Washington, D.C. (September 8, 2025) – The Primary Care Collaborative (PCC) President and CEO Ann Greiner has issued the following statement:

“For decades, vaccines have been a cornerstone of primary care and are proven to be a safe, effective way to protect people’s health. They are an essential part of preventive care and America’s public health system. Vaccines save lives, and reduced access to vaccines undermines the health of all Americans.

“The PCC calls on policymakers to preserve access to the full immunization schedule that reflects both science and medical expertise so that Americans continue to have the freedom to safeguard their health with trusted preventive care. Doing so is essential if we’re going to build the healthier nation we all deserve.”

Washington, DC (August 28, 2025) – Primary Care Collaborative (PCC) President and CEO Ann Greiner issued the following statement in response to CMS’s August 28 release of the MSSP ACO 2024 Financial and Quality Results:

“Primary care led ACOs generated nearly double the savings as compared to other ACOs and had excellent performance on quality, including improvements in blood pressure and depression screening.”

“Today’s results provide yet another example of how centering primary care can improve our health system and build on years of evidence demonstrating that when primary care leads, savings and better health outcomes follow. We encourage policymakers to continue investing in the wellbeing and financial health of the nation by making a stronger commitment to primary care.”

This marks the seventh consecutive year that primary care centric ACOs have outperformed their peers. A 2024 report from the PCC—written in partnership with the AAFP Robert Graham Center and Simple Healthcare—found that primary care centric ACOs had vastly outperformed other ACOs for six years running.

Washington, D.C. (July 14, 2025) – Ann Greiner, President and CEO of the Primary Care Collaborative (PCC), has issued the following statement in response to the release of the 2026 Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule issued today:

“After an initial review, we are encouraged CMS aims to tackle many of the core reasons Medicare — and the broader health system — has consistently underinvested in primary care and prevention. PCC will be reviewing the details of the NPRM with our members and responding by the September deadline.”

“Modernizing payment for Medicare primary care is vital, not just for seniors and disabled beneficiaries, but for all Americans. As the nation’s largest payer, Medicare’s payment priorities influence the payment policies of every other health care payer.”

“America clearly needs a reinvigorated national conversation about prioritizing preventing chronic disease and its complications, with whole-person primary care leading the way,” Greiner added.

PCC is ready to engage with CMS on the announced proposals, including those that:

• Build on the Advanced Primary Care Management (APCM) services, with new proposals to promote behavioral health integration in advanced primary care
• Rebalance payment for cognitive-reliant services vs. procedures though a proposed “efficiency adjustment” and a new focus on empirical analysis of clinician time
• Change practice expense reimbursement — shifting resources from facility-to community-based practices
• Make adjustments to the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program and request comment on ways to improving wellness, prevention and chronic disease management

Washington, D.C. (July 9, 2025) — The Primary Care Collaborative (PCC), the leading national, nonpartisan and multi-stakeholder voice advocating for better health and wellbeing for all Americans by strengthening primary care, and its partners are responding to headwinds by updating their existing Shared Principles of Primary Care.

The Shared Principles, a guiding document that more than 380 health care organizations have signed on to, now include an enhanced consensus on how primary care can respond to the fact 129 million Americans have at least one chronic disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Shared Principles signers have agreed to a greater emphasis on the need for prevention and lifestyle changes to combat the chronic disease epidemic as federal policymakers also have increased such calls. The revisions:

• reinforce the role of the community;
• emphasize wellbeing in addition to detecting and treating disease;
• better highlight the importance of health promotion as well as prevention;
• acknowledge the wellbeing of clinicians and staff;
• address conditions for health; and
• underscore whole-person care as described in NASEM’s report “Implementing High-Quality Primary Care.”

Since their release in 2017, the PCC’s Shared Principles have helped guide organizations across the United States’ health system toward a shared vision of comprehensive, high-quality primary care.

