A report from Washington DC – September 2024

From About Garrison Bliss, MD:

The DPCC fly-in has been the most productive we have seen.  We are on the verge of passing one or both of our bills which have wide bipartisan support in both the House and Senate.  One deals with solving the HSA problem nationally.  The other opens a doorway between Medicaid and DPC that would allow us to negotiate directly with Medicaid in every state without compromising our culture and care.  Neither of these bills will force ANY of us to participate in Medicaid and Medicare if we do not wish to do so.  (go to www.dpcare.org for more details).  Hint health recorded the steering committee meeting and we will let you know how to access the video once it is available.

We also had the pleasure of meeting with Liz Fowler, the head of CMMI (Medicare and Medicaid Innovation).  I think that after many years of listening and working ONLY with “Stakeholders”, they are ready to develop an interface with DPC (the REAL innovators in healthcare) that is neither toxic to Primary Care nor ineffective.  We already have considerable data that our impact on healthcare quality, accessibility and patient satisfaction far exceeds any of the expensive and minimally useful approaches they have championed in the last decade.  Since we did all of this without their help,  we know that they need us more than we need them, which gives us substantial leverage.  CMMI also has the ability to unilaterally wave the poisonous contracting which has driven us from engagement with Medicare and Medicaid.  We have also made it clear to them that we are the only form of Primary Care growing at 20% a year while existing primary care continues to struggle and shrink.  They know that they need to increase the number of Primary Care doctors by a factor of 3-4x and we are the only game in town that might accomplish that. 

Our best chance to get passage through the Senate and over to the White House is during the lame-duck session after the November election.  We will let you know if we need a big showing at that time.  If you want to open up the opportunity for DPC to care for everyone in America without interference, please get involved with the next Fly-In.  I will let you know if and when we need your help in November/December.