Health News: The Four Horsemen of the Primary Care Apocalypse- V1

Payment is easily established as the dominant reason for primary care deficits. Primary care has been paid less, far too little, for decades. Basic services paid less than specialized care is the reason for an unbalanced and too costly workforce in the United States. A nation 23rd worst of 26 developed nations clearly is not investing in generalists, primary care, basic access, or care where needed. Decades of poor primary care payment has shaped deficits of primary care workforce. There are indications of worse, not better in the past decade and at the worst possible time in the history of the United States.

The pattern of the deficit reveals payment as the source. Deficits are greatest where payments are lowest - by state, by county, by population, by practice (smaller size 1 - 9 physicians), by lowest physician concentration counties. Few have not seen the map of red counties and blue counties in the last election. With the exception of a few counties with substantial minority populations, the blue counties have the highest paid services, specialties, and concentrations. The red counties have the lowest paid services, depend upon lowest paid generalists and general specialties, and have only about 26% of workforce for counties with half of the population of the US.

The counties lowest in physician concentrations are largely the result of payment design.

A close examination of the counties lowest in physician concentrations indicates the four major players producing the deficits by design - Medicaid, High Deductible Insurance, Veterans Administration, Medicare.

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse via Wiki

Medicaid - Famine

Medicaid is the dominant deficit determinant. Consequently Medicaid offers the most opportunity for impacting needed payment change. Medicaid payments are indeed lacking, creating workforce famine or workforce deserts.

Medicaid populations are most concentrated where payments are lowest, where workforce is lowest, and where basic access is most impaired. Increased payments for primary care, mental health, cognitive, basic, least technical, least procedural, and oldest services - this is the best way to improve access, they are the best way to balance workforce, and inject jobs and cash into areas in most need of social determinants - the true route to improving health outcomes.

Medicaid payment is a major driver of disparities. The only thing less is even less payment through Medicaid to counties with the most disparities already. If Congress does not continue CHIP funding expiring in 10 months, the 47% of children in these 2621 counties with 40% of the population will have even more difficulty along with all in their counties.

Payment below cost of delivering care helps to shrink care for Medicaid patients - and every other patient in the counties where Medicaid patients are concentrated.

Medicaid payments are so low that many providers fail to accept Medicaid patients. Some places with highest concentrations of physicians have managed to facilitate the flow of federal dollars to nearby sites in zip codes adjacent to highest physician concentrations - using the fact that few in the area accept Medicaid payment. The solution is better payments - not more dollars abused by those already receiving the most. Federal designations can be part of the problem instead of part of the solution - because of payment design.

Medicaid expansions were not specific to the local problem facing these counties. The counties with the most access barriers have the least workforce - but do not have higher deficits of uninsured. They have the Four Horsemen instead.

High Deductible Insurance Plans - Pestilence

High deductible plans are catastrophic plans. They work with high cost services as in emergency care or surgery or critical care. They support primary care less. They represent Pestilence or a torture of local care where needed. The plans also torture those with asthma, high cost medications, and those forced to sign up for insurance.

In the counties lowest in workforce, generalists and general specialists dominate. There are few hospitals and those hospitals cannot handle trauma or major catastrophic illnesses. The catastrophic care plans have always helped to impair payments and workforce to rural counties and other counties where lower income Americans are found. Expansions of High Deductible Insurance Plans support local care where needed least.

Veterans - War

Veterans also gather around lower cost of living areas and have to bypass local primary care. Over 45% of Veterans are found in the 2621 lowest physician concentration counties. Many argue that veterans need special care. Those that prioritize special care for few in few places are compromising local and accessible care for 45% of Veterans by workforce that already has to address the needs of the most complex populations in the nation. The lack of support from Veteran plans helps to compromise care for all in the local settings where Veterans are concentrated.

Medicare - Death

Medicare has a chance at break even relative to cost of delivery, but one must also consider the complexity of Medicare and Dual Eligible and oldest Medicare patients. Over 30% of Medicare payments are associated with death or near death as paid for the final year of life.

In the lowest physician concentration counties

The payments are less
The complexity is greater
Recruitment, retention, locums, turnover, and supplies are more costly
The new regulations are crippling physicians that still take Medicare in more ways that can be counted.

The maps of the voting patterns of recent elections are a reasonable representation of the lowest physician concentration counties. Those in red counties have long known that they were falling behind - but they do not know the specifics.

The Runaway Stampede

This brings up one more element - a close associate of these Four Horsemen of the Primary Care Apocalypse. This element is increasingly important - the rapidly increasing cost of delivery. Some would say that non-delivery costs are more like a stampede.

The substantial sum of $40,000 more added this year per physician for quality metrics via MACRA (Health Affairs) or about 8 billion added this year alone - is subtracted from the 150 billion in primary care payments.
Tens of thousands a year per primary care physician have been added for regulatory costs via EHR, hardware, info tech maintenance, certifications, practice consultants, and administrative costs. Year after year the design is what destroys primary care.
Recruitment and retention costs have also accelerated. Without the payment design to support primary care with sufficient payment, primary care is unable to recruit and retain physicians, clinicians, and other team members. Nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, techs, and other personnel can follow the payment design to health care settings with better pay, more personnel, and greater resources.
As situations worsen over time and in places shortest in workforce, even greater costs are encountered.