The effort to update the Shared Principles is part of a broader initiative by the PCC to promote high-quality, whole person primary care. PCC’s initiative is jointly funded by the Healing Works Foundation (HWF) and the Ardmore Institute of Health (AIH). HWF makes grants to advance the understanding and availability of whole person care in primary care and cancer care in a way that is sustainable and scalable. AIH funds initiatives that promote healthy lifestyles as an equitable and preferred method to prevent, treat, and reverse chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

“These updated Shared Principles reflect a more comprehensive vision of primary care,” said Ann Greiner, President and CEO of the Primary Care Collaborative. “Through a renewed focus toward wellness, prevention, community partnership and the long-term health of both patients and clinicians, primary care is evolving to meet the moment. We realize the aspirational vision of the updated Shared Principles will require sustained investment through better integration—within health care and outside it. It will also mean real movement toward population-based payment and a pivot of the relationship between a person and their care team towards wellbeing.”

Greiner added that comprehensive primary care helps lower costs and foster healthier communities. “These updated Shared Principles remain a critical framework for bettering our nation’s primary care system. As more stakeholders adopt whole-person, team-based approaches, these principles provide both a compass and a call to action.”

“Employers increasingly recognize the most effective way to support their employees’ health needs is by providing comprehensive, whole-person primary care that treats the whole person: mind, body and spirit,” said Christina Bell, Senior Director of Healthcare Strategy at the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions. “These Shared Principles provide an important framework for building care that truly provides effective, whole-person care.”

Dr. Bob Chestnut, a member of the PCC’s Board of Directors and Chief Medical Executive Director at Cummins, Inc., said, “At Cummins, we’ve seen the benefits of applying the Shared Principles firsthand. Person-centered, team-based, community-aligned primary care leads to happier, healthier lives. By creating a place where Cummins employees can get the high-value, whole-person primary care they need—from behavioral health to nutrition counseling to physical therapy—we’ve seen clinical outcomes for diabetes and hypertension above the 98th percentile in the nation.”

To view and sign on to the updated Shared Principles, visit https://thepcc.org/about/shared-principles/.

As organizations committed to strong, whole-person primary care, we urge Congress to oppose the passage of HR 1’s Medicaid and CHIP proposals and any similar proposal that would destabilize primary care and the Medicaid funding which sustains many practices.

On April 25, each of our organizations joined together with 94 primary care stakeholder organizations, urging Congress to take a different path.

Since then, HR 1’s proposed Medicaid funding roll backs have only escalated. The bill now before Congress reportedly contains $930 billion in reduction of federal support for state Medicaid programs and would yield 11.8 million fewer Americans’ with such health coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Other provisions in the Senate bill would reduce coverage further for Americans.

This is not the reform we need. This legislation defunds state Medicaid programs and will destabilize the primary care practices and local community health centers on which the health of American communities relies. If enacted, patients will see reduced access at a time when an increasing number of Americans already lack access to the primary care they need. The bill’s impacts will be felt acutely by

• Rural Communities: 14 million Americans live in rural communities that rely on Medicaid for economic vitality and population health.
• People with Behavioral Health Conditions: Medicaid remains the nation’s largest payer for behavioral health services– serving 13.9 million beneficiaries with substance use and mental health disorders.
• Medicare: 12 million Medicare enrollees rely on Medicaid for long-term care, behavioral health or cost-sharing assistance.
• Women and Families: Medicaid covers 41% of births in the country and millions of lower-income adults.
• Children: Medicaid and CHIP provide comprehensive coverage and primary care for 37.3 million enrolled children.

By undermining the finances of primary care clinicians, the current bill’s roll back of support for Medicaid will undercut the Administration’s and Congressional leaders’ stated goal of improving prevention and addressing chronic illness. Regrettably, last-minute changes to the bill have not addressed the core problems with the original House legislation’s health provisions, nor mitigated the impacts they will have on primary care and Americans’ health.

Congress must reject these proposals and instead pursue bipartisan solutions that strengthen Medicaid and CHIP.

