{"id":2630,"date":"2023-04-28T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2k7s-7bt5.accessdomain.com\/?p=2630"},"modified":"2023-04-28T09:23:57","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T14:23:57","slug":"primary-care-why-it-matters-to-individuals-and-organizations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.premisehealth.com\/resources\/blog\/primary-care-why-it-matters-to-individuals-and-organizations\/","title":{"rendered":"Primary Care: Why it matters to individuals and organizations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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You\u2019re scheduled for a wellness visit with your primary care doctor today. You\u2019ve already waited weeks for this appointment, but you\u2019re not going to make it\u2026again. A meeting ran late, and their office just isn\u2019t nearby. Maybe that thing that\u2019s been bothering you isn\u2019t such a big deal anyway\u2026<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Does this scenario sound familiar? It\u2019s a common story, and many people have felt this way at some point \u2013 if they even managed to schedule a wellness exam in the first place. It\u2019s just not convenient to see a provider for preventive care even with the best intentions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a problem for individuals. But it\u2019s also an issue for organizations. When your healthcare costs go up because your people can\u2019t access primary care, that\u2019s affecting your bottom line. Let\u2019s take a deeper look at how convenient access to preventive primary care benefits your organization and your people.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is primary care?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Primary care is a combination <\/span>of day-to-day healthcare from an internal or family medicine <\/span>provider <\/span>and preventive care, meant to keep people from getting sick (or sicker).<\/span> It\u2019s<\/span> the first stop for most healthcare concerns, from sprained ankles to the common cold.<\/span> It also includes things like <\/span>routine screenings, <\/span>back-to-school vaccines, <\/span>laboratory work for preventive care including cholesterol levels and diagnostic testing for <\/span>issues<\/span> like thyroid conditions or diabetes,<\/span> chronic condition management,<\/span> and counseling on family and lifestyle risk factors.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How does primary care help people stay healthier?\u202f<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n

From 2016 to 2019, <\/span>nearly a third of patients<\/span><\/a> who received medical services did not visit a primary care provider, begging the question: where are people going for their care? The answers are most likely urgent care facilities or emergency rooms, which may address the illness at hand, but do not address primary care needs and can be the source of issues like expensive medical bills, unnecessary testing, duplicative prescriptions, and much more.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Additionally, <\/span>Projections from the Association of American Medical Colleges<\/span><\/a> show that the current primary care physician shortage could reach over 55,000 by 2033, making primary health care even more difficult to find. Let\u2019s talk about what is lost when your people don\u2019t have access to routine primary care.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First, primary care is critical to prevention and early detection for many illnesses. If people get regular exams and screenings, they are more likely to prevent health issues or catch them early and need less care overall.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The second, more subtle benefit is the trust factor. When people see their primary care provider regularly, they develop a relationship. They are more likely to listen to someone they know and trust and more likely to be open and honest about lifestyle habits and medical concerns. That\u2019s powerful. After all, a provider can\u2019t counsel a patient on his options to quit smoking, or refer someone to counseling for anxiety, if they never know those concerns exist.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Employer-sponsored primary care<\/span>\u202f<\/span><\/h2>\n

Organizations are taking the issue of primary care into their own hands, and that\u2019s where Premise Health comes in. We work with hundreds of clients who have decided that the best way to keep their people and dependents healthy, while lowering costs, is to create direct access to primary care. We help them establish onsite centers on campus, <\/span>nearsite centers in the community<\/span><\/a>, and virtual health access that makes it easy and convenient to see a provider.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Depending on the problem you\u2019re looking to solve with primary care, Premise has an ideal solution for any and every employer. Whether it\u2019s reducing urgent care visits, increasing preventive care access, or combining several solutions into one easy-to-manage, comprehensive suite of services, there\u2019s a solution for you.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

P<\/span>rimary care solution<\/span>s at Premise <\/span>ha<\/span>ve<\/span> two key attributes:\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n