SOUTHEAST IDAHO — The Patient Quality Alliance would like to recognize the Primary Care Specialists Clinic for achieving excellence in preventative care for its patients in Southeast Idaho. PQA is a clinically integrated network dedicated to improving quality of care and decreasing health care costs in Southeast Idaho. PQA works with many local and rural health clinics to accomplish these goals. In 2024, PQA challenged all clinics in the network to provide as many annual wellness visits or exams as possible to their patients. Medicare and other insurers provide this service without any cost to the patient as a wellness benefit. The annual wellness visit or exam is designed to have the provider and patient meet, talk over the age-appropriate health concerns, make sure immunizations and cancer screenings are up to date, and develop a yearly plan to manage the patient’s medical problems. These visits are the center of preventative care and key to decreasing costs of care for communities and nation while improving quality of life for patients.
Dr. Mark Mansfield and Dr. Richard Maynard and the team at Primary Care Specialists Clinic were top in its division in achieving this goal for the fourth quarter of 2024. This is not the first time they have done so well. Primary Care Specialists were also the highest-performing clinic in the first quarter of 2024. Its caring staff reached out to these patients, explained the importance of the wellness visit, expressed concern that the providers had for their health, and patients responded. PQA would also like to thank the public for responding, using this free benefit and following their providers' recommendations for maintaining or improving their health.
Quality-based care is changing how we provide medical care in the United States. Traditionally, patients come to their provider only when sick. Too often they are so sick that treatment may require an emergency room visit or even hospitalization, both of which are very expensive to the patient and the health care system. This has become an unsustainable care delivery model that drives up health care costs for everyone. Annual wellness visits and exams are designed to keep patients healthy and out of the emergency room and hospitals by patients working together with their providers to prevent and manage health problems.
Dr. Mansfield and Dr. Maynard with Primary Care Specialists are great proponents of preventative care. They stated, “At Primary Care Specialists, we are 100% committed to the overall wellness of patients. While we have expertise in treating a wide variety of chronic medical conditions, we emphasize preventative medicine to monitor for and treat conditions early. We feel that by carefully monitoring all appropriate wellness guidelines, we can help our patients avoid or minimize the development of chronic medical conditions and live a healthier life.”
The wisdom of Benjamin Franklin’s statement penned in the Pennsylvania Gazette back in 1735 is still remarkably accurate and appropriate today. He said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” For about 300 years, we have ignored his wisdom, but we can no more brush it aside. It is time to concentrate on the “ounce of prevention” for both providers and patients. We want to recognize and applaud Primary Care Specialists for its remarkable efforts during the fourth quarter of 2024 and over the entire year. PQA would also like to thank its patients and all patients who take advantage of their insurance benefits and take control of their health by controlling or, even better, preventing medical problems.
