Becker's Hospital Review

63 FINANCE CMO / CARE DELIVERY University of Michigan faculty criticize concierge medicine program for letting patients 'jump the line' By Megan Knowles A concierge medicine pilot program that intends to enhance patient ac- cess to primary care physicians at Ann Arbor-based University of Michigan's Michigan Medicine drew criticism from uni- versity faculty, who claimed the program is being used to "jump the line" and is discrim- inating against underserved patients, accord- ing to MLive. e concierge medicine program, called Vic- tors Care, is a direct primary care program that charges patients an annual membership fee to obtain more access and time with their primary care physician. e program is cur- rently accepting enrollees. Physicians in concierge medicine practices limit the number of accepted patients to 20 percent of the number accepted in traditional primary care practices, according to Michigan Medicine. is limitation allows physicians to give more time and attention to each patient. Michigan Medicine faculty detailed con- cerns about the launch of Victors Care in a Jan. 29 letter to UM CEO and Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs Marschall Run- ge, MD, PhD, and Executive Vice Dean for Clinical Affairs David Spahlinger, MD. e letter asked to "stop recruiting our patients to this program and advertising it as providing much better care than all the rest of our pri- mary care clinics." "As primary care physicians, we struggle on a daily basis to get our patients in to see spe- cialists and to get critical testing," the letter reads. "Instead of addressing this critical barrier for all patients at Michigan Medicine, the implication is that Victors Care will now allow those who pay to jump the line. Some of our specialist colleagues have told us they fear being pressured to fit Victors Care patients ahead of others as they were not asked how they felt about having Victors Care." Faculty also expressed concern that the "qual- ity care" label provided through Victors Care implies regular primary care physicians do not provide quality care, with "many" physi- cians noting Victors Care will "cherry-pick" patients more likely to be in good health. e faculty argued this could worsen quality measures for physicians outside of the Vic- tors Care program by leaving them with more "sicker, poorer patients." "Taking a physician from regular practice and reducing their patient load to 400 pa- tients will mean that those other 1,000-2,000 patients will now be moved to the rest of us to assume their care, reducing access to care for all," the letter reads. Michigan Medicine spokesperson Mary Mas- son acknowledged some faculty raised con- cerns about the program and said Michigan Medicine is working with this group on mu- tually satisfactory solutions that would bene- fit patients. "We're committed to ethical, accessible care for all our patients and whatever programs we put in place should not diminish that in any way," Ms. Masson told MLive. "is will not adversely affect the access of other patients to our outstanding healthcare system." n Death penalty, media campaigns and more: 5 things to know about Trump's opioid plan By Brian Zimmerman P resident Donald Trump introduced his administra- tion's plan to address the nation's opioid overdose epidemic in New Hampshire March 19, according to CNN. Here are five things to know. 1. A senior White House official told CNN the new plan would detail recommendations for how the $6 billion re- cently appropriated by Congress to address the crisis should be spent. 2. The plan will focus on implementing stiffer legal pen- alties for drug dealers, along with increased prevention and education efforts via a nationwide media campaign about the dangers of opioids. Other initiatives will include increasing access to federal funds for addiction treatment and helping recovering opioid users find jobs. 3. The plan's more punitive approach to penalizing drug dealers includes the pursuit of the death penalty in some instances. "The Department of Justice will seek the death penalty against drug traffickers when it's appropriate under cur- rent law," Andrew Bremberg, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, told reporters during a March 18 call, according to CNN. 4. Senior White House officials did not offer further details on the death penalty proposal during the call, but did say the initiative — headed up by the DOJ — would not involve the passage of legislation from Congress. 5. President Trump and first lady Melania Trump attended the New Hampshire event together. The two are collabo- rating on the opioid advertisement campaign. "The first lady wants to focus on the well-being of children with ads that lay out you are a somebody, not a statistic, don't start with drugs, and educate them," a senior White House official told reporters March 18, according to CNN. "The President is more shock the conscience. He wants to shock people into not using it." n

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