On November 7th, 2007, the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative held its inaugural Call-to-Action Summit at Union Station’s Columbus Club. The event was well attended by over 200 representatives of large employers, physician groups, and health benefits companies. It featured a series of expert panels, and two keynote speakers, Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.

The Summit generated significant press coverage, including The New York Times article by Milt Freudenheim, entitled “A Model for Health Care That Pays for Quality.” Dr. Paul Grundy, IBM's Director for Health Care Technology and Strategic Initiatives an the Chairman of the Collaborative, was quoted in the article, saying, "We are empowering doctors to once again have a doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Grundy added, "We don't want to buy the kind of care we're getting any more. We have turned doctors into little chipmunks on a wheel, pumping out patients every five minutes."

At the Summit, experts from all the pertinent stakeholders spoke about the work done so far on the Medical Home project. In the first panel, Bob Doherty, Senior Vice President for Government Relations with the American College of Physicians, introduced the Medical Home as a place where patients “choose to get care from a personal physician . . . [who] provides comprehensive and longitudinal care to address all of the patients’ health care, including preventive care.” He stressed that the physician “facilitates appropriate” specialist care, and does not act as a “gatekeeper.”

The independent health care quality oversight organization, the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), previewed its highly anticipated system for accrediting and qualifying the medical home, which is due to be released in December. Dr. Greg Pawlson, Executive Vice President with NCQA, emphasized the need for a tool to measure a potential Medical Home by several different metrics.

The next project the Summit attendees have committed to is the implementation of multi-payer, multi-player pilot demonstration projects across the country. The Call-To-Action summit certainly has infused that project with significant momentum, and the PCPCC looks forward to continue working with the employers, doctors, and health benefits companies to ensure it is successful.

If you have questions regarding the PCPCC, contact either Edwina Rogers (erogers@eric.org), Joe Grundy (jgrundy@eric.org) or Rohan Beesla (rbeesla@eric.org).