**High-Need Physician Workforce Incentives Act Endorsed by American
College of Physicians**

Legislation Would Help Avert Collapse of Primary Care;

Enable Patients to Get Better Care Through a Patient-Centered Medical
Home

WASHINGTON -- The American College of Physicians (ACP) today gave its
strong support to the bipartisan High-Need Physician Workforce
Incentives Act of 2007. The six-part bill introduced today by
Representative Michael C. Burgess, MD, and Representative Henry Cuellar
of Texas focuses on workforce issues of physicians.

"Rep. Burgess and Rep. Cuellar have recognized the critical importance
of enacting legislation to reverse a rapid decline of physicians going
into primary care and other generalist fields," said David C. Dale, MD,
FACP, president of the American College of Physicians. "We
enthusiastically endorse their efforts to provide scholarships and debt
relief for physicians who choose primary care and agree to practice in
critical shortage areas."

The first proposal of the High-Need Physician Workforce Incentives Act
of 2007 suggests a "scholarship program for general physicians in
high-need areas." The proposal would empower the [Health Resources and
Services Administration (HRSA)](http://www.hrsa.gov/) to make grants to
health facilities to alleviate shortages of internal medicine, family
practice, pediatric, emergency medicine, general surgery and OB/GYN
physicians. Scholarship recipients will, after completing residency,
serve as generalist physicians at high-need facilities for a year for
each year they received a scholarship.

The bill's second proposal provides for a "loan repayment program" to
alleviate shortages of the same types of physicians. For each year of
service at a high-need facility, HRSA will pay up to \$35,000 of the
principal and interest of an individual's educational loans.

"These two parts of Rep. Burgess's and Rep. Cuellar's bill will create
targeted incentives, as ACP previously has proposed, to encourage
students to pursue careers as primary care physicians," Dr. Dale noted.
"The legislation also will provide grants to states to provide
physicians with care coordination fees for managing and coordinating
care, in partnership with patients, through a Patient-Centered Medical
Home (PCMH)."

The bill creates a "primary care physician retention and medical home
enhancement grants." The proposal directs HRSA to make grants to the
states to provide financial aid for care management to physicians in
medically-underserved areas to support patient-centered care in a
qualified medical home.

Based on the PCMH, the proposal's medical home model includes:

1)  Physicians advocating for their patients to obtain optimal,
    patient-centered outcomes defined by partnership between the
    physician, the patient, and the patient's family.

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1)  Decision-making guided by evidence-based medicine and clinical
    decision support tools.

2)  Physician accountability for continuous quality improvement through
    voluntary participation in performance measurement.

3)  Active patient participation in decision-making, patient personal
    responsibility for diet and lifestyle, and collection of patient
    feedback.

4)  Utilization of health information technology to support optimal
    patient care.

5)  Patients and families participate in quality improvement at the
    practice level.

"ACP is delighted Rep. Burgess is continuing his interest and help in
improving America's healthcare system," continued Dr. Dale. "He and Rep.
Cuellar are to be commended for addressing the critical need to have a
strong foundation of primary care and generalist physicians to meet the
needs of an aging population with more chronic diseases and to support a
new model of delivering care---the patient-centered medical home---that
will result in better outcomes for patients and more efficient use of
resources."

Rep. Burgess today also introduced two other bills, one that would
create a pathway to eliminating Medicare cuts from the Sustainable
Growth Rate (SGR) Formula and another that would provide grants to new
primary care residency programs. ACP looks forward to working with Rep.
Burgess and other members of Congress on legislation that would lead to
repeal of the SGR\-- while providing positive, predictable and stable
payments during the transition years to repeal \--and on the most
effective approaches to support training programs in primary care.

The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty
organization and the second-largest physician group in the United
States. ACP members include 123,000 internal medicine physicians
(internists) related sub-specialists, and medical students. Internists
specialize in the prevention, detection and treatment of illness in
adults.

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