New content available on ACP's Patients Before Paperwork initiative

ACP's Patients Before Paperwork initiative strives to reduce administrative complexities or burdens and eliminate unessential tasks that detract from patient care and contribute to physician burnout.

New content and resources have been added to the initiative's website, including a link to ACP's October 2017 paper “Promoting Transparency and Alignment in Medicare Advantage,” which calls for Medicare Advantage plans to increase transparency and align their processes, policies, and procedures to reduce excessive and burdensome administrative tasks.

Another new aspect of the initiative is a request for College members to complete an online data collection tool. Physicians can enter either an administrative task or a best practice (i.e., approach to dealing with an administrative task, one that is already being used or a new idea), and entries will be added to the Administrative Tasks and Best Practices Library. The tool will ultimately serve as a means for physicians to communicate administrative pain points with ACP staff, share best practices and innovative ideas with each other, and help inform the creation of additional tools and services.

Earlier this year, ACP published a foundational set of policy recommendations on reducing excessive administrative tasks. “Putting Patients First by Reducing Administrative Tasks in Health Care: A Position Paper of the American College of Physicians” provides a cohesive framework for identifying and evaluating administrative tasks and outlines detailed recommendations to reduce excessive administrative tasks across the health care system.

ACP has also applauded recent efforts by CMS on this issue. The agency's “Patients Over Paperwork” and “Meaningful Measures” initiatives also address administrative burdens facing physicians.