Primary Care Collaborative
Advocates for Community Health
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Psychological Association Services
American College of Physicians
Community Catalyst
Families USA
National Partnership for Women & Families

Ann Greiner, President and CEO of the Primary Care Collaborative, issued the following statement in response to the latest proposed text for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: 

“For the sake of Americans’ health and the future of primary care, the Primary Care Collaborative (PCC) asks the Senate to reject proposed funding reductions to the Medicaid program. The health provisions in the bill before the Senate today would set back the Administration’s and Congress’s efforts to prevent chronic illnesses and their complications. 

“Last-minute, incremental improvements have not fixed and cannot fix the flaw at the heart of the bill’s health care provisions — defunding primary care and the Medicaid financing on which our health depends. 

“Surveys have shown that at least one-third of primary care practices are worried the changes would force them to shutter, destroying ongoing relationships with care teams and exacerbating existing access challenges for families across the nation.  The CBO estimates that nearly 8 million Americans would lose coverage from the Medicaid provisions alone, which would lead to more patients seeking care in already overwhelmed emergency departments.  

“The outcomes of this approach could stall progress toward the Trump Administration’s goal of a healthier America — escalating our pressing health challenges, including mental health, substance use and chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease. 

“We stand ready with the broader community to work with Congress on pragmatic, bipartisan solutions that improve and enhance the Medicaid program. But first, the US Senate must show courage today and reject these counterproductive proposals.” 

The Primary Care Collaborative has issued the following statement in response to ongoing discussions in the Senate on a proposed reconciliation bill:

Both the Administration and leaders in the House and Senate have committed to addressing chronic conditions, improving prevention and promoting innovative, holistic approaches to care.

But report after report have now made clear that major funding reductions in Medicaid included in budget reconciliation legislation would reduce access to primary care for millions – including the nonpartisan CBO’s latest analysis of the House’s Medicaid provisions. According to that analysis, “states would modify their Medicaid or state-funded insurance programs to curtail their spending by reducing provider payment rates, reducing the scope or amount of optional services, and reducing Medicaid enrollment.” (emphasis added)

The Medicaid reductions included in both the House and still-evolving Senate bill, combined with projected reductions in ACA coverage, imperil primary care practices and community health centers that provide preventive services and set back efforts to address chronic illnesses.

Rather than passing counterproductive and harmful legislation that would undermine the Administration’s and Congress’s efforts to combat chronic illness, we urge lawmakers in both houses to turn instead to a bipartisan approach capable of advancing pragmatic, evidence-based solutions that strengthen Americans’ health.

Washington, D.C. (June 24, 2025) – A recent survey of 561 U.S. primary care clinicians found that more than one-third of respondents are worried proposed Congressional changes to the Medicaid program could imperil their practices.

The Larry Green Center survey (fielded in May)—revealed that 34.7% percent of respondents believe their “practice would lose its financial viability” if there were a reduction in Medicaid funding. Additionally, 40% of respondents believe “more than 10% of [their] patients would no longer receive preventive services” if Medicaid funding were reduced, as is proposed in the current bill under consideration by Congress. Only 15% of respondents believe potential changes would not affect their practice.

“Primary care manages over a third of all medical visits and respondents are telling us that 1 in 3 of them will shudder their doors if Medicaid reductions go through,” said Rebecca Etz, Co-Director of the Larry A. Green Center. “Among those that survive, the proposed changes to Medicaid will dramatically reduce critical aspects of care – like preventive services – and will cause painful reductions to care access.”

Survey respondents are all primary care clinicians. The survey is routinely fielded through a Green Center national research cohort and through the support of over 20 primary care organizations. It is one of the few data sources that regularly offers insights into primary care clinician assessments of what changes to Medicaid would have on the “front door” of the health system.

“This survey underscores how counterproductive these proposals could be to addressing our nation’s chronic disease crisis,” said Ann Greiner, President and CEO of the Primary Care Collaborative. “Millions would lose access to preventive care and effective care management, and more Americans could be forced to rely on already overburdened emergency departments for routine care.”  The CBO estimates that 7.8 million Americans would lose coverage under the House version of the bill.

