Upcoming Events

A study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 202 that showed female primary care physicians (PCPs) were spending more time per patient per day in the clinic on average, billing fewer visits and generating 10% less visit revenue than male PCPs, controlling for other physician and patient characteristics. Female PCPs spent even more time than their male counterparts with patients who had two or more chronic conditions. The study added urgency to the need to reform primary care payment to reward better health outcomes rather than visit volume. The Medicare physician fee schedule pays clinicians for time, resources, and effort, known as “relative value units” (RVUs) and encourages volume—not better patient outcomes. This webinar will discuss features of the Medicare fee schedule and how its underlying “valuations” can have negative consequences for patients and primary care clinicians, including exacerbating inequities.