The ACP added some enhancements to the AAFP's medical home concept, Mr. Doherty explained. For example, “we have a clear qualification process,” where practices would be certified as advanced medical homes and required to meet certain standards in order to qualify for additional payments.
AAFP President Dr. Larry Fields declined to comment specifically on the ACP proposal, but said the academy is working to convince Congress and the private sector that the medical home concept is worthwhile “and therefore worth paying for.”
An adequate workforce of family physicians providing patients with their own medical home “is the way to bring the promise of quality, affordable, accessible health care for everyone to fruition,” Dr. Fields said in an interview. The AAFP “will continue to try and convince those who still need convincing of the validity of our position.”
Congress and the private sector should also partner with the AAFP in providing funds for electronic health records, he said.
Although the advanced medical home is geared toward primary care, it wouldn't be limited to generalists, Mr. Doherty said. In most cases, a general internist or family physician would be the principal physician coordinating a patient's care in an advanced medical home. Yet “there may be instances when a patient might select a subspecialist within the medical home as his or her personal physician,” he said.
In such cases, the subspecialist is responsible for managing and coordinating care and provides the full range of required primary care services, he noted.