Primary care in the United States and its precarious future

Primary care has not secured a firm place within the US health services system. Since primary care lacks a strong research base, is not institutionalized in medical education or in policy-making and is marginalized in both proposed and actual reforms, it has not developed into a central component of the health care infrastructure. We discuss recent efforts that promised modest improvements, including the Clinton health care reform proposals and subsequent federal and state actions, in the role of primary care within the health services system. We also assess the likely fate of primary care given the accelerated growth of managed care and market competition, the dissatisfaction of large segments of the population with managed care and misperceptions of managed care as synonymous with primary care. We highlight how managed care fails to achieve the cardinal functions of primary care and summarize initiatives that, at a minimum, would be required to secure a stronger position for primary care in the future.     

21世纪全面开展初级卫生保健的思考与建议

从我国当前的国力和国际经验来看,我国在21世纪仍然特别需要采取低成本、广覆盖与高产出的卫生发展战略,需要富有远见和创新精神的卫生制度设计。通过立法保障和普及初级卫生保健,保证城乡居民公平享有基本卫生服务,保障全体公民的基本健康权利,是解决当前广大群众“看病难、看病贵”问题的可行策略,是符合我国国情、尽快改善卫生公平性、控制医疗费用过快上涨和提高人民健康水平的最佳制度选择,也是推动卫生改革和体制创新的关键举措。建议通过立法构建我国21世纪初级卫生保健体系,将卫生工作的重点从医疗服务转到疾病预防,将卫生资源从过度的医院服务转向普及基层的初级卫生保健服务,并对相关的社会、环境、行为和心理等健康危险因素进行干预。在大力控制传染病、地方病的同时,尽快建立控制慢性非传染性疾病的能力,防止国家、社会和家庭在未来付出更高的健康损失和经济代价;建议我国未来的卫生服务大体上由“两层服务体系”提供,即初级卫生保健层次和转诊服务层次,逐步实现居民人人享有的“双重健康保障”,即:所有公民享有基本卫生服务和基本医疗保险。     

Do health care reforms in Turkey have a significant effect in equal access to maternal and child health services in Turkey: An evidence from 20 years

This study aimed to investigate whether there was an improvement in the equitable access to maternal and child health care services by examining the effects of socioeconomic and individual factors in Turkey from 1993 to 2013 and determine the effectiveness of health care reforms implemented mainly under the Health Transformation Program since 2003 on equitable access t;o maternal and child health care services in terms of years. The study used nationally representative 5 Turkey Demographic and Health Surveys (1993, 1998, 2003, 2008, and 2013). Prenatal care utilization rate increased from 67.0% in 1993 to 96.2% in 2013 while the rate of women giving birth at health care facilities increased from 63.8% to 98.1% in 2013. Prenatal care utilization and giving birth at health care facilities were higher among women who were under health insurance coverage, first time mothers, those staying in the western region and urban areas, and those with the highest level of wealth. The findings suggest that the issue of equity in the utilization of maternal and child health care services exists in Turkey, and the latest health care reforms under HTP are not effective in diminishing the effect of wealth.     

Universal Health Insurance and Equity in Primary Care and Specialist Office Visits: A Population-Based Study

PURPOSE Universal coverage of physician services should serve to reduce socioeconomic disparities in care, but the degree to which a reduction occurs is unclear. We examined equity in use of physician services in Ontario, Canada, after controlling for health status using both self-reported and diagnosis-based measures.METHODS Ontario respondents to the 2000–2001 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) were linked with physician claim files in 2002–2003 and 2003–2004. Educational attainment and income were based on self-report. The CCHS was used for self-reported health status and Johns Hopkins Adjusted Clinical Groups was used for diagnosis-based health status.RESULTS After adjustment, higher education was not associated with at least 1 primary care visit (odds ratio [OR] = 1.05; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.87–1.24), but it was inversely associated with frequent visits (OR = 0.77; 95% CI, 0.65–0.88). Higher education was directly associated with at least 1 specialist visit (OR = 1.20; 95% CI, 1.07–1.34), with frequent specialist visits (OR = 1.21; 95% CI, 1.03–1.39), and with bypassing primary care to reach specialists (OR = 1.23, 95% CI 1.02–1.44). The largest inequities by education were found for dermatology and ophthalmology. Income was not independently associated with inequities in physician contact or frequency of visits.CONCLUSIONS After adjusting for health status, we found equity in contact with primary care for educational attainment but inequity in specialist contact, frequent visits, and bypassing primary care. In this setting, universal health insurance appears to be successful in achieving income equity in physician visits. This strategy alone does not eliminate education-related gradients in specialist care.     

