The Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 (TRHCA) enabled Congress to mandate a medical home demonstration project in up to 8 states for the comprehensive and coordinated delivery of primary care services to Medicare beneficiaries with chronic diseases. The three-year demonstration project will begin on January 1, 2009. The AMA-sponsored Relative Value Scale Update Committee, or RUC (rhymes with “truck”), recently released their recommendations on the development of the reporting mechanism and underlying data that the government will use to determine payments in the medical home demonstration project.
The RUC’s recommendations have been met with great criticism. It is believed that their recommended payment mechanisms are unfair to the already overworked and underpaid primary care physicians. RUC is made up of 29 physicians, only 5 of whom belong to primary care specialties.
Given the proposed reimbursement structure, the medical home demonstration project will be of little value to primary care physicians except those with the stamina to run faster on the hamster wheel of medical practice survival. I expect many physicians dropping Medicare patients if they can afford it, further deepening the growing primary care physician shortage in our country for those who need their services the most.
Great work RUC.
More info: RUC, Medicare Medical Home Demonstration
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