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WASHINGTON -- Primary care needs an overhaul if it is going to work the way that it should in the U.S., according to a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
"High-quality primary care is the foundation of a high-functioning healthcare system and is critical for achieving healthcare's quadruple aim (enhancing patient experience, improving population health, reducing costs, and improving the healthcare team experience)," noted the 449-page report. "Yet, 25 years since the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report
Primary Care: America's Health in a New Era, this foundation remains weak and under-resourced, accounting for 35% of healthcare visits while receiving only about 5% of healthcare expenditures. Moreover, the foundation is crumbling: visits to primary care clinicians are declining, and the workforce pipeline is shrinking, with clinicians opting to specialize in more lucrative healthcare fields."