In today’s evolving healthcare landscape, Advanced Primary Care (APC) is transforming how we approach health by prioritizing relationships—not transactions. When clinicians, patients, and systems align around shared goals, outcomes improve significantly.

A New Foundation for Primary Care

APC represents a patient-centered, team-based approach that emphasizes prevention, chronic disease management, and whole-person care. Rather than focusing on quantity, APC promotes quality, continuity, and meaningful clinician-patient connections.
For instance, Marathon Health highlights how APC allows providers to spend more time building trust and understanding patients’ needs—unlike fee-for-service models where providers may see ten or more patients hourly [1].

Relationships Drive Better Outcomes

Trust and Continuity

A qualitative study in BMC Primary Care reveals that deep GP–patient relationships—characterized by trust, empathy, and continuity—are tied to improved patient adherence, satisfaction, and perceived health outcomes [2].

Hard Data on Impact

• Providers in the top quartile of Medicare ACOs with strong provider relationships experienced a 29% higher rate of PCP visits, leading to better chronic condition management and fewer emergency department visits [3].
• Consistent, strong relationships also correlate with 22% lower avoidable ED use, improved risk identification, and greater care coordination [3].

System-Level Integration & Value

The National Academies emphasize that integrated primary care—touching behavioral health, pharmacy, social support, and public health—is essential for high-quality, continuous, accessible care [4][5].

By anchoring these components within APC, care moves beyond episodic visits toward comprehensive, system-supported relationships that improve access and equity.

The Value Proposition

Evidence suggests that physician groups in accountable arrangements (like ACOs and Medicare Advantage) create a “spillover” effect, benefiting even traditional Medicare patients with results such as:

• 10% fewer hospital admissions
• 12% fewer 30-day readmissions
• 21% fewer ED visits
• 9–13% higher adherence to medications
  [6]

These outcomes are rooted in relationship-based structures, where teams collaborate around the patient and utilize data-driven interventions in trusted settings.

How Medicalincs Supports APC Transformation

Through our Healthlincs Care Transformation Organization (CTO), Medicalincs empowers Maryland providers to transition to APC under the Maryland Primary Care Program (MDPCP) [7][8]:

• Offers care management, care coordination, and social needs screening
• Enhances data and health IT analytics for performance monitoring
• Provides non-traditional workforce support such as community health workers
• Guides providers through VBC processes using the Value-360 Maturity Assessment Tool [7]

Healthlincs has demonstrated strong results, ranking among the top CTOs in reducing inpatient admissions and per-member costs under MDPCP [9].

Final Thought

Advanced Primary Care isn’t just a healthcare model—it’s a transformational movement. When care transitions from transactional to relational, we see greater patient satisfaction, fewer avoidable hospital visits, and better chronic disease outcomes.

With Medicalincs’ strategic support, providers can build lasting clinician–patient partnerships, underpinned by data, teamwork, and equity focus. It’s time to embrace relationships as the cornerstone of healthcare that heals and empowers.

References

[1] marathon.health [2] bmcprimcare.biomedcentral.com [3] www.medicaleconomics.com

[4] nap.nationalacademies.org [5] www.nationalacademies.org [6] www.apg.org

[7] www.medicalincs.com [8] health.maryland.gov [9] www.facebook.com