Good primary care is essential to improving population health. The Milbank Memorial Fund approaches strengthening primary care from two angles: 1) increasing primary care investment, and 2) improving primary care delivery with payment reform that is coordinated across all payers.

Research shows that an underinvestment in primary care is one of several reasons why the US health care system yields poorer population health outcomes than other countries. The Milbank Memorial Fund is supporting policymakers who want to learn more about and use primary care spending measures to gauge the level of primary care investment overall and by major payer group.

Measuring primary care spending, or the portion of health care dollars that go to primary care, is one way to establish how strongly a state is committed to primary care. Practical steps toward generating statewide primary care spending measures include determining how to define primary care, how to collect and analyze the necessary data, and what policy levers need to be in place to implement the measure.

The Milbank Memorial Fund also supports multipayer primary care transformation. Our Multipayer Primary Care Network is a forum for payers and other stakeholders to share data, participate in collaborative learning, and advocate for improved collaboration between the states and the federal government on new and ongoing primary care initiatives. Read a recent Milbank Memorial Fund letter responding to US Department of Health and Human Services request for information regarding their Initiative to Strengthen Primary Care.