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Modern Physician: Survey shows Primary-care docs generating more hospital revenue
While physicians in general generated less net revenue for their affiliated hospitals last year, primary-care doctors generated more, on average, than other specialists, according to a survey of hospital chief financial officers conducted by Merritt Hawkins (PDF), an Irving, Texas-based physician recruitment firm.
According to the survey of 102 CFOs conducted in January, physicians in the 18 specialties tracked by Merritt Hawkins brought in an average of almost $1.45 million to their affiliated hospitals—a 9% decrease from the $1.54 million recorded by physicians in 2010, the last time the survey was conducted. But the revenue generated by the direct admissions, procedures, tests and other services ordered by family physicians, internists and pediatricians equaled almost $1.57 million, which was up around 13% from the almost $1.39 million recorded in 2010. (Although it was still below the almost $1.6 million reported in a 2004 Merritt Hawkins survey.) And, while orthopedic surgeons (more than $2.68 million) and invasive cardiologists (almost $2.17 million) were the top revenue-generating specialties, the average figure for the 15 non-primary-care specialists was more than $1.42 million.
See on home.modernphysician.com
ACOs: The Least Agreed-Upon Concept in Healthcare? | Accountable Care Organizations
Five common arguments against accountable care organizations, commentary from experts on each, and an update on Detroit Medical Center’s ACO.
1. In the grand scheme of healthcare spending, ACOs’ savings will be slight.
2. ACOs were designed on a premise that overestimated the level of integration in healthcare.
3. ACOs won’t work when healthcare still operates in a fee-for-service system.
4. ACOs will move patients out of hospitals and hurt hospitals’ revenue.
5. ACOs take healthcare back to the 1990s.
What will prove the ACO model?
The healthcare industry is still in a waiting game as far as ACOs’ results. Although a few mature ACOs like AdvocateCare (and it’s important to keep in mind that the term “mature” means that ACO is only about three years old) have reported hopeful results from its first year. Other newly launched ACOs are not yet able to disclose results. For Medicare savings, the industry has its eye on the Pioneer ACOs, and results from those 32 organizations are expected this summer.
Nitin Chhoda, A Licensed Physical Therapist Shares the Most Common Medical Billing Errors to Physical Therapy Practices
More and more healthcare providers have chosen to outsource their medical billing process so that they do not have to worry about committing unnecessary billing and coding errors. Licensed physical therapist, Nitin Chhoda, recently released the most common medical billing errors to practitioners in order to minimize denials on their future medical billing process.
See on www.prweb.com
The great EHR switch
With more electronic health record systems continuing to fall short of providers’ expectations, a recent report by Black Book Rankings suggests that 2013 may indeed be the “year of the great EHR vendor switch.”
From the 17,000 active EHR adopters polled, report officials found that as many as 23 percent of medical practices were dissatisfied enough with their EHR systems to consider trading up in the near future.
“The high performance vendors emerging as viable past 2015 are those dedicating responsive teams to address customers’ current demands,” said Black Book’s managing partner Doug Brown, in a press statement.
And in light of Stage 2, officials say provider demands are only increasing. EHR users polled cited numerous cases of software firms underperforming enough to lose crucial market share, with vendor solutions often struggling to keep pace.
Barry Blumenfeld, chief information officer at the eight-hospital MaineHealth, is among those switching EHRs. MaineHealth is in the process of transitioning from Allscripts and MEDITECH to Epic’s EHR. When describing the Allscripts Sunrise Clinical Manager system it had previously, Blumenfeld said it was a “good product,” but really lacked integration capabilities with ancillary and the departmentals. “I’ve been a fan of interoperability my whole life, but I have to say it hasn’t gone quite as fast as we would like, and the thing that’s very important about Epic,” he explained, is that it integrates all workflows for seamless movement between different products.
— This was, of course, inevitable, and it is a good thing. It takes time and practice to know what you need and how to use it when you get it. EHR is one of the most important innovations in health care, and there will be mistakes, disasters, and wasted money before we get things right.
