ACOFP President

By Ronnie B. Martin, DO, FACOFP dist.

April 18, 2008

Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative Meet in D.C.
ACOFP Director of Government Relations Ray Quintero and I were joined by Shawn Martin, Director of Government Relations and John Crosby, Executive Director of the AOA at a meeting of diverse stakeholders on the medical home movement in the nation’s capitol.

Leaders from the physicians groups such as the ACOFP, AOA, AAFP, ACP, ACOI met with leaders from industry, government and patients advocacy groups to examine ways to improve health care access, quality, efficiency and effectiveness using the medical home model. The day examined barriers to acceptance and opportunities for implementation of the concept.

Payment reform was prominent and supported among all the groups present in concept. Yet emphasis was made that this did not translate to paying more than the current $2.6 trillion dollars invested in health care by employers, governments and individual patients.

Evidence of the potential for increased access, more effective utilization of present resources and better health outcomes was presented at the meeting and the position that preventative health practices, patient wellness and chronic disease management would advance if every patient had a primary care provider and medical home was supported once again.

Under the leadership of Dr. Bruce Cunningham and Dr. Al Joyces, the ACOFP Committee on Practice Management and its subcommittee on the Medical Home are working to develop resources and programs that will allow every member of our association to become educated concerning the requirements, rights, benefits and responsibilities required to establish a medical home in their individual practice and allow each of you to make an informed choice if you wish to participate or not. Programs are being prepared for presentation in both Las Vegas at the ACOFP/AOA annual meeting and in Washington, D.C. at the 2009 ACOFP Annual Convention.

HHS Opens Applications for Innovative Electronic Health Record Demonstration Project
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt has called on community leaders across the country to apply for a new demonstration project that provides Medicare incentive payments to physicians for the use of certified electronic health records (EHRs) to improve patient care. The project, which will be open to small- and medium-sized primary care physician practices, is expected to reduce medical errors and improve the quality of care for an estimated 3.6 million Americans.

The ACOFP Committee on Practice Management, its subcommittee on Electronic Medical Records chaired by Dr. Jeffry Lindenbaum, Board of Governors and staff of the ACOFP are prepared to assist you in applying for participation in these demonstration projects and encourages individual osteopathic physicians and groups to participate in order to establish models for physician-friendly policy and procedures for these areas.

The application period is open now through mid-May for communities interested in becoming one of the 12 sites. Visit U.S. Health and Human Services for more information about the EHR demonstration project.

ACOFP’s Fit for Life
Libraries for the Future has a Fit for Life website that provides library systems with training, resources and support to promote health and wellness among teens and their families, with a specific focus on populations in urban areas with limited access to reliable health information. In 2004, MetLife Foundation awarded a grant to Libraries for the Future (LFF) to pilot Get Real, Get Fit!, a program designed to help combat the growing epidemic of obesity and physical inactivity among young people.

Osteopathic family physicians recognize that along with the epidemic of obesity found in our country today comes an epidemic of diabetes, heart disease and other health complications, many of which are preventable through education, role modeling and motivation for our patients. The relationship that you have with your patients is the most powerful tool of all for changing behaviors, and tools such as this give you ammunition to augment your efforts .

Refresh Your OMT with Somatic Dysfunction in Osteopathic Family Medicine
ACOFP’s Somatic Dysfunction in Osteopathic Family Medicine, a textbook developed by the Committee on Osteopathic Principles and Practice and published by Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins is a great way to update your osteopathic diagnostic and treatment skills. The textbook focuses on the evaluation of the patient that presents with somatic dysfunction or the functional impairment of the musculoskeletal system, and its related neural and vascular elements in the context of the practice of family medicine. Profits from this text support the ACOFP Foundation and are primarily used to support student chapters and residents.  

Back to Campus
West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine ACOFP student chapter, Teah Bayless, President, sponsored a discussion on innovative business practices. Vic Wood, DO spoke on “Innovative Business Practices: Challenges and Successes Involved in Owning Your Own Practice.”

As those of you in practice know and as these events show our students, there are countless models/styles of practice available to osteopathic family physicians, from employment to entrepreneur, urgent care to operative obstetrics. Practice options are available to fit any lifestyle. Over the 40 plus-year career of most physicians, no other discipline offers as much variety of practice types or opportunities as family medicine, and most physicians will find that they modify their practice on the average of three times during their career.

Make your opinions known! Send an email to me and ACOFP. Share your thoughts, make comments, and tell us what you have been doing in regards to osteopathic family medicine.

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