Nicole V. Baptista
The Advisory Committee on Training in Primary Care Medicine and Dentistry has released a draft of its eighth annual report to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Congress, “The Redesign of Primary Care with Implications for Training.” The committee has asked the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM) and other associations with a focus on primary care medicine and dentistry training to provide feedback on the draft by February 12, 2010. AAIM is interested in receiving your feedback to inform its response.
The report stems from the advisory committee’s charge to provide recommendations to the HHS secretary concerning program and policy development of the Title VII health professions training programs. The report is separated into two sets of recommendations. The first outlines recommendations for directly improving health professions training programs; it states:
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Congress should restore and enhance funding for Title VII health professions training programs at $235 million for fiscal year 2011 and ensure the appropriation is evenly and more broadly distributed across the multiple disciplines covered by these programs.
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The HHS secretary should ask Congress to modify the charge of the advisory committee to include making recommendations directly to Congress in addition to the secretary.
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Training grants should provide funds to develop, implement, and evaluate training programs that promote inter-professional practice in the Patient-Centered Medical-Dental Home (PCM-DH) model of care.
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Training grants should support primary care clinical training in community-based settings for providers and learners in various disciplines, including those in health professions training programs by funding proposals to recruit and support community-based clinical educators.
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The Bureau of Health Professions should provide financial support for grantees to evaluate Title VII programs and conduct long-term tracking of the learners.
According to the report, the second set outlines recommendations for addressing federal policies that are “necessary to support primary care as the backbone of the health care system.” These recommendations state that:
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Congress and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) should restructure health care financing to attract health care providers to careers in primary care.
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Congress and CMS should revise graduate medical education funding policies and other educational programs to foster and support the use of community-based, non-hospital sites for primary care training.
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Congress should expand the National Health Service Corps loan repayment programs to include additional programs that address severe primary care workforce shortages.
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Congress should support PCM-DH demonstration projects designed to evaluate innovative funding and reimbursement strategies that promote accessible high-quality care while simultaneously checking the growth of health care costs.
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Congress should direct the HHS secretary to establish “an independent health care workforce planning body that can evaluate needs and make recommendations.”
AAIM plans to provide written comments to the advisory committee on this draft report and would like input from members. Please contact policy@im.org to share any comments or concerns you have with the report no later than Friday, January29, 2010.