Nine days after David Hartley said he was diagnosed with a serious allergy, alpha-gal syndrome, he lost the primary care practice he had relied on for about 20 years.
Hartley said he had recently asked Bayview Physicians Group to remove him from Advanced Primary Care Management, or APCM, a Medicare program that allows primary care practices to receive monthly payments for coordinating and managing patients’ care.
He wanted to leave the program, he said, not the practice.
But Hartley said Bayview dropped him as a patient. When he called back asking for help coordinating care and referrals following his new diagnosis, he said he was told he could return if he re-enrolled in APCM, which had billed him for just under $10 a month.
“This is an optional program,” Hartley said. “They can't condition primary care on enrolling into an optional program.”
His experience is among several new accounts WHRO received after reporting on Bayview’s use of the Medicare program, which started in 2025.
Following WHRO’s report, Bayview sent patients information about what they can expect from APCM. But multiple patients told WHRO they still cannot identify meaningful changes in the care they receive — even as they continue to pay monthly fees.
In a message sent through its patient portal, Bayview described itself as an “Advanced Primary Care Practice” and said APCM is designed to provide care coordination and increased access to health care.
The practice said patients can expect monitoring of preventive care needs, coordination among specialists and hospitals, medication reviews and follow-up after hospital or emergency room visits.
The message also promised 24/7 access to a care team or provider, support between office visits through phone calls and secure messaging and the development of a personalized care plan.
But David Campbell, a former patient with Bayview, said many of those services either existed before APCM or have not translated into noticeable changes in their care.
“Everything's the same,” Campbell said. “There's nothing new about them at all.”
Campbell said services such as a patient portal, telehealth and management of chronic conditions were already available through the practice before Bayview began charging for APCM.
Hartley described a similar experience. He said he continued to use the same portal and receive the same kind of office care he had received for years.
Some patients said the practice told them its 24/7 access included the patient portal. But messages and medication refill requests sent through the portal went unanswered, they said.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said APCM practices must maintain a patient-centered care plan and make it available to the patient or caregiver.
The agency also requires practices to offer communication outside regular office visits, such as secure messaging or a patient portal.
WHRO asked Bayview to clarify what specific services it provides to patients through APCM, how those services differ from care it provided before the program began and how it provides the 24/7 access described in the portal message.
Bayview did not respond to the request for comment.
