Health Reform: Visit Physicianfoundations.Org to Understand How Private Practicing Physicians View Health Reform

I encourage you to visit the Physicians Foundation web site – www.physiciansfoundation.org.

The web site tells you objectively, based on broad national surveys of hundreds of thousands of doctors, how physicians feel about reform and gives you information on what they doing to improve health care. Links are provided to give you immediate access to news and information being presented.

Among the highlights of the web site are:

• An announcement of its White Paper: “A Roadmap for Physicians to Health Care Reform”

It examines the provisions of the ACA and how these legislative changes will directly impact their practice of medicine. It provides physicians with an in-depth perspective on issues influencing current reform efforts as well as the major legislative changes that hold the most significance, such as changes in payment systems, quality reporting, shared savings programs and the changes reshaping the private health insurance market. The health reform law, the Affordable Care Act, has created angst, anxiety, and uncertainty among physicians.

• Physicians Foundation Highlighted in Minnesota Public Radio


The Physicians Foundation’s Health Reform and the Decline of Physician Private Practice research was noted in a story on how health care reform is leading to changes in the health care market and more specifically, the decline of private practice physicians. Foundation board member and family physician, Dr. Ripley Hollister, is quoted. The decline in private practice should cause concern, for these are the frontline physicians who take care of most Americans.

• Las Vegas Review-Journal Features Foundation Research

The Las Vegas Review-Journal published an article on the Foundation’s Health Reform and the Decline of Physician Private Practice research, reiterating that the traditional model of private practice is no longer tenable, leading to a physician workforce that is increasingly diverse and much less homogenous in terms of practice style.

• The Physicians Foundation Awards $1 Million Grant to Health Leads

The Physicians Foundation announces it has awarded a $1 million dollar grant to Health Leads, an organization devoted to helping vulnerable families by arranging for college volunteers to partner with physicians in hospitals across the country. Physicians Foundation Vice President, Dr. Walker Ray, and Rebecca Onie, Health Leads Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, are quoted. This is an important development – not only does it expand access to current community health care resources and plug a hole in the social safety net but it trains college volunteers for careers in health care.

• Proposed Regulations and Guidance for Accountable Care Organizations Released

On March 31, 2011, The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released proposed regulations and guidance for Accountable Care Organizations. There is a sixty day comment period before the regulations are finalized with a scheduled implementation date of January 1, 2012. The aim of Accountable Care Organizations is to align hospitals and doctors in organizations to care for populations of Medicare populations in a coordinated, cost-effective ways.

• Nation's Frontline Physicians Unhappy With Health Care Reform Measures

Troubling new research indicates health care reform will put increased strain on doctors and their patients; amplify national doctor shortage. These are the conclusions of the Physicians Foundation based on two broad national surveys – one of over 300,000 primary care physicians, the other of over 40,000 doctors in various specialties – completed in 2008 and 2010.

• Washington Report

Here The Physicians Foundation shares the Washington Report, written by long-time friend to physicians, Lee Stillwell. Earlier this year, the Foundation engaged Mr. Stillwell to monitor and provide regular updates to the Foundation’s board on the health care reform debates in Washington DC. This is an insider report on how political developments inside D.C. are likely to impact doctors, patients, and the health system as a whole.