It’s a widely, if grumpily, accepted fact that primary care physicians spend less time with patients than either would like. There are only so many minutes in the day, and there’s always more paperwork than time to address it.

No medical practitioner is more overburdened than a primary care physician, because in many health plans, he or she is the so-called “gatekeeper” to specialized care. Patients must see one in order to warrant a referral to someone else – a dermatologist, a cardiologist, a psychiatrist, a surgeon.

So no wonder that the American Medical Association recently asked the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to reimburse network physicians in fee-for-services health plans for phone calls, counseling and other efforts they expend to coordinate care for chronically ill patients.