Patient choice,entry, and the quality of primary care: Evidence from Swedish reforms

Policies aiming to spur quality competition among health care providers are ubiquitous, but their impact on quality is ex ante ambiguous, and credible empirical evidence is lacking in many contexts. This study contributes to the sparse literature on competition and primary care quality by examining recent competition enhancing reforms in Sweden. The reforms aimed to stimulate patient choice and entry of private providers across the country but affected markets differently depending on the initial market structure. We exploit the heterogeneous impact of the reforms in a difference‐in‐differences strategy, contrasting more and less exposed markets over the period 2005–2013. Although the reforms led to substantially more entry of new providers in more exposed markets, the effects on primary care quality were modest: We find small improvements of patients' overall satisfaction with care, but no consistently significant effects on avoidable hospitalisation rates or satisfaction with access to care. We find no evidence of economically meaningful quality reductions on any outcome measure.     

The Role of Primary Care in Improving Population Health

Policy Points

• Systems based on primary care have better population health, health equity, and health care quality, and lower health care expenditure.
• Primary care can be a boundary-spanning force to integrate and personalize the many factors from which population health emerges.
• Equitably advancing population health requires understanding and supporting the complexly interacting mechanisms by which primary care influences health, equity, and health costs.

     

Pursuing equity: contact with primary care and specialist clinicians by demographics, insurance, and health status

PURPOSE Long-term shifts in specialty choice and health workforce policy have raised concern about the future of primary care in the United States. The objective of this study was to examine current use of primary and specialty care across the US population for policy-relevant subgroups, such as disadvantaged populations and persons with chronic illness.METHODS Data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey from 2004 were analyzed using a probability sample patients or other participants from the noninstitutionalized US population in 2004 (N = 34,403). The main and secondary outcome measures were the estimates of the proportion of Americans who accessed different types of primary care and specialty physicians and midlevel practitioners, as well as the fraction of ambulatory visits accounted for by the different clinician types. Data were disaggregated by income, health insurance status, race/ethnicity, rural or urban residence, and presence of 5 common chronic diseases.RESULTS Family physicians were the most common clinician type accessed by adults, seniors, and reproductive-age women, and they were second to pediatricians for children. Disadvantaged adults with 3 markers of disadvantage (poverty, disadvantaged minority, uninsured) received 45.6% (95% CI, 40.4%–50.7%) of their ambulatory visits from family physicians vs 30.5% (95% CI, 30.0%–32.1%) for adults with no markers. For children with 3 vs 0 markers of disadvantage, the proportion of visits from family physicians roughly doubled from 16.5% (95% CI, 14.4%–18.6%) to 30.1% (95% CI, 18.8%–41.2%). Family physicians constitute the only clinician group that does not show income disparities in access. Multivariate analyses show that patterns of access to family physicians and nurse-practitioners are more equitable than for other clinician types.CONCLUSIONS: Primary care clinicians, especially family physicians, deliver a disproportionate share of ambulatory care to disadvantaged populations. A diminished primary care workforce will leave considerable gaps in US health care equity. Health care workforce policy should reflect this important population-level function of primary care.     

