Primary Care Network Archive

The Milbank Memorial Fund supported two now-archived primary care networks: the Multipayer Primary Care Network and the Medicaid Transformation Network.

For over a decade, the Multipayer Primary Care (MPC) Network provided a forum for members involved in multipayer primary care transformation to share data, participate in collaborative learning, and advocate for improved collaboration between the states and the federal government on new and ongoing initiatives. Payers in 30 states or regions were represented at various times, with a maximum 150 participants (~60 active).  The MPC was disbanded in February 2024. Given the dwindling number of participants due to lower payer involvement in CMMI Primary Care models and our sharper focus on historically marginalized and underserved populations, this decision was consistent with the Fund’s new focus on health equity.

The MPC supported the following Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Center (CMMI) primary care models:

  • Multipayer Advanced Primary Care Practice Demonstration (2011-2016)
  • Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative (2012-2016)
  • Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (2017-2022)
  • Primary Care First (2020-present)

The Medicaid Transformation Network was a voluntary collaborative of State Medicaid Agencies actively engaged in multipayer efforts to create and sustain high-quality primary care for their citizens.  It focused on multipayer value-based payment and on measuring progress towards health equity goals.

The participating states included Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia, Vermont and Washington, represented by approximately 20 State Medicaid Agency leaders.

The network was disbanded in December 2023, when the Milbank Making Care Primary (MCP) Network was established at the request of CMMI leadership.

Primary Care Networks

Resource Types

Current Topics

Blog Post

Proposed Changes to How Medicare Pays Can Help Primary Care’s Chronic Condition

September 2025
Christopher F. Koller
The Trump administration released a draft Medicare rule this summer that might have been missed amid HR1’s large funding cuts to Medicaid and the health insurance marketplaces. But the administration’s proposed changes to the 2026 Medicare Physician Fee schedule are an important step toward strengthening primary care — and following through on its commitment to “Make America Healthy Again.” More

Publication

Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: A Policy Menu for States

September 2025
Christopher F. Koller, Diana Bianco, Katie Greene, Maddy Hraber and Sandra Wilkniss
This report provides state leaders with a range of policy options states can use to strengthen primary care across geopolitically diverse contexts. More

Blog Post

Harnessing the Capacity of Nurse Practitioners to Increase Access to Primary Care in Disadvantaged Communities

August 2025
Monica O’Reilly-Jacob, Kyle Featherston and Lusine Poghosyan
The number of nurse practitioners (NPs) in the United States quadrupled from 91,000 in 2007 to 431,000 in 2024. But does this remarkable growth result in improved access to primary care where it is needed most? More

Blog Post

Integrated Behavioral Health Works and Saves Money. Why Aren’t We Doing It?

May 2025
Ann M. Nguyen, Alexandra M. Williams and Stephanie Marcello
Integrated care functions as a treatment and prevention strategy, where healthy behaviors are established well before they turn into complex, expensive chronic conditions. More

Publication

Building Bridges to Value: Infrastructure Essentials for Community Health Centers

May 2025
Hope Glassberg, Henry Chung, Jordanna Davis, Adam J. Falcone and Alison Gold
This report offers community health centers, their partners, policymakers, and others a place to start in addressing challenges to implementing value-based payment models, particularly as the safety net faces potential cuts in federal funding for Medicaid. More

Blog Post

Optimizing State Policies for Primary Care Payment Reform

May 2025
Stephanie B. Gold, MD, Kyle Leggott, Sarah Hemeida, Lakshmi Karra, Apoorva Ram and Lauren S. Hughes
To inform state-level primary care payment policies, we reviewed recent policies advancing primary care payment reform in the commercial sector and conducted interviews with 50 stakeholders in five pioneering states: Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Rhode Island, and Washington. More

Publication

Foundational Values for Whole Person Health

April 2025
Hoangmai H. Pham, Wayne Jonas and Mark Smith
This brief identifies beliefs and common practices in health care culture that the authors suggest have hindered the spread of these models, as well as opportunities for the policymakers and influencers, payers, and clinicians to support whole-person health. More

Publication

Five States Leading Efforts to Increase Primary Care Spending

March 2025
Vida Foubister
This series of profiles highlights five states that are in different stages of enacting and implementing primary care spending targets, including early planning and coalition building; active efforts to engage state policymakers; and implementation or revision of an enacted state policy. More

Publication

The Health of US Primary Care: 2025 Scorecard Report — The Cost of Neglect

February 2025
Yalda Jabbarpour, Anuradha Jetty, Hoon Byun, Anam Siddiqi and Jeongyoung Park
This 2025 Primary Care Scorecard spotlights the downward cycle of financing for primary care, describing how persistent challenges in primary care arise from insufficient investment (or in the case of training, misplaced investment) and a fee-for-service (FFS) payment model that rewards volume rather than continuous, whole-person care. This report highlights how these systemic financial issues not only undermine the effectiveness of primary care delivery but, more importantly, jeopardize the overall health of our communities in the following ways. More

Publication

Lessons Learned from State Efforts to Slow and Shift Health Care Spending

February 2025
Robert Seifert, Emma Rourke and Mary Jo Condon
This report describes the experiences of states that have designed and implemented policies to pursue these multiple targets and gathers lessons from their experiences to inform future policy development. Interviews with state officials and a multi-state convening revealed the strategies states used to establish their targets and their experiences implementing them. Officials described challenges to implementation and efforts to overcome them. More