Contest

"I’m sorry, but I just can’t afford to pay for your health insurance any more."

How many small business owners are being forced to make this gut-wrenching announcement to loyal, deserving employees? The sad fact is that health care has become so complex and so expensive that it is just plain out of reach for many who need it the most.

The winds of health care reform are blowing in Washington, but Michigan can’t wait until the politicians are done haggling. And we are not waiting! A group of volunteers, supported by a handful of paid staff, has been working since 2004 to figure out how to fix primary care. Primary care is the foundation of our health care system. It is the place where we are known as individuals and receive personalized, compassionate care. High quality primary care means better health and lower costs. And yet, primary care is in jeopardy.

The Michigan Primary Care Consortium spent its first two years bringing together experts to lay out exactly what the problems were. They uncovered huge challenges. For example, they saw that insurance often pays generously for surgeries like amputations for diabetics, but may pay nothing at all for office visits where patients learn how to prevent amputations by controlling their diabetes. They also discovered that doctors are leaving the field of primary care in droves because they can work fewer hours and make far more money in specialties like radiology or cardiology.

After the problems were lain out clearly, the Consortium went to work on figuring out what it would take to fix them. They read everything available and talked to world leaders in health care. Amazingly, they came up with realistic solutions – not easy solutions, but do-able - if the right people agreed to put changes into place. The best part of the Consortium’s process is that the right people are the ones who have been working on this problem from the beginning. Other leaders are joining the Consortium every month (almost 70 total as of July, 2009), because they see that we are on the right track.

Some of the solutions are actually starting to be rolled into place. There are a few primary care offices that are transforming themselves into "patient-centered medical homes," with expanded hours and easier access for patients, even by e-mail. In a patient-centered medical home, the doctor brings in a team, like nurse practitioners and dietitians, so the doctor can concentrate on things only a doctor can do. One of the team members is in charge of electronic information systems that can improve patient care and reduce costs. Other solutions will take more time, like changing some medical school approaches, and transforming insurance payment systems. Eventually medical offices will even coordinate with community services like arthritis classes, lead paint screening, food stamps, etc.

So with all this success, why do we need a free website? Well, it’s the economy. The modest state funding which has been keeping the Consortium moving ahead will no longer be available as of October 1. We are entering into a period where the hard-working volunteers will have minimal support from paid staff. Possibly the most critical factor in keeping this remarkable project moving ahead in the coming year is going to be a high-quality web presence. We need to be able to convincingly explain the issues and solutions to potential funders. We need to be able to bring busy people together interactively in real time. We need to be able to alert volunteers to time-sensitive action deadlines. We need to be able to quickly deliver information and software to medical offices. We need to be able to showcase accomplishments to keep unpaid volunteers motivated and proud of what they are doing.

We have a bare bones website now, at http://mipcc.org. But it falls far short of what is needed in this challenging time. Michigan businesses need this project to keep rolling. GreenLite, can you help us?