Lessons from understanding the role of community hospital director in Thailand: clinician versus manager

In 2001, Thailand adopted the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) policy. This policy focuses on primary health care (PHC), with the aim of reforming the Thai health system to provide health services to all, regardless of a person's ability to pay. The community hospital director (CHD) is the middle manager of the provincial health system and the leader of the district health system of Thailand. In recent reforms the emphasis for improving efficiency lies with changes in the provision of primary health services at the community level and this entails understanding the role of the CHD. A qualitative study, utilizing individual interviews and a focus group discussion, was undertaken in order to understand the factors affecting the implementation of rural health care in Thailand. Findings identified several barriers that limit the role of the CHD and a major result of the study was recognition of the dual role of the CHD as both clinician and manager. This study concluded that the goal of the UHC policy in providing equity of access to PHC to all citizens may not be achieved unless the role of CHDs is supported with training in health management and PHC and is supported by the government.     

Primary health care nurses’ views on patients’ abilities and resources to make choices and take decisions on health care

Recent health reforms in many European countries have emphasised patient choice as a tool for patient participation, and for the improved efficiency of services. Little attention has been paid to experiences of the nurses in these reforms, even though the reforms directly concern all health care personnel and cannot be implemented without their contribution. This study looks at patient choice from the perspective of the nurses working in primary health care clinics in Finland. In Finnish primary care, nurses have a central role in coordinating patient care and advising patients. The data come from 31 interviews conducted in 17 health care clinics. The approach adopted in the analysis is data-driven and brings forth nurses’ experiences in their daily work with patients. A detailed analysis of the nurses’ responses and views was conducted with discourse analysis. While nurses positioned some patients as knowledgeable, able to search for information and make use of different services without nurses’ help, some of the patients were positioned as those needing nurses’ advice and guidance through the complex system of health and social care services. Nurses’ positions varied from co-actors and gate-keepers to advocates and spokespersons. In order to succeed future health care reforms need to take better into account the realities of health clinics and the grassroots-level knowledge that primary care nurses have on patients and clinical practices.     

The concepts of community care and primary care in the UK: the 1960s to the 1990s

The concepts of community care and primary care in UK health policy have emerged over a number of decades. This paper uses historical methods to investigate the changing definitions of community care and primary care in health policy since the 1960s. It draws on published primary and secondary sources including government documents, journals and the professional press. While policy makers have tended to separate community and primary care, the roles of the professions have tended to cut across the two sectors. The emergence and substantially separate development of the two concepts in policy and professional practice between 1960 and 1990 is described and analysed, illustrating the structural constraints on integration but noting the increasing tendency for the boundaries to be called into question. The second part of the paper examines the impact of the 1990 NHS and Community Care Act, the implementation of reforms during the 1990s and the policies currently being implemented by the Labour government. Community care and primary care have continued to be treated separately in the minds of policy makers. Policy for the former has been largely driven by governments' concern to control social security and NHS spending, whilst primary care policy largely focused on the role of general practitioners (GPs) in implementing market reforms. The new Labour government has put renewed emphasis on public health and reducing fragmentation, stressing partnership and cooperation. But the continued dominance of general practice in primary care policy may continue to be an obstacle to the integration of community care and primary care.     

Sexual and reproductive health and rights in changing health systems

Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are centrally important to health. However, there have been significant shortcomings in implementing SRHR to date. In the context of health systems reform and universal health coverage/care (UHC), this paper explores the following questions. What do these changes in health systems thinking mean for SRHR and gender equity in health in the context of renewed calls for increased investments in the health of women and girls? Can SRHR be integrated usefully into the call for UHC, and if so how? Can health systems reforms address the continuing sexual and reproductive ill health and violations of sexual and reproductive rights (SRR)? Conversely, can the attention to individual human rights that is intrinsic to the SRHR agenda and its continuing concerns about equality, quality and accountability provide impetus for strengthening the health system? The paper argues that achieving equity on the UHC path will require a combination of system improvements and services that benefit all, together with special attention to those whose needs are great and who are likely to fall behind in the politics of choice and voice (i.e., progressive universalism paying particular attention to gender inequalities).     

