Advancing family medicine - building primary care
The NCAFP works aggressively to advance health policy that improves and strengthens the specialty of family medicine and primary health care in North Carolina. The Academy is a leading voice in many state health initiatives and actively engaged in helping impact NC's delivery system.
Latest Policy Headlines from the National Level
Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 06:00
The AAFP is urging Congress to act quickly on a bipartisan House bill that seeks to revamp the Medicare payment system by eliminating the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula and initiating various payment reforms to reward the provision of primary care services, including via a 2.5 percent payment increase for primary care physicians. "This legislation begins the transition to a sustainable payment system and helps our complex system better recognize the value of primary medical care," said AAFP President Glen Stream, M.D., M.B.I., of Spokane, Wash., in a prepared statement. "By providing a 2 percent higher payment rate for primary care services for the next several years, this bill improves the environment for currently practicing physicians."
Thursday, May 17, 2012 - 06:00
Many FPs and their patients were surprised to learn in January that a provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act required a physician's prescription to use funds from tax-preferred health accounts to purchase OTC items. Now, the AAFP has joined with dozens of other organizations in calling on Congress to repeal the provision, which "increases costs to the health care system and places a new administrative burden on already overburdened physician offices," according to members of the Health Choices Coalition, of which the AAFP is a member. In an April 25 letter to the House Ways and Means Committee, the coalition said the provision has "resulted in unintended consequences to both physicians and patients."
Questions or Additional Information?
If you have any questions or desire additional information on the NCAFP's advocacy and health policy efforts, please contact Gregory K. Griggs, MPA, CAE, Executive Vice President, at (919) 833-2110.
