DOCTORS SERVING POOR COMMUNITIES LOSE MONEY ON EVERY PATIENT VISIT, LEAVING THEM TO SCRAMBLE TO MAKE UP FOR THE REIMBURSEMENT SHORTFALL

New York’s Primary Care Reimbursement—A Roadmap to Better Outcomes Report

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Primary Care Development Corporation and RSM McGladrey, Inc. joined by New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Comptroller Bill Thompson in Releasing Stunning New Report.

The Primary Care Development Corporation released a new study titled, “New York’s Primary Care Reimbursement—A Roadmap to Better Outcomes,” a comprehensive report documenting massive provider financial losses ranging from $28 to as much as $226 per patient visit on primary care delivery and a payment structure that offers widely different compensation often for the same exact services. In an attempt to remain viable, providers scramble to find grants and other revenues to “plug the holes.”

“As this report articulates, the current healthcare reimbursement system in New York State is inadequate and irrational and counterproductive and everyone—patients, providers and the entire population—is suffering as a result,” said Ronda Kotelchuck, Executive Director of the Primary Care Development Corporation, the non-profit organization that will release the study. “Until providers are fairly reimbursed in a way that makes sense, and we end the practice of reimbursing different amounts for the same exact services performed, we will continue to experience huge problems recruiting doctors into the primary care field; a venue that has time and again been proven to reduce costs, improve health outcomes and reduce health disparities.”

“It is simply unacceptable that primary care doctors, health centers and hospitals are spending a significant portion of their time desperately seeking ways to barely make ends meet,”Quinn said. “Reimbursement rates for out-patient services are not only inadequate; they’re entirely inconsistent. If we have any hope of truly reforming our city and state healthcare system, we must start by fixing a reimbursement system that puts roadblocks in the way of providers helping patients."

“The PCDC report shows just how poorly we are spending our money on what should be our top healthcare priority: primary and preventivecare,” Thompson, who earlier this year released a report showing that the poorest New York City neighborhoods had the fewest number of primary care physicians per capita, said. “Providing primary and preventive care saves lives and money. PCDC’s report shows that unless Albany addresses our backward primary care reimbursement system, it will remain nearly impossible for us to provide the services that New York City families need.”