Health Systems Underinvest in PCPs; This May Cause Hospital Costs to Rise

I have posted a number of notes relating to the declining number of primary care physicians employed by health systems (see, for example:PCP and Family Physician Wait Times increasing 50% in Many Markets). I believe that this may be due, in part, to the fact that these executives believe that PCPs generate less revenue per capita than specialist physicians (see:Net Revenue Generation for Hospitals on the Basis of Physician Speciality). Such a hiring strategy may be shortsighted given that, as stated in my blog note of July 25, PCPs are responsible for allocating about 90% of total hospital costs (see:PCPs Responsible for Allocating About 90% of Total Hospital Costs).The value of PCPs to a health system needs to be assessed not only on the basis of revenue generation per capita but also on savings that can result from their decisions in the primary care environment. My prior belief that our health systems were underinvesting in PCPs was reinforced in a recent article (see:Health systems allocate just 5-10% of total spending on primary care, despite benefits) and below is an excerpt from it:Health systems in the United States continue to underinvest in primary care, despite evidence that increased primary care spend can lead to lower emergency room and hospitalization costs, according to a new study. The first-of-its-kind analysis from thePatient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative examined the amount of money private and public payers are spending on primary ...
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Cost of Healthcare Healthcare Delivery Healthcare Information Technology Healthcare Innovations Hospital Executive Management Hospital Financial Quality of Care Source Type: blogs