Thread by @dr_oru

Alright @Albertadoctors, @CMA_Docs, @FamPhysCan:

@ABFamDocs stated that March 31st cuts will lead to:

Reduced continuity of care

Poorer care outcomes for patients

INCREASED health spending

Let's make sure patient medical homes don't close and
physician survive.🥰

#AbLeg

1. Government cuts 03.04J Care Planning - response:
- complex patients without plans should be seen weekly.

2. Government cuts in-facility billing - response:
- let's stop in-facility work - obstretrics, ER consults, etc.

3. Government limits payment for visits - response:
- let's do more frequent, shorter visits

4. Government target family doctors with cuts - response:
- let's refer to each other and become specialists in family medicine.

"In a wider context, the government’s desire to strip away essential elements of the medical home and
defund hospital-based care have a very real potential to increase costs in the future...

...There is clear evidence that continuous, comprehensive, team-based primary care leads to better patient outcomes
and lower acute care costs through reductions in hospitalization, reduced ER visits, etc...

...We can only conclude that removing incentives to provide this type of care will create adverse impacts on patient care
and acute care costs in the future. Similarly, removing incentives for physicians to provide service in
hospitals will potentially lead to...

...significant shortages of physicians willing to provide these services (we would note that this was the original rationale for negotiating these payments)...

It will be both difficult and costly to incent physicians back into hospital-based practices in the future to address this problem.

As was noted in the AMA President’s Letter of December 11, these “proposals are penny-wise from a
cost-cutter’s perspective,

...but pound-foolish from a system perspective.

The Medical Home is an important example of cost efficiency combined with enhanced quality care.

This is value.”

albertadoctors.org/services/physi…