The holy grail for fixing the U.S. healthcare system can be found by targeting potentially avoidable conditions, said Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D., special adviser for health policy to the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.
In the first general session of the Medical Group Management Association's annual conference Sunday evening, Emanuel said a “high touch” approach by physicians that eliminates those avoidable conditions could lead the way toward a healthier population and slower growth in the costs.
By “high touch,” Ezekiel means giving primary-care physicians a greater role in providing care, with nonphysicians, such as nurse practitioners, also doing more. The aim is to increase interactions via in-office visits, phone and e-mail so that patients are cared for more regularly, thereby avoiding costly care in the hospital.
“We have examples where it can work,” said Emanuel, who is on leave from his job as head of the department of bioethics at the National Institutes of Health's Clinical Center. His examples included employer on-site work clinics and medical home projects.
Greater use of high-touch care would entail moving away from a fee-for-service reimbursement model. He asked audience members if they are ready to provide high-touch care under what will be a change in the way they are reimbursed for care, “because I think it is going to change.”
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