Additional details of the survey are available here.

The survey, funded by the Healing Works Foundation, was fielded May 8 – 15 by the Larry Green Center in collaboration with Elation Health and 20 primary care organizations. Survey findings are regularly disseminated in partnership with the Primary Care Collaborative.

The PCC has previously urged Congress to reconsider the proposed changes, including in a joint letter with 94 other organizations spanning the health care landscape and a release issued earlier this year.

About the Survey

Fielded by the Larry A. Green Center and funded by the Healing Works Foundation, Flash Surveys are a periodic (4-8 times a year) survey of questions meaningful to frontline primary care clinicians, initiated in the Spring of 2024. Results are shared directly with participants, publicly posted on the Larry Green Center website, and widely disseminated to policymakers. Series 4 reports data from 561 respondents from 49 states and Washington DC: 65% family medicine, 9% pediatrics, 15% internal medicine, 2% geriatrics, and 3% other. Respondents were 72% MD/DO, 16% NP, 3% PA, 3% PhD, and 6% other. Settings: 14% FQHC or look alike, 21% rural, 18% residencies, 30% had 1-3 clinicians, 41% had 10+ clinicians. 36% self-owned, 41% hospital/health system owned, 21% DPC/membership based.

About the Larry A. Green Center

The Larry A. Green Center for the Advancement of Primary Health Care for the Public Good is a thought collective founded by Rebecca Etz, PhD at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Kurt Stange, MD, PhD at Case Western Reserve University. The Green Center works to reclaim and reconstitute the intellectual foundations of primary care, to advance the science of medicine learned and practiced within layered and competing social frameworks of meaning, and to deliver on a now 50-year-old promise: better health and improved health care through a synergistic focus on both humanism and healing. We are nimble, inquisitive, curious, and open. We make personal doctoring and innovation visible.

About the Primary Care Collaborative

Founded in 2006, The Primary Care Collaborative (PCC) is the leading national, nonpartisan and multi-stakeholder voice advocating for better health and wellbeing for all Americans by strengthening primary care. Representing a broad coalition that includes patient and consumer advocacy groups, health care clinics, professional societies, payers, leading corporations and other health care stakeholders, the PCC’s mission is to unify and engage diverse stakeholders in promoting policies and sharing best practices that improve our nation’s health by strengthening primary care. www.thepcc.org

WASHINGTON, DC – June 5, 2025 — The Primary Care Collaborative (PCC), the leading national, non-partisan and multi-stakeholder voice advocating for better health and wellbeing for all Americans by strengthening primary care,  presented its 2025 Barbara Starfield Awards to leading advocates and practitioners who have demonstrated records of improving the nation’s health by advancing and strengthening high-quality primary care at the national, state or community level and at  the practice level.

“These outstanding primary care champions have impacted every part of the system — from health care education to direct patient care,” said PCC President and CEO Ann Greiner at last night’s award ceremony. “Despite our nation’s substantial  underinvestment in primary care, these leaders are achieving outstanding results for patients and our health care system.”

The awards were presented in person at the Barbara Starfield Awards Dinner on June 4, 2025, during PCC’s biennial DC conference, Scaling What Works for Better Health.

Click here for award photos for use.

Barbara Starfield Primary Care Leadership Award

Allan Goroll, MD

Harvard Medical School; Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Goroll is considered one of the pioneers of modern primary care internal medicine. He graduated summa cum laude from Brandeis University and cum laude from Harvard Medical School. With help from collaborating MGH faculty and while still in medical school, he designed and initiated the nation’s first dedicated primary care internal medicine residency program, which set the national standard for subsequent program certification and federal funding under the Health Resources and Services Administration.

