1/ Ready for some hopeful signs? We’ve been following the trends for independent #PCP practices very closely during COVID and there’s some truly bright spots to share this week.
3/ Thankfully @CMSgov listened. And they offered help. Quickly. Arranging up to 3 months of advance payment for Medicare providers in just one week. My dad’s solo primary care practice got its advance last week:
4/ Then on Friday, in a surprise to everyone, @HHSgov directly deposited $34B of even more relief funds into provider bank accounts. Practices found funds in their bank accounts overnight. hhs.gov/provider-relie…
5/ And @CMSgov wasn’t the only helper. Grant programs from @HealthNet and @BlueShieldCA and other health plans are offering emergency funding to help primary care practices adapt to virtual care:
6/ This week, @FCC opened up applications for the $200M COVID-19 telehealth program, which will provide direct funding to health care providers for costs of providing telehealth, like connectivity and devices. fcc.gov/covid-19-teleh…
7/ All these relief programs can be a lot for our independent PCP practices to navigate, but this rapid response from healthcare leaders has created hope.
8/ Widespread medical practice staff layoffs have been predicted by @bob_wachter @Farzad_MD among others. Across our #primarycare network, there’s been a 12.5% reduction in daily staff user logins. No reduction in physician daily logins. 
9/ Shoutout to @tjvalenti who had the same idea as our team to look at logins to see if we could track any layoff or furlough activity in independent primary care practices:
10/ Primary care visits seem to be stabilizing at 20% less than normal volumes. We’re not tracking big changes in message volume either. Primary care practices seem to be settling into a new normal with the switch to virtual care.
11/ Still concerned about the 50% drop in primary care for patients 70+ years old in any format we saw early on. A small increase (4%) here in the last week is hopeful.
12/ This third wave of COVID impact on patients living with chronically illness is something for practices stay ahead of:
13/ Our practices on predominantly capitated (per patient) payments are feeling lucky right now. Many #DPC practices who are paid monthly fees by patients directly are also feeling stable, some are considering taking Medicare again to help more people.
14/ Will be interesting to see how independent #PCP mindsets towards alternative non-FFS payment arrangements change post-COVID. This pandemic has shown how exposed FFS models leave physicians.
15/ At @ElationHealth, our team is busy helping independent primary care practices get to a new normal. Still a lot of work to be done on telemed, grants, COVID care coordination, virtual population health for people with chronic illness...it’s a whole new world.
16/ What do you want to know about what’s happening on the frontlines of independent primary care practices? Happy to share data as the world changes. @PhysiciansPract @modrnhealthcr @dariustahir @kevindMD @HeatherLandi @aurorabr13 @healthITwonk /End
