Lawrence Casalino: learning from US physician groups

The Coalition Government’s recent White Paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS, has made giving groups of GP practices real budgets to buy care on behalf of their local communities a key priority. The proposed GP commissioning consortia bear a strong resemblance to budget-holding physician groups in the US – some of which deliver high quality, effective, primary care-led health care, but many of which have failed and no longer exist.

Dr Lawrence Casalino is one of the leading US experts on the development and evaluation of physician groups. He reflects on the factors which have contributed to the success (or failure) of these groups in the US, and the implications of that experience for GP commissioning consortia in England.