspects of it is required for avoiding complications stemming from 
the various challenges discussed above. The integration in the form of better revenue cycle management, 
improved payer interaction, and optimum utilization of Health IT can only be achieved with the assistance of 
dedicated professionals who are experienced in these fields. For more information about the integration of 
Health IT services, EMR/EHR implementation, better revenue cycle management, efficient payer interaction, 
and medical billing and coding services, please visit medicalbillersandcoders.com, the largest consortium of 
medical billers and coders in the United States.
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The Changing Face of Primary Care: An Overview
If your revenue cycle management processes are standing in the way of you providing these services, 
contact us at MBC to learn how we can help. Our experienced teams can help alleviate medical coding and 
billing concerns so you can focus more on patients.
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