Is it Aggressive Family Medicine Advocacy for the Families of Family Medicine to support substantially higher cost of delivery? Is there any evidence basis for a Future of Family Medicine with crippling higher costs of delivery?

The 400 or 500 million overall in increased annual costs for recruitment and retention and locums (perhaps increasing to 700 million due to higher turnover) is small change compared to $40,000 more per physician for quality metrics (Health Affairs) or 8 billion more for 200,000 in primary care. Then you can add $105,000 per primary care physician per year for those with a primary care medical home.

Each of these only subtracts from the 150 billion ceiling for primary care resulting in a steady erosion of primary care delivery capacity just when the demand and complexity are increasing fastest and in the places lowest in primary care.

I would estimate that perhaps a few billion are added to primary care revenue and about 10 - 12 billion is lost to additional costs.

Why Are Lowest Physician Concentration Counties Lowest?

What concentrates the Four Horsemen plans in certain counties? Lower cost of living and lower cost of housing are important - even if health care is more difficult to find. Veterans in particular are found in these counties with 75% of the rural population and 32% of the urban population.

These counties have concentrations that are lower to lowest income, or have fixed incomes, or have chronic illnesses. About 40 - 43% of Disability, Social Security, and Food Stamp spending is sent to these counties with 40% of the US.

Lower property values also help shape lower support for schools and education. The states with counties furthest behind also tend not to make up the low property value inequities.

Lower health care payments and lower education payments result in lesser economic impact - and health and education are a substantial economic impact in these counties - usually in the top 3 or 4 employers and first and second in many counties.

Highest Complexity Shape Lesser Outcomes - and Lower Payments

Over 47% of poor children are found in the 2621 lowest physician concentration counties - a large concentration for places with just 40% of Americans. The population demographics reveal higher concentrations of poor, rural, disabled, Social Security, Dual Medicare/Medicaid, fixed income, least mobile, lowest transportation, least healthy populations. Diabetics, smokers, and obese people are more concentrated. In other nations, greater complexity results in greater levels of payment. In the United States the hospitals and practices caring for the most complex are paid less - and are paid even less by ACA to MACRA designs paying even less where outcomes are less - because of the local population demographics.

Readmission penalties are more likely for hospitals in these counties, three times as likely. The demographics of the counties insure lower payments for those stuck with MACRA or other pay for performance designs. Once again those who have the better locations will do better by payment designs and those who have lesser payment will be paid even less.

The designs shape consequences that cycle into future generations. Highest levels of smoking, diabetes, obesity, and health status issues are found in these counties. There is greater potential to address the higher levels of preventable illness, but this is about far more than clinical interventions and requires far more than a decade of effort.

Recovery of Primary Care

Shortages are seen across the nation in primary care because of lowest payments overall and lowest local primary care support where there are higher concentrations of Medicaid, high deductible, Veteran, and Medicare populations. Not only does this impact the patients that are uninsured or lowly insured, it also impacts those who are insured who live in these cities, counties, zip codes...

Demographics and payment designs make matters even worse. Lowest concentration county hospitals and practices face the lowest payments care for populations that have the most complexity and the least resources. These are counties growing fastest in numbers, in age, in complexity, and in demand. Payment prevents the generalists and general specialties needed for 75% of local workforce. Recovery of primary care, mental health, general surgery, general orthopedics, and other general specialists cannot occur for MD DO NP or PA without true payment reform.

True Payment Reform

The four horsemen of the primary care apocalypse could be different across Medicaid, highdeductible, Medicare, VA - Designs for Medicaid could add dollars. Incentives could shift patients away from high deductible plans or include primary care benefits. Medicare could revise payment for basics up and subspecialized down (required to have any balance or increasing in the primary care ceiling).

The VA did not choose to support local care where 50% of Veterans are found in lowest concentration counties. No, it sent 200 million down their pipeline leaving less to go for care - and instead of spending this via local established primary care offices that are demonstrated to be the most efficient - the VA will be spending on bricks and mortar and establishing new personnel and office equipment and trying to recruit and retain.

Think Local, Plan Local, Act Local

When the Southeast Rural Physician Alliance (SERPA) in Nebraska was starting out - they did not know the payers or those designing the local health insurance plans. They soon figured out who was setting up the plans and they helped benefit managers and employers to revise the plans such that local primary care and local hospitals were supported. Employers benefit when using less costly local services and employees also benefit as they save time and dollars due to less transportation. This also results in fewer dollars leaving the county as those leaving the county shop in more concentrated counties as they go to health care in more concentrated counties.

This basic lesson seems lost upon national leaders, state leaders, and leaders in primary care and in family medicine. Family medicine needs to promote what is good for family physicians and the patients of family physicians.