​Samuel “Le” Church, MD, a family physician with 20+ years of experience in rural Georgia, is no stranger to the limitations of the traditional fee-for-service model. While managing Synergy Health, one of the region’s largest primary care practices, he navigated the challenges of the time-intensive Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), which rewards eligible clinicians for providing high-quality, efficient care within the fee-for-service model. 
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“We were climbing the ladder of success,” Dr. Church said. “Unfortunately, the ladder was on the wrong wall.”

Treatment of hepatitis C for the majority of cases is straightforward and can be effectively done, by general practitioners, in primary care. Approximately 60,000 people in Washington State in the United States are living with hepatitis C. In 2021, the Washington State Department of Health found that 44% of people newly diagnosed with HCV in WA are among people aged 25-34 years old. Hepatitis C is a leading infectious disease killer that is highly transmissible.  Left untreated, hepatitis C can cause liver failure, liver cancer, and death. Amongst people who use drugs, a single hepatitis C infection will spread to approximately 20 other people in a 3-year period.