Featured Publications

Developing A Strong Primary Care Workforce
April 2009 – Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation
"On April 20, 2009, the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation convened a small meeting in Washington, DC that focused on the future of the nation's primary care workforce.  Among those in attendance were individuals from four organizations with expertise in primary care and prevention.  The participants expressed their concern that most of the health care reform discussion has focused on financial issues, with too little attention on the workforce that will provide health care.  The group articulated seven recommendations that should be implemented to advance the health of the nation.  The brief presents these recommendations with a discussion about the rationale for each."
To download a copy of the summary report, click here.
To visit the Macy Foundation website for this and other relevant publications, click here.

House Committee on Education and Labor Holds Hearing on the Tri-Committee Draft Proposal for Health Care Reform
June 23, 2009 – Washington, D.C.
"On June 23, The House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on the forthcoming draft proposal for health care reform developed by the House Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Education and Labor Committees. The draft proposal is designed to achieve President Obama's goals of controlling health care costs, preserving health care choices, and ensuring quality, affordable health care for all Americans."
For complete information on the hearing including witness testimonies, click here.
To watch Dr. Mullan's testimony on workforce, click here.

A Lifeline for Primary Care
June 25, 2009 - New England Journal of Medicine
"Primary care in the United States needs a lifeline. In 2009, for the 12th straight year, the number of graduating U.S. medical students choosing primary care residencies reached dismally low levels.1 Overloaded primary care practices, whose doctors are aptly compared to hamsters on a treadmill, struggle to provide prompt access and high-quality care. Three major factors contribute to this crisis."  Read More...

A Health Care Cooperative Extension Service: Transforming Primary Care and Community Health
June 25, 2009 – Journal of the American Medical Association
Primary care is the essential foundation for an effective, efficient, and equitable health care system. Calls to rebuild the crumbling primary care infrastructure in the United States are reaching receptive ears, with public and private advisory groups including the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission and the National Business Group on Health recommending increased payments for primary care.  Policy makers expect that new investments will transform primary care by creating more effective and efficient patient-centered medical homes. The primary care physician community acknowledges the need for new practice models that provide accessible, comprehensive, integrated care based on healing relationships over time."  Read More…

Factors That Influence Physicians to Practice in Rural Locations: A Review and Commentary
Summer 2009 – Journal of Rural Health
"Rural populations remain underserved by physicians, despite various efforts by medical schools and other institutions/organizations to correct this disparity. We examined the literature on factors that influence rural practice location decisions by physicians to determine what opportunities exist along the entire educational pipeline to entice physicians to, and retain them in, rural areas. Results reported in the literature favor a multidisciplinary or multi-faceted approach that results in more residents and physicians locating their practices in rural areas. The need to define proven strategies is not the pressing issue; rather, the needs are to define the commitments necessary to implement proven strategies, as well as the will to make physician distribution a priority issue in medical education."  Read More…

MedPAC Releases Report on Medicare Payment Policy
June 15, 2009 – Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
"Today the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) releases its June 2009 Report to the Congress: Improving Incentives in the Medicare Program.  MedPAC's report focuses on how incentives in the Medicare payment systems could be changed to strengthen the Medicare program and promote quality care for Medicare beneficiaries." 
To read the press release, click here.
To read the full report, click here.