About the Barbara Starfield Primary Care Leadership Award

The PCC established the Barbara Starfield Primary Care Leadership Award in 2012 to honor Dr. Starfield, recognizing her enduring commitment to the philosophy that all individuals should receive comprehensive, coordinated and person-focused care. The award is presented to an individual or organization that demonstrates exceptional work toward advancing the goals of primary care and a strong commitment to person-focused care.

Primary Care Community Leadership Award

Barbra G. Rabson, MPH

President and CEO, Massachusetts Health Quality Partners

Barbra G. Rabson is the President and CEO of the Massachusetts Health Quality Partners (MHQP). Under her leadership, MHQP has become a national leader in the measurement and public reporting of health care information. In the past few years, Rabson has focused the organization’s work around three main areas of impact: improving patient experiences, advancing health equity and strengthening primary care.

About the Primary Care Community Leadership Award

The Primary Care Community Leadership Award honors an individual or organization that has demonstrated remarkable leadership to ensure that primary care is foundational to community or state health care reform efforts. Such efforts are critical to developing and understanding what works to strengthen primary care and to inform broader national efforts to improve the nation’s health by making primary care more robust.

Advanced Primary Care Practice Award 

Anna Flattau, MD, MSc, MS – in recognition of Jefferson Health

Anna Flattau, MD, MSc, MS, is a physician leader who links vision, strategy, systems design, and implementation to drive sustainable, mission-driven care within complex health systems. Dr. Flattau is currently Enterprise Chief of Primary Care at Jefferson Health, and Alumni Professor and Chair of Family and Community Medicine at Sidney Kimmel College of Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. In this role, she leads a nationally renowned academic family medicine department, and is the health system leader for population-based clinical care of over 1,000,000 people in Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey, including traditional primary care; interprofessional care; telehealth primary care services; integrated behavioral health; medical weight management; complex care models; and community-based care.

About the Advanced Primary Care Practice Award

This award is presented to an organization that is an extraordinary primary care practice. This practice serves as a model for transformation through innovation and demonstrates a commitment to the Shared Principles of Primary Care by delivering patient- and family-centered, team-based and high value care. Over 380 organizations across the country have signed on to PCC’S Shared Principles of Primary Care.

David Meyers Research Award

Dawna I. Ballard, PhD

University of Texas, Austin in recognition of the piece “Unhurried Conversations…“

Dawna I. Ballard, PhD, is associate professor of organizational communication and technology in the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin. An expert in chronemics (the study of time as it is bound to human communication) she researches what drives our pace of life and its impact on the communication practices and long-term vitality of organizations, communities, and individuals.

About the David Meyers Research Award

The award was established in 2023 to honor and advance the legacy of Dr. David Meyers, a primary care physician and leader in health policy research. Dr. Meyers’ work and influence extends across many sectors within health care and is most notable for its interdisciplinary nature, humanism, policy relevance and leadership in the field of primary care. This award is presented to the individual whose research work best exemplifies these commitments and Dr. Meyers’s impact.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Tod Didier

tdidier@thepcc.org | 202-417-2069

Primary Care Collaborative President and CEO Ann Greiner issued the following statement in response to the House passing a budget resolution that includes $880 billion in cuts that likely will affect Medicaid:

“If the cuts envisioned in last night’s House budget resolution become law, it would impair access to primary care and undermine the Trump Administrations efforts to improve the nation’s health by addressing chronic conditions,” said Greiner. “We urge Congress to step back from a drastic move that would undermine clinicians’ ability to deliver the high-quality primary care people deserve.

“Small, independent practices across the nation — especially those in small towns and rural communities — rely on Medicaid funding to keep the doors open,” continued Greiner. “These cuts have the potential to impact coverage for millions: it would make it harder for all Americans to access primary care as primary care’s financial base is weakened.

“The PCC agrees that bipartisan work to strengthen Medicaid primary care is needed — but  imposing deep cuts on state governors and legislatures will  set back efforts to address chronic disease. We stand ready to help inform lawmakers on successful value-based arrangements in Medicaid that are leveraging technology and producing better results with the goal of scaling these innovations through bipartisan policy solutions.”