The Center for American Progress released a new health care report with a lot of bright ideas for approaching shortages in the health care work force. Understanding the impact that a primary care practitioner shortage will have on our nation's health care, Closing the Health Care Workforce Gap calls for reforms to federal workforce policies such as:
- Creating a permanent National Health Workforce Commission to better align federal payment policies for health professions;
- Support for health care workers in high-need specialties and underserved areas;
- Reform the training of health professionals to grow our health care workforce.
You can read the full set of recommendations by downloading the full PDF of the paper here. Although these are great ideas for federal reforms, it is important to look beyond federal legislation to changes that can be made to optimize primary care practice models to continue increasing health quality outcomes and make primary care as equitable as speciality practices.
You can check out some of the highlights from the Bipartisan Working Group discussion on primary care to get an idea of where some of the most influential stakeholders in health care reform stand on the issue.
