In 2004, Partnership established the Health Professionals Roundtable (HPR) on Preventive Services, made up of the leading primary care professional organizations, to facilitate collaboration in addressing issues of common interest and concern in the delivery of clinical preventive services. Through multiple formats, HPR organizations work together to advance preventive care recommendations through
- identification of barriers and solutions; to share knowledge and information about resources, contacts, programs, and tools; and development of common policy solutions for improving
- delivery that can be implemented across organizations, presented at national meetings, and published as journal articles and policy statements issued by the HPR.
In addition, payers, purchasers, government leaders, Federal agencies, health systems, and others wishing to coordinate with the provider community on issues relating to clinical preventive care have a direct means for communication through the HPR rather than having to approach each individually, and the organizations have a venue through which to coordinate their responses.
The Roundtable is chaired by Michael McGinnis, Senior Scholar at the Institute of Medicine.
November 12, 2004—Welcome to Medicare Visit
The initial Health Professionals Roundtable on Preventive Services (HPR) meeting focused on preventive services in the new Welcome to Medicare Visit, which was included in the recently passed Medicare Modernization Act. The Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator, Dr. Mark McClellan, discussed Medicare’s overall prevention efforts, and Dr. Steve Phurrough, director of CMS’s Coverage and Analysis Group, described the specifics of the Welcome to Medicare Visit. Dr. Stephen Woolf, the originator of the HPR, concluded the meeting proposing a potential campaign to communicate the Welcome to Medicare Visit and its prevention provisions to primary care providers.
June 2, 2005—Tobacco Cessation Quitlines
Following a successful first meeting of the HPR, the main issue of the next meeting was tobacco cessation, specifically quitlines. Presentations included the results of the American Cancer Society Quitline clinical trial and the activities of the North American Quitline Consortium. Dr. Steven Schroeder, who heads the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at the University of California, San Francisco, concluded the presentations with a discussion on how different partners can collaborate to promote and market tobacco cessation quitlines and to increase their utilization.
October 12, 2005—Electronic Medical Records and Prevention
The topic of the third HPR meeting was the utility and benefit of electronic medical records (EMR) to prevention and preventive services. Representatives from the Veterans Administration and Kaiser Permanente Mid-Atlantic described their experiences with implementing EMR systems, including automated reminders, and how they improved integration of care and communication between patients and providers. The American Academy of Family Physicians explained the use of EMR systems among family physicians, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality ended the presentations by summarizing the benefits of EMR, particularly with regard to quality and patient safety, and the barriers to adoption in health care practices.
March 13, 2006—Priorities among Clinical Preventive Services and Linkage with Community Programs
The HPR meeting focused on two important prevention issues: 1) priorities and value in clinical preventive services; and 2) linking clinical prevention practice to community programs. The discussion of the first half of the meeting centered on the recent study by Partnership for Prevention and HealthPartners Research Foundation that evaluated and ranked clinical preventive services based on health impact and cost-effectiveness. The second half of the meeting looked at a model and case study (in Seattle) for linking clinical and public health systems.
September 15, 2006—Financial and Other Incentives for Clinical Preventive Services
The topic of the HPR meeting was incentives to promote clinical preventive services, particularly among providers. Discussion included reimbursement, pay-for-performance, and other incentives in the private health sector (HealthPartners) and the public health sector (Medicare). The meeting ended with a dialogue on incentive recommendations for increasing utilization of clinical preventive services.
April 17, 2008—High Value Preventive Services and Cardiovascular Prevention
The latest HPR meeting focused on high-value preventive services and cardiovascular prevention. It provided an update on smoking cessation interventions, particularly quitlines, and a discussion of the promotion of community and policy interventions for cessation. It also examined cardiovascular prevention interventions from a federal perspective (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute), including a focus on increasing aspirin utilization.
October 22, 2008—Preventive Services and the Medical/Healthcare Home
The HPR meeting examined the role of prevention and preventive services and the medical/healthcare home. It provided examples in two states (Michigan and Pennsylvania) of how health systems integrate prevention into the medical/healthcare home. It also discussed the development and function of quality standards in promoting preventive services within the medical/healthcare home model.
