Posted on 06.14.10 by Executive Vice President

If CAFP's last week is any indication, the movement for adoption of the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) may be reaching critical mass. 

Among the evidence:  1)  The entire May issue of Health Affairs was dedicated to the topic of PCMH and included articles by the leading lights of primary care.  I spotted a legislative staffer in the Capitol toting the two-pound issue with her to our PCMH briefing.  Authors in the issue included our own Kevin Grumbach, MD of UCSF as well as FOFMs (Friends of Family Medicine) Alice Hm Chen, MD, Tom Bodenheimer, MD and Paul Grundy, MD, MPH.  The renowned Barbara Starfield, MD also wrote an article in the issue.  I commend ALL the articles to you. 

2)  Medicare issued a request for letter of intent (LOI) for participation in a six-state demonstration project called the Multi-payer Advanced Primary Care Demonstration Project (naturally it has an acronym:  MAPCP).  CAFP engaged in multiple discussions last week to encourage the State of California (which must submit the LOI) to take the bit in its teeth and at least submit an LOI.  We even have a recommendation of an ideal location for such a demonstration.

3)  Our meetings featuring IBM's Global Director for Health Care Transformation, Paul Grundy, MD, MPH were resounding successes.  We led off with a meeting with Kevin Grumbach, MD, Chair, UCSF Department of Community and Family Medicine to plan a roundtable discussion to discuss the policy implications of PCMH in addressing the health care workforce shortage when Dr. Grundy returns to California on July 12.  The next morning, Director of Health Policy Leah Newkirk and I drove Dr. Grundy to Sacramento where Tom Riley, our legislative advocate, and Adam Francis, legislative assistant, had put together an afternoon briefing in the Capitol for 40-plus legislative staffers and lobbyists about PCMH.  This briefing was co-sponsored by the Senate and Assembly Health Committees and engendered a lively discussion.  That evening, we met with representatives for the Fresno Unified School District, which is interested in a PCMH demonstration for its 25,000 employees.  We discussed the viability of the Fresno area as a potential MAPCP site and planned a second meeting on July 14 for the District and other large employers in the Fresno area.  I have contacted CAFP Board member for the Fresno area district, Adriana Padilla, MD, to discuss with her how to engage local family physicians.  CAFP will undertake a brief survey of FP members in the community to assess their interest as well.  Finally, early Wednesday morning, we met with the chairs of the primary care residency programs at UC Davis.  The meeting was organized through Dr. Tom Balsbaugh, program director for the family medicine residency program, and his staff member, Jim Stutz.  The family medicine residency program in Davis has a number of politically engaged young residents, two of whom attended the meeting. 

4) TransforMED's final report on the national demonstration project was issued.  Was all the news good?  No.  The challenges of transforming physician practices are huge; barriers are significant; but who has a better idea?  Business as usual is not sustainable. 

Meantime, other bases were being covered as well.  Shelly Rodrigues, Deputy Executive Vice President and Callie Langton, Associate Director for Health Care Workforce traveled to Los Angeles to attend the "Building Quality and Equitable Health Care Systems," a conference sponsored by California Pan-Ethnic Health Network.  Shelly and Cynthia Kear, Senior Vice President for External Relations, flew to Chicago on Thursday for a special summit on the anticipated Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies on long-acting opioids while Callie represented CAFP on Friday at the California Health Workforce Alliance meeting in Oakland. 

We're not convinced things are ever going to slow down, not even for the summer season.

We have a full plate again this week in Sacramento working on numerous pieces of legislation we're following closely as well as continuing discussions on the California budget crisis - or at least it used to be a crisis.  Now it just seems as if it's business as usual!

I am pleased to announce two things:  1) CAFP President Jack Chou, MD has ALSO been elected to the California Medical Association Board of Trustees representing the Los Angeles County Medical Association.  How does the guy do it?  2)  Marian Yee will be working with the Academy in the Continuing Professional Development Department for the month of June - if she likes us, she might return on September 1 to work full time. 

On Tuesday evening this week, our Audit Committee will meet to review the draft 2009 audit and management letters for the Academy.  The Audit Committee will make a recommendation to the Board, which meets on July 10.  On July 8, President Jack Chou, Geoff Leung, MD and I will travel to Riverside to meet with the dean of the new UC Riverside School of Medicine to discuss the need for primary care and family physicians in California.