Milbank Primary Care Networks

Milbank-supported networks of state officials, advocates, and others aiming to transform and invest in primary care.

How Does Milbank Support Primary Care Leaders?

The Milbank Memorial Fund has supported leaders promoting advanced primary care for decades. Our networks create forums for members to share data, participate in collaborative learning, and advocate for improved collaboration between the states and the federal government on new and ongoing initiatives. Today, we support two networks of primary care leaders: Making Care Primary Network of State Medicaid Agencies and the Primary Care Investment Network.

Primary Care Transformation

Read Milbank publications on primary care investment, financing, training and more.

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Making Care Primary Network of State Medicaid Agencies

The Milbank Memorial Fund supports and advises the CMS Innovation Center (CMMI) on its new primary care model, Making Care Primary, which is scheduled to launch in July 2024. At CMMI’s request, we established the Making Care Primary (MCP) Network of State Medicaid Agencies (SMAs). This group of SMA leaders meets monthly as a shared learning forum, working on common priorities selected by the group in order to facilitate achievement of milestones such as directional alignment on payment. We anticipate closely following two other new CMMI models, AHEAD and ACO Flex.

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The Primary Care Investment Network

Convened by the Primary Care Development Corporation and supported by the Commonwealth Fund and the Milbank Memorial Fund, this network comprises advocates and officials from more than 20 states who are actively pursuing policy to increase spending on primary care at the state level. The goals of the network are to: (1) Make progress in individual states, (2) Increase interaction among states that are pursuing similar goals, so that they can learn from each other, (3) Build up leadership capacity at the state level, both in and outside of government, and (4) Increase the political salience of the issue by supporting state leaders who are already interested.

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Primary Care Networks

Resource Types

Current Topics

Blog Post

Health Extension Cooperatives: Three States Show the Way

October 2024
Art Kaufman, Craig Jones and Howard Haft
The Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ) has released applications for funding up to 15 state-based health extension cooperatives, a key component of AHRQ’s newly launched Healthcare Extension Service.  More

Publication

Supporting Federally Qualified Health Center Participation in Value-Based Payment to Improve Quality and Achieve Savings

September 2024
Aditya Mahalingam-Dhingra, Vikki Wachino and Kim Prendergast
The authors offer guidelines on designing successful value-based payment contracts for FQHCs and recommend action steps for CMS, state Medicaid agencies, and FQHCs that will enable more of these safety-net providers to participate in value-based care — and realize savings as well as improved quality for patients. More

Blog Post

Primary Care in the Crosshairs of Market Structure Changes

June 2024
Rachel Block
“If this is love I want my money back” – Hot Tuna  This sentiment may well capture the mood in US primary care today. The 2021 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report on primary care described the urgent need to adopt an updated vision and roadmap to improve primary care in the […] More

Publication

Defining the State Role in Primary Care Reform

May 2024
Lauryn Walker, Lisa Dulsky Watkins and Christopher F. Koller
States should consider six key activities to prioritize resources and use their authority most effectively. More

Publication

It Takes Two to Tango: Creating an Effective State–Federal Partnership for Primary Care Reform

May 2024
Lauryn Walker, Shannon Dowler, Barbra Rabson and Bob Rauner
This brief provides seven recommendations for how the federal government can support states in their primary care reform efforts. More

News Article

No appointments available: America’s escalating primary care shortage

April 2024
Christopher F. Koller
In an April 15, 2024, Opinion in Healthcare Dive, Christopher Koller, president of the Milbank Memorial Fund; Kyu Rhee, president and CEO of the National Association of Community Health Centers; and R. Shawn Martin, executive vice president and CEO of the American Academy of Family Physicians, explain that chronic disinvestment and inadequate training have created a shortage of primary care workers. More

Blog Post

Improving Primary Care Access When You Can’t Wait for Policy Change

March 2024
Christopher F. Koller
Ed McGookin had a big problem.  Coastal Medical, the 150-physician medical group in Rhode Island that he leads, was facing more competition for a smaller pool of primary care physicians finishing their residencies in 2022. Now it was losing four physicians to early retirement in December of that year. He had to find new medical […] More

Publication

Considerations for Statewide Advanced Primary Care Programs

March 2024
Howard Haft and Craig Jones
In this report, we share insights gained from our experience working with CMMI on innovative state-led primary care programs in Vermont and Maryland, presenting key elements of approaches to invest new primary care dollars. More

Publication

Testimony: How Primary Care Improves Health Care Efficiency

March 2024
Christopher F. Koller
Invited testimony by Milbank Memorial Fund President Christopher Koller at the US Senate Budget Hearing on How Primary Care Improves Health Care Efficiency. More

Publication

The Health of US Primary Care: 2024 Scorecard Report — No One Can See You Now

February 2024
Yalda Jabbarpour, Anuradha Jetty, Hoon Byun, Anam Siddiqi, Stephen Petterson and Jeongyoung Park
This year’s Scorecard report assesses the health of primary care at the federal level using measures of access, financing, workforce/training, and research More