J Am Board Fam Med
-
Comment
Continuous primary care is central to comprehensive cancer care: are we ready to meet growing needs?
Primary care engagement is essential to meet the need for high-quality, comprehensive, long-term cancer care. Primary care currently serves an integral role as the point of care for preventive and surveillance cancer screenings. As cancer prevalence rises, primary care will increasingly serve a growing need for care continuity as patients transition between screening, active treatment, and continued follow-up care.
-
Health care reimbursement is increasingly based on quality. Little is known about how clinic-level patient characteristics affect quality, particularly in community health centers (CHCs). ⋯ Clinic variability in delivery rates of preventive services correlates with differences in clinics' patient panel characteristics, particularly the percentage of patients with continuous insurance coverage. Quality scores that do not account for these differences could create disincentives to clinics providing diabetes care for vulnerable patients.