Patient perspectives on quality of care for depression and anxiety in primary health care teams: A qualitative study

BackgroundWidespread policy reforms in Canada, the United States and elsewhere over the last two decades strengthened team models of primary care by bringing together family physicians and nurse practitioners with a range of mental health and other interdisciplinary providers. Understanding how patients with depression and anxiety experience newer team‐based models of care delivery is essential to explore whether the intended impact of these reforms is achieved, identify gaps that remain and provide direction on strengthening the quality of mental health care.ObjectiveThe main study objective was to understand patients’ perspectives on the quality of care that they received for anxiety and depression in primary care teams.MethodsThis was a qualitative study, informed by constructivist grounded theory. We conducted focus groups and individual interviews with primary care patients about their experiences with mental health care. Focus groups and individual interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Grounded theory guided an inductive analysis of the data.ResultsForty patients participated in the study: 31 participated in one of four focus groups, and nine completed an individual interview. Participants in our study described their experiences with mental health care across four themes: accessibility, technical care, trusting relationships and meeting diverse needs.ConclusionGreater attention by policymakers is needed to strengthen integrated collaborative practices in primary care so that patients have similar access to mental health services across different primary care practices, and smoother continuity of care across sectors. The research team is comprised of individuals with lived experience of mental health who have participated in all aspects of the research process.     

The effect of market reforms and new public management mechanisms on the Swiss health care system

In 1996, the Federal Law on Health Insurance (LAMal) was adopted in order to contain costs in Swiss health care. At the same time, the reform aimed to maintain or even improve solidarity and encourage institutional reform through new public management (NPM) and market mechanisms. More freedom in contractual conditions between insurers and providers and a clearer distinction of responsibilities between federal and regional (cantonal) authorities were stipulated to achieve efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency. The focus of this paper is an analysis of the effects of market reforms and NPM mechanisms introduced with the LAMal on the cost‐containment, quality of care and equity objectives in the Swiss health care system. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A policy of introducing a new contract and funding system of general practice in Estonia

The socialist bloc of post-war Europe was obliged to follow the Soviet example with a hierarchical, centrally controlled health care system based on polyclinics and other facilities providing extensive specialist services at the first level of contact. All the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have now expressed their wish to totally change their health care systems. Changes in these countries include: the introduction of market economy mechanisms in health care, an increased focus on population health needs in guiding health care systems, and the possibility of introducing a more general type of care at primary level. Patient expectations of access, choice and convenience are factors in shaping new models of health care delivery. Appropriate timing is the key determinant of the success of reforms. In Estonia the beginning of the 1990s was the time when several interest groups in society supported changes in the health care system. The first step after regaining independence was the reintroduction of a Bismarck-type insurance system. In the late 1990s the primary care reforms have changed the initial plans and elements of a National Health Service were introduced, especially general practitioners' lists, capitation payment and gate-keeping principles. The family medicine reform in Estonia has two main objectives: introduction of general practice as a specialty into Estonian health care and changing the remuneration system of primary care doctors. The specific tasks are: to provide practising primary care doctors with opportunities for retraining to gain the specialty status of a general practitioner, to create a list system for the population to register with a primary care doctor, to introduce a partial gate-keeping system and to give the status of the independent contractor to primary care doctors.     

Rebuilding a health care system: war, reconstruction and health care reforms in Kosovo

This article explores the complexity of a health care system reforms in a post-conflict situation. It describes how the health care system was revamped immediately after the war, and then reorganized with Primary Health Care (PHC) as the fulcrum for change. It highlights the coordination problems, typical of a post-war situation when un-coordinated humanitarian assistance pours in. From the vantage points of Ministry of Health officials, the article details how the change process has gone over the years, the directions it has taken and the lessons learnt. It notes that reforms are often so fast that they outstrip the absorption capacity of the potential change agents because of their inadequate preparation for the new roles and responsibilities. This in turn threatens to undermine and weaken the very system that the reforms seek to strengthen. Several options adopted for change in Kosovo's health care system are at varying levels of implementation today. Some commentators have questioned if the policy for the new health care system has failed. We contend that there have been major organizational successes. But there are also shortcomings. There is also a potential danger that the health care system could partly revert to the old system. While some of the successes and shortcomings may be specific to Kosovo, many lessons learnt from Kosovo apply to health care reforms elsewhere.     

