TAFP presents town hall discussion
at Travis County Chapter meeting

posted 10.07.10

TAFP CEO Tom Banning and nationally renowned health policy analyst Kim Ross led a lively discussion on health reform and the advent of accountable care organizations at the most recent meeting of the Travis County TAFP Chapter meeting on Sept. 22, 2010, in Austin. The event is the first of several similar meetings TAFP staff plans to conduct in coming months. One of the action initiatives proposed in the Academy’s recently released strategic plan for 2010 and 2011 is to develop an educational program on the new reform law and its impact on family medicine, and offer the program to local TAFP chapters.

“Our town hall discussion provided the family physicians in our area the opportunity to hear the latest interpretations of several areas of health care reform,” said Mark Chassay, M.D., president of the Travis County Chapter of TAFP. “It gave the leadership of TAFP several areas of concern from family physicians that can be focused on in the short-term.”

The discussion consisted largely on accountable care organizations and the likely implications of their influence in the health care marketplace. “Despite the tremendous amount of highly successful physicians in small group practices that attended the meeting, there is still some anxiety as to how these groups fit into the schemes of accountable care organizations,” Chassay said. “TAFP leadership will have to aid members moving forward in inventing plausible, flexible and likely virtual integrative models.”

Chassay applauded TAFP’s efforts in bringing together the physicians in his community to discuss such an important and controversial topic. “These little advancements on consensus will let us ultimately unlock the door to the integration of the medical home,” he said.

If your local chapter is interested in hosting a similar event, please contact TAFP membership coordinator Juleah Williams at (512) 329-8666, ext. 35, or jwilliams@tafp.org.