See on www.healthcareitnews.com
Lawmaker urges extension of safe harbor for EHRs
Electronic Health Record Donation Safe Harbor
March 28, 2013
Gregory E. Demske, Esq. Chief Counsel to the Inspector General 330 Independence Avenue, S.W., Room 5527 Washington, DC 20201Dear Mr. Demske:
I write today to urge the Office of the Inspector General of the United States Department of Health and Human Services to renew its safe harbor provision that protects certain electronic health record donation arrangements under the federal Anti-Kickback Statute. As you know, this provision is set to expire on December 31, 2013. I write to respectfully ask that you consider extending this safe harbor provision. As you know, Congress is particularly interested in developing and continuing initiatives that are designed to reduce health care costs. As Ranking Member of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, eliminating wasteful spending in health care is an issue that is very important to me. Care coordination certainly represents good medical practice and can decrease health care costs by: (a) eliminating the need for duplicative and unnecessary testing, and (b) reducing the potential for medical errors that can occur when clinicians simply do not have all of the medical record history needed to appropriately care for a patient. The safe harbor that your agency has established, which protects the donation of electronic health records under certain limited circumstances, is a common-sense policy. It encourages collaboration among providers, yet also contains rigorous requirements that providers must meet in order to protect the Medicare and Medicaid programs from the few unscrupulous providers who would donate electronic health record software in exchange for referrals. Should you decide to extend this safe harbor provision, we are certain that you will make any necessary adjustments to protect taxpayers from fraud, waste, and abuse based upon your experience with the safe harbor thus far. Furthermore, I recommend that any extension that you publish should continue to have a corresponding sunset date so that you can address newly emerging fraud schemes that might negatively impact the federally-funded programs. I respectfully ask that you extend this important safe harbor provision as soon as is practicable so that providers have the certainty that they need to continue engaging in efforts designed to promote care coordination. I appreciate your dedication to this important issue and look forward to continuing to work with you in the future. Thank you in advance for your attention to this important matter.
Regards,
Hon. Jim McDermott, Member of Congress
See on www.modernhealthcare.com
Lack of e-health standards “unacceptable”
THE absence of compulsory basic standards for electronic health records in general practice is an “unacceptable” situation and its resolution is very much overdue, according to two experts involved in collecting GP data.
In an editorial in this week’s MJA, two senior members of the Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health (BEACH) program, which collects information about clinical activities in general practice, have called for the urgent development of “nationally agreed standards for the electronic health record (EHR)”.
“We now have a variety of EHR systems with inconsistent structures, data elements and terminologies”, Associate Professor Helena Britt and Associate Professor Graeme Miller, director and medical director of the Family Medicine Research Centre, wrote.
They listed three negative effects caused by the absence of compulsory basic standards.
“First, it makes it extremely difficult to transfer patient data to other general practices and health providers”, they wrote.
“Second, it makes it hard for practices to change to a different EHR system because transfer of patient data to a new system, with different data structures and coding systems, is unreliable.
“Last, it makes it impossible to obtain reliable national information about the care provided to individuals and the population through passive data collection from GPs’ computers.”
See on www.mjainsight.com.au
93% believe EHR-connected mHealth apps benefit patient care | EHRintelligence.com
More than ninety percent of the 650 physicians polled believe that mHealth apps have the potential to improve patient outcomes, and an equal amount would like to see apps give patients the ability to upload data into their personal EHR file. Eighty-nine percent would recommend an app to a patient in the future. The ability to send patients reminders and alerts topped the mHealth wish list for respondents, followed by allowing patients to access their PHI from mobile devices, making it easier for patients to conduct administrative tasks like appointment scheduling, and getting more accurate self-reported data from patients on a regular basis. Preventative care, diabetes monitoring, weight management, and medication adherence were all areas of opportunity for mHealth apps to address.
See on ehrintelligence.com
“Functional cure” of HIV reported in 14 patients
More evidence suggests a “functional cure” of HIV is possible if the disease is treated early.
A study of 14 patients who were treated with antiviral HIV medications within weeks of infection now have now have no disease activities years after stopping medication. The research comes weeks after news spread that a Mississippi baby who was born with HIV and received immediate treatment was now disease-free at two and a half years old.
The study’s authors warn their findings may not be the norm for all patients with HIV, though they estimated up to 15 percent of patients may be able to keep the disease at bay without the help of medication, which means they are functionally cured.
See on www.cbsnews.com
Physicians Who e-prescribe Choose Cheaper Drugs, Report Says
Surveyed U.S. endocrinologists and primary care physicians (PCPs) said they use e-prescribing for 76 percent of their Medicare patients and 79 percent of their non-Medicare patients, figures that are expected to grow in the next year, according to a report from research and advisory firm Decision Resources. The report, which surveyed 70 endocrinologists and 70 PCPs as well as 25 managed-care organization (MCO) pharmacy directors also found that approximately 80 percent of PCPs and endocrinologists say they would prescribe a less expensive DPP-IV inhibitor to their patients with Type 2 diabetes or hypertension, reflecting high cost-sensitivity.
Match Day: More medical graduates entering primary care
The number of medical students committing to primary care rather than specialties increased for the fourth straight year in the largest ‘match program” in history.
[The success of healthcare reform depends on primary care physicians, and there is a shortage. Hopefully, this trend continues.]
See on www.usatoday.com
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