California seeks to boost primary care

Many people believe that investing in primary care can curtail the need for specialty care, with the thought that primary care can identify and treat many issues early on, when such treatment is less expensive. At the same time, compensation in the medical field tends to reward specialists. KFF Health news reports that the California agency tasked with slowing healthcare spending appears to be trying to rectify the situation by setting a goal for insurers to spend 15% of their budgets on primary care (up from the current 7%). At this point, there does not seem to be much incentive in place, with the possible exception that the agency might exempt insurers from a previously set annual limit of 3.5% for growth in healthcare spending.

The purported timeline is ten years, which seems ambitious given that "The agency said it will begin to collect primary care spending data in fall 2025, but that information may not be released for two more years." If insurers are unable to negotiate better prices for specialty care, it would be ironic if the growth in healthcare spending accelerates because insurers try to spend more on primary care to comply with this goal.