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A high-functioning primary care system has been shown to lead to better patient outcomes, lower costs, and more equitable care, and is key to keeping patients well and out of hospitals and emergency departments. That’s why the National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine asserted that “primary care is a common good, which makes the strength and quality of the country’s primary care services a public concern.” Many healthcare leaders have expressed worry about the health and sustainability of primary care in Massachusetts, especially in the wake of the pandemic which caused unprecedented disruptions across all health care settings.
MHQP is uniquely positioned to help advance the future of primary care through collective action. For example, we recently collaborated with the Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) to release the first-ever dashboard of metrics to monitor the health of primary care in Massachusetts. We believe the pandemic has created a unique opportunity for innovative thinking and clear-headed vision to ensure the sustainability of primary care as the foundation of our healthcare system.
Here is a list of the posts on this site related to MHQP’s activities on the future of primary care:
Facts from the Massachusetts Primary Care Dashboard: Unnecessary ED Visits
Unnecessary ED visits are widely seen as a costly symptom of a healthcare system with insufficient access to primary care. When people cannot easily get in to see a primary care clinician or choose not to go to primary care for a variety of reasons, they often end up in the ED for conditions that are better managed
In Globe Letter, Barbra Rabson Urges Strong Focus on Rebuilding Primary Care
(July 2025)
MHQP continues to focus attention on the urgent need to address our failing primary care system — this time with a Letter to the Editor by President and CEO Barbra Rabson published in the July 24th issue of The Boston Globe. With the Globe’s permission, we are posting
The Primary Care Dashboard Paints a Troubling Picture for Massachusetts Healthcare
By Barbra G. Rabson
(June 2025)
“We’re beyond a crisis.”
That is how State Senator Cindy Friedman chose to characterize the current state of primary care in the Commonwealth in her opening remarks to Massachusetts’ newly established Primary Care Access, Delivery, and Payment Task Force in April.
The updated data in the Primary Care Dashboard released last week by the Center
Barbra Rabson Receives Primary Care Community Leadership Award from Primary Care Collaborative
(June 2025)
MHQP is pleased to announce that Barbra Rabson, MHQP’s President and CEO, was honored with the Primary Care Community Leadership Award by the Primary Care Collaborative (PCC) at its Barbara Starfield Awards Dinner on June 4, 2025, in Washington, DC.
“Under her leadership, MHQP has become a national leader in the
Updated Dashboard Monitors the Health of Massachusetts’ Primary Care System
(June 2025)
The Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) has released its latest Primary Care Dashboard to monitor the health of the primary care system in Massachusetts in collaboration with MHQP.
A high-functioning primary care system can lead to better patient outcomes, lower costs, and more equitable care. Access to these
MHQP Releases Updated Clinical Quality Data for Primary Care Practices
(May 2025)
Reinforcing its ongoing commitment to health care transparency, MHQP is pleased to once again release clinical quality performance data for primary care practices across Massachusetts. These data document practice-by-practice level results for 2023 across a wide range of clinical practices, including recommended preventative screenings, and offer patients a way
MHQP Pleased to Contribute to Senior Medicare Patrol Conference
(May 2025)
MHQP was pleased to make a major contribution to the Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) program’s 11th statewide conference on May 6, 2025. The theme of this year’s event was “Primary Care at a Crossroads,” one of MHQP’s key areas of focus.
Lucilia Prates-Ramos, SMP’s Statewide Director and the former Chair
MHQP Honored To Serve on State’s New Primary Care Task Force
(April 2025)
In January 2025, Governor Maura Healey signed Chapter 343 of the Acts of 2024, An Act Enhancing the Market Review Process. Section 80 of this Act established a new 25-member Task Force on primary care access, delivery, and payment in the Commonwealth. The Task Force held its
MHQP Announces Winners of 2024 Patient Experience Awards
(February 2025)
MHQP is pleased to announce the winners of the 2024 “MHQP Patient Experience Awards.” MHQP introduced this award program in 2018 as a way to recognize the primary care practices that perform highest on our annual Patient Experience Survey, the only statewide survey of patient experience in primary care in Massachusetts.
