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(Sponsor: District of Columbia Chapter)
WHEREAS, CMS has declared that payments to physicians should be shifted from volume to value and the ACP has appropriately declared that concentrating on volume as a payment strategy is unwise; and
WHEREAS, various consumer oriented organizations seem to be emphasizing the cost of medical care/procedures over the quality/potential medical utility to patients of various types of medical care/procedures; and
WHEREAS, the ACP is working with one of these organizations (Consumer Reports) in their efforts to modify how medical care is being provided to patients; and
WHEREAS, it is clearly ACP policy to value the quality and potential medical utility of various types of medical care/procedures, not simply how expensive or inexpensive they may be (as is well delineated in the November/December 2015 Internist article written by Joshua Liao MD); therefore be it
RESOLVED, that the Board of Regents clarifies the meaning of "high value care" and emphasizes to CMS, organizations such as Consumer Reports, and to the general public through press releases and other appropriate means that the cost of medical care/procedures is not the primary determinant of value, but rather the benefit to the patient of such care/procedures relative to the cost.