Nurses can be key "REACH" accountable care organization partners to mitigate Medicare inequity.

We propose that Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) can be key Accountable Care Organization (ACO) partners in mitigating Medicare inequity due to a shortage of primary care physicians. This shortage particularly impacts minority Medicare beneficiaries residing in urban and rural Health Professional Shortage Areas. In order to expand the primary care workforce to open the gateway to our health care system for these beneficiaries, we propose that APRNs provide primary care in a Medicare Neighborhood Clinic, as key partners of a modified "REACH" (Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health) ACO model.

Community Health Centers: a Key Partner to Achieve Medicaid Expansion.

Medicaid expansion is an important feature of the "Affordable Care Act" and also is proposed as a component of some incremental plans for universal healthcare coverage. We describe (1) obstacles encountered with Medicaid coverage, (2) their potential resolution by federally qualified community health centers (CHCs), (3) the current status and limitations of CHCs, and (4) a proposed mega CHC model which could help assure access to care under Medicaid coverage expansion. Proposed development of the mega CHC model involves a three-component system featuring (1) satellite neighborhood outreach clinics, with team care directed by primary care nurse practitioners, (2) a hub central CHC which would closely correspond to the logistics and administration of current CHCs, and (3) a teaching hospital facilitating subspecialty care for CHC patients, with high-quality and cost-effectiveness.

Community Health Centers Could Provide Better Outsourced Primary Care for Veterans.

The "VA Mission Act of 2018" will expand the current "Choice Program" legislation of 2014, which has enabled outsourcing of VA care to private physicians. As the ranks of Veteran patients swell, Congress intended that the Mission Act will help relieve the VHA's significant access problems. We contend that this new legislation will have negative consequences for veterans by diverting support from our VA system of 1300 hospitals and clinics.

A New Community Health Center/Academic Medicine Partnership for Medicaid Cost Control, Powered by the Mega Teaching Health Center.

Community health centers (CHCs), a principal source of primary care for over 24 million patients, provide high-quality affordable care for medically underserved and lower-income populations in urban and rural communities. The authors propose that CHCs can assume an important role in the quest for health care reform by serving substantially more Medicaid patients. Major expansion of CHCs, powered by mega teaching health centers (THCs) in partnership with regional academic medical centers (AMCs) or teaching hospitals, could increase Medicaid beneficiaries' access to cost-effective care.

States Can Transform Their Health Care Workforce.

The United States faces the simultaneous challenges of improving health care access and balancing the specialty and geographic distribution of physicians. A 2014 Institute of Medicine report recommended significant changes in Medicare graduate medical education (GME) funding, to incentivize innovation and increase accountability for meeting national physician workforce needs. Annually, nearly $4 billion of Medicaid funds support GME, with limited accountability for outcomes.

Ambulatory training for primary care general internists: innovation with the affordable care act in mind.

Background: Although primary care general internists (PCGIs) are essential to the physician workforce and the success of the Affordable Care Act, they are becoming an endangered species.

Objective: We describe an expanded program to educate PCGIs to meet the needs of a reformed health care system and detail the competencies PCGIs will need for their roles in team-based care.

Intervention: We recommended 5 initiatives to stabilize and expand the PCGI workforce: (1) caring for a defined patient population, (2) leading and serving as members of multidisciplinary health care teams, (3) participating in a medical neighborhood, (4) improving capacity for serving complex patients in group practices and accountable care organizations, and (5) finding an academic role for PCGIs, including clinical, population health, and health services research.

Academic medicine: a key partner in strengthening the primary care infrastructure via teaching health centers.

In the United States, a worsening shortage of primary care physicians, along with structural deficiencies in their training, threaten the primary care system that is essential to ensuring access to high-quality, cost-effective health care. Community health centers (CHCs) are an underused resource that could facilitate rapid expansion of the primary care workforce and simultaneously prepare trainees for 21st-century practice. The Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education (THCGME) program, currently funded by the Affordable Care Act, uses CHCs as training sites for primary-care-focused graduate medical education (GME).

Medical student exposure to and attitudes about pharmaceutical companies.

Purpose: Medical students are at-risk to the influence of pharmaceutical company (Pharma) marketing. As interactions with the industry come under increasing scrutiny and regulation, previous studies on student-Pharma relations no longer may be accurate. This study assessed students' attitudes toward and interactions with Pharmas at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UWSMPH).

Teaching primary care in community health centers: addressing the workforce crisis for the underserved.

Universal coverage and multiple initiatives to improve health care delivery are crucial components of health care reform. However, the missing link has been a plan to rapidly address the primary care workforce crisis for the underserved. The authors propose a link between primary care graduate medical education and care for the underserved in community health centers, where expansion will be necessary for the anticipated increase in Medicaid and insured patients.

Wisconsin physician opinions on health care reform.

Objective: To determine Wisconsin physicians' opinions regarding health care reform.

Methods: The University of Wisconsin Survey Research Center performed a 46-question mail survey of 2500 randomly selected physicians from the Wisconsin Medical Society master list of practicing physicians. Respondents rated opinions on a 5-point Likert scale.

Short report: factors that affect specialty choice and career plans of Wisconsin's medical students.

Objective: To identify factors that influence specialty choice among Wisconsin medical students and provide insight into approaches to encourage more students to pursue careers in primary care.

Methods: The importance of several factors in medical student career choice was surveyed using a Web survey convenience sample of all Wisconsin medical students. Students intending to pursue a career in primary care and in other specialties were compared.