First conducted in 2005, MHQP’s statewide survey,
Looking Back at 2024: Shedding Light on Inequities in Care and Primary Care Instability
(January 2025)
2024 was an unsettling year, as Massachusetts health care experienced unprecedented access challenges, widespread clinician burnout, and other unanticipated disruptions. Through all the uncertainty and turmoil, MHQP continued to be a reliable source of data to help us all better understand patient experiences, an innovative force for transparency and
MHQP Helps Push for Primary Care Task Force Legislation
(July 2024)
In July, as the Massachusetts Legislature neared the end of its session, MHQP leaders helped push for draft legislation that would establish a Primary Care Task Force in Massachusetts. This Task Force would help lead the Commonwealth out of its current primary care crisis by studying primary care
MHQP Releases Biennial Clinical Quality Data for Primary Care Practices
(July 2024)
While some preventive care measures have rebounded, several have not returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Every two years, in partnership with the Center for Health Information Analysis (CHIA), MHQP collects clinical quality performance data from the state’s health plans for commercially insured patients in primary care practices across the Commonwealth.
Boston Globe Editorial Calls for Action on the Primary Care Crisis in Massachusetts
(May 20, 2024)
MHQP is pleased to have made a significant contribution over the past few years to the growing awareness of the fragile state of primary care in Massachusetts. Last week, in collaboration with MHQP, the Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) released an updated dashboard to measure the health of primary care
CHIA Releases Updated Dashboard to Measure the Health of the Primary Care System in Massachusetts
(May 2024)
The Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA), in collaboration with MHQP, today released the latest primary care dashboard to monitor the health of the primary care system in the Commonwealth.
A high-functioning primary care system can lead to better patient outcomes, lower costs, and more
Lessons from Steward and the Need for Primary Care Reform in Massachusetts
(May 2024)
Barbra Rabson and Katherine Gergen Barnett have collaborated again, this time on a commentary in Perspectives in Primary Care, published by the Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care. The opinion piece, entitled “Lessons from Steward and the Need for Primary Care Reform in Massachusetts,” traces the roots of
Media Coverage Spotlights Primary Care Access Problems Based on MHQP Data and Insights
(April 2024)
MHQP is pleased to have played a key role in providing data, insights and connections to help create several recently published prominent stories about the critical issue of primary care access in Massachusetts.
Please note that the Boston Globe articles are behind a paywall.
Boston
Award Winning Primary Care Practice Increasingly Challenged to Survive in Today’s Environment
(March 2024)
“The joy I get from caring for patients, there’s not a more rewarding experience. That’s the one piece that really keeps me going back to work.”
That’s how David Weinstock, DO, of Grove Medical Associates in Auburn, Massachusetts, describes why he loves being a primary care physician. He shares these
MHQP Announces Winners of 2023 Patient Experience Awards
(February 2024)
MHQP is pleased to announce the winners of the 2023 “MHQP Patient Experience Awards.” MHQP introduced this award program in 2018 as a way to recognize the primary care practices that perform highest on our annual Commercial Patient Experience Survey, the only statewide survey of patient experience in primary care in Massachusetts.
In 2023, MHQP received more than
Patient Experience Scores for Adults Improve Since Before the Pandemic, Except in One Key Area: Access
MHQP’s statewide Patient Experience Survey confirms that patients are struggling to access primary care.
Scores for pediatric care declined in other critical areas as well.
(February 2024)
The results of MHQP’s annual statewide Patient Experience Survey, which were released today, offer an important indication of how patients’ experiences have shifted during and after the pandemic.
First
Lessons from US and Global Scorecards to Help Improve How We Measure the Health of Primary Care
(February 2024)
In an article published in Health Affairs Forefront, MHQP’s CEO Barbra Rabson and her colleagues, Christopher Koller from the Milbank Memorial Fund, and Joseph Ross, Asaf Bitton and June-Ho Kim from Ariadne Labs, review the lessons we’ve learned from scorecards designed to measure and strengthen primary care in