论我国卫生保健服务的公平性

卫生保健服务公平性是指无论社会成员的社会地位、收入等因素如何,都应该以需求为导向获得卫生保健服务。通过卫生保健服务公平性评价体系,分析目前在我国卫生保健服务的公平性方面存在着卫生保障覆盖面小、卫生资源配置不平衡及卫生服务费用分担不合理等问题。要改变这一状况,就应该从增加卫生资源的投入、优化卫生资源配置结构、健全和完善医疗保障制度方面着手,推进卫生保健服务的公平,使每一个社会成员都能得到基本的、公平的卫生保健服务,最终实现人人享有卫生保健的目标。     

基层卫生服务机构支付方式研究

基层卫生服务机构是基本卫生服务的提供主体,对基层卫生服务机构支付方式的改革牵动着筹资、卫生服务提供的质量和效率、结果的公平性等多方面的问题,是卫生改革的重点。从概念上界定了基层卫生服务机构和支付方式,而后对相关文献进行了研究总结。对基层卫生服务机构支付方式的研究,多从财政补偿力度的角度,论证了对基层的投入不足和一些对具体到某一种服务的支付方式的探讨。尚无文献从支付方式理论出发,对基层卫生服务机构的支付方式和配套政策进行系统的研究。文献中提出的政策建议,以强调政府职责为主,对支付方式的选择以及配套政策给予建议性的研究。     

Experience of mental disorder in the context of basic service reforms: the impact on caregiving environments in South Africa

The integration of mental health services into primary health care and the shift towards community- and family-based care for chronic mental disorders has been associated with increased burden on households. At the same time, research investigating the impact of policies of cost recovery for basic services such as water and electricity has also indicated an increased burden on households. This study aimed to investigate the impact of these basic service reforms on households caring for a family member with a chronic mental disorder in Cape Town, South Africa. The findings indicate that factors associated with service reforms may increase the stress and burden experienced by households and in turn impact on the primary environment in which care is received.     

新一轮医改以来我国基层卫生人力资源现状及问题分析

目的:分析新一轮医改以来我国基层卫生人才资源现状和问题,为稳定基层卫生人才队伍提供参考。方法:运用描述性统计分析和公平性分析方法,分析我国基层医疗卫生人员的数量、结构和分布公平性。结果:基层卫生人员数量显著增加,人员素质有所提升;以省为单位的东中西部地区基层卫生人员Gini系数和泰尔指数均不断减小;东部地区内部的差异是影响总体差异的主要因素。结论:我国基层卫生人才队伍仍存在人员数量不足和流失并存、职称结构失衡以及城乡、地区差距较大等问题;主要原因有激励机制不合理、人员配置行政化、医改部分措施的协同作用有待进一步发挥等;建议进一步改革收入分配制度、提高基层治理能力和加强政策协同,以吸引和稳定基层卫生人才队伍。     

The excess health care costs of KardioPro,an integrated care program for coronary heart disease prevention

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a major cause of death and important driver of health care costs. Recent German health care reforms have promoted integrated care contracts allowing statutory health insurance providers more room to organize health care provision. One provider offers KardioPro, an integrated primary care-based CHD prevention program. As insurance providers should be aware of the financial consequences when developing optional programs, this study aims to analyze the costs associated with KardioPro participation. 13,264 KardioPro participants were compared with a propensity score-matched control group. Post-enrollment health care costs were calculated based on routine data over a follow-up period of up to 4 years. For those people who incurred costs, KardioPro participation was significantly associated with increased physician costs (by 33%), reduced hospital costs (by 19%), and reduced pharmaceutical costs (by 16%). Overall costs were increased by 4%, but this was not significant. Total excess costs per observation year were €131 per person (95% confidence interval: [€−36.5; €296]). Overall, KardioPro likely affected treatment as the program increased costs of physician services and reduced costs of hospital services. Further effects of substituting potential inpatient care with increased outpatient care might become fully apparent only over a longer time horizon.