,
10 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
I’m about to chair the Senate health committee’s hearing to learn how primary care can play a role in lowering health care costs and improving outcomes, and explore innovative ways to improve access to affordable primary care. Watch live here: help.senate.gov/hearings/how-p… 
.@drleegross, of Florida, testified last year at this committee’s fifth hearing on the cost of health care that too many government mandates and insurance companies were getting between doctors and patients and making primary care more expensive than it needed to be.
In 2010, Dr. Gross created one of the first Direct Primary Care practices. Instead of working with insurance companies and government programs, Dr. Gross’ patients pay him a flat monthly fee directly.
Dr. Gross’ practice is one of about a thousand similar clinics in the United States and is a good example of how a primary care doctor can help reduce costs.
Dr. Adam Boehler, who leads the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, recently told me that primary care is only 3-7 percent of health care spending, but affects as much as half of all health care spending.
I believe we can empower primary care doctors, nurse practitioners, and physicians assistants to go even a step further. At our 4th hearing, we heard about how patients have no idea how much a particular treatment or test will end up costing.
And, while the data may be incomprehensible today, it is a ripe opportunity for innovation from private companies to arrange the data so primary care doctors can help their patients can have better outcomes and better experiences at lower costs.
There are other ways to lower health care costs through expanded access to primary care. Another is community health centers, which we talked about at our last hearing and that are where 27 million Americans go for their primary care.
And, employers are increasingly taking an active role in their employees’ health and in the cost of health care, like employing a doctor on-site so employees don’t have to take time off of work to see a primary care doctor.
Today, I am interested in hearing more about specific recommendations to improve access to affordable primary care.
