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Pew Research — Mobile Health 2012
According to Pew Research:
One in three cell phone owners (31%) have used their phone to look for health information. In a comparable, national survey conducted two years ago, 17% of cell phone owners had used their phones to look for health advice.
The study shows that there is still a long way to go. Nevertheless, this is what electronic health records and health care reform are all about. If patients and their healthcare providers can have better access to patient medical information, then patients and providers can improve patient care and keep patients healthier.
Modern Healthcare Survey: Continued Anger over Obamacare
In an internet survey conducted after the presidential election, Modern Healthcare found that there remains “a deep vein of anger over the effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”
Of the 829 people who responded to the survey, 67% said the reform law would have a negative impact on the bottom lines of their healthcare business. Only 33% said the law would have a positive impact.
Respondents listed the following issues as important ones that need to be addressed by Congress and the President:
- Medicare sustainable growth-rate payment formula
- Improving overall clarity around the schedule for implementing the law’s various goals
- Need for more primary care physicians to manage the added population of patients
Health Care Law Delivers Higher Payments to Primary Care Physicians
CMS, in a press release on Thursday, November 1, announced the adoption of the final rule implementing the part of the Affordable Care Act that primary care physicians be paid 100% of the Medicare rate when they treat Medicaid beneficiaries. The final rule is over 100 pages long and provides —
Under this provision, certain physicians who provide eligible primary care services will be paid the Medicare rates in effect in calendar years (CY) 2013 and 2014 instead of their usual state-established Medicaid rates, which may be lower than federally established Medicare rates. The payment increase applies to primary care services delivered by a physician with a specialty designation of family medicine, general internal medicine, or pediatric medicine or related subspecialists. States will receive 100 percent federal financial participation (FFP) for the difference between the Medicaid state plan payment amount as of July 1, 2009, and the applicable Medicare rate.
The rule provides information about how CMS and states will work together to make the increased payments operational. More information can be found in the CMS Fact Sheets.
Continuing Confusion over Health Care Reform
Reuters ran an article on November 2, 2012, “In the Badger State, divided over and baffled by Obamacare.” In Beloit, Wisconsin, the focus of the article, the article’s author writes “Whether the sweeping 2010 law is fully implemented, as President Barack Obama intends, or repealed, as GOP nominee Mitt Romney pledges, no policy difference in next week’s election is likely to affect more Americans in their daily lives.” Unfortunately, as she goes on to say, there remains great ignorance and confusion about what Obamacare does and the benefits and savings it has already brought to people, even though many of Obamacare’s most significant programs do not go into effect until 2014.
I have struggled for a long time to try to figure out what it is about Obamacare that has resulted in such irrationally negative reactions to it.
Finally, I think I understand.
Two things – First, I believe that many have been convinced in the obfuscation and deliberate misinformation of the political campaigns that the current problems many face in their healthcare coverage and benefits has been caused by Obamacare, rather than understanding that Obamacare is part of the solution to making sure that all Americans will have access to meaningful healthcare insurance. Second, many employers have threatened to terminate their employee coverage because of the so-called additional burdens placed on them by Obamacare. Yet, that type of decision is also based on ignorance and misinformation.
An informed and spirited debate on how best to take care of sick Americans, to promote healthier Americans, and to improve healthcare for everyone is what is needed. If we cannot get our political leaders to discuss these issues in a meaningful way during an election, it seems doubtful that such a discussion will ever occur.
OIG Work Plan Will Examine Hospital-Based Physician Practice Billing
The OIG 2013 Work Plan will focus on many topics to make sure health care providers are dotting i’s and crossing t’s.
One topic is will be to determine the effects of nonhospital-owned physician practices billing Medicare as hospital-based physician practices.
[This is very timely given the renewed wave of hospital acquisitions and employment of physicians.]
See on www.bna.com
For an aggregation of other articles on Hot Topics in Healthcare Law, go to my magazine on Scoop.it – Hot Topics in Healthcare Law and Regulation and my newspaper on Paper.li – Hot Topics in Healthcare Law.
For an aggregation of other articles on improving healthcare, go to my internet magazine Scoop.it! Changing Health for the Better.
WSJ CIO Journal: One Stanford Doctor Wants to Focus on Real Patients, Not iPatients
Electronic medical records don’t always reflect what really happens during an examination. Physicians are so busy checking off boxes and keying in vital signs that sometimes they spend more time with the virtual patient than the real one.
“Many of us recognized that there was a gap between what the medical record claimed was done on the patient, in a sense, and the actual execution of the task,” Dr. Abraham Verghese, a professor at Stanford University’s School of Medicine and best-selling novelist, said in a Thursday Wall Street Journal article. “It reflects an increasing dependence on technology and paying lip-service to the actual examination of the patient,” he said.
Creators of electronic medical records never envisioned that the technology might actually decrease the quality of patient care. Instead, they saw a world where medical errors would drop because charts could be easily accessed and read. They also hoped that electronic records would result in fewer duplicated tests and lower costs. Yet, the difficulty of using many of these systems means that, in some cases, it’s encroaching upon the quality of patient care. It’s a lesson for CIOs — the very technology they implement to solve a problem can actually make that problem worse if they don’t think carefully about the people using it.
See on blogs.wsj.com
For an aggregation of other articles on Hot Topics in Healthcare Law, go to my magazine on Scoop.it – Hot Topics in Healthcare Law and Regulation and my newspaper on Paper.li – Hot Topics in Healthcare Law.
For an aggregation of other articles on improving healthcare, go to my internet magazine Scoop.it! Changing Health for the Better.
Alzheimer’s News 10/23/2012: Settlement ensures people with Alzheimer’s access to rehabilitative services
As one of the plaintiffs in the federal class action lawsuit Jimmo v. Sebelius, which challenged the Medicare Improvement Standard, the Alzheimer’s Association applauds the recently announced proposed settlement.
The long-practiced Medicare Improvement Standard provided that Medicare beneficiaries must achieve demonstrable improvements in order to receive rehabilitative services, such as physical, speech and occupational therapy. Without these demonstrable improvements, Medicare would not pay for these services. Now, under the settlement agreement, Medicare will pay for these services if they maintain the patient’s current condition or prevent or slow further deterioration.
The Association believes that eliminating the Improvement Standard is very important for the health and well-being of the growing number of Americans with Alzheimer’s disease. As an organization that has advocated for these changes on behalf of the millions of Americans living with Alzheimer’s and the millions more who will face the disease in the future, the Association determined it was important to join this lawsuit to secure these changes.
See on www.alz.org
For an aggregation of other articles on Hot Topics in Healthcare Law, go to my magazine on Scoop.it – Hot Topics in Healthcare Law and Regulation and my newspaper on Paper.li – Hot Topics in Healthcare Law.
For an aggregation of other articles on improving healthcare, go to my internet magazine Scoop.it! Changing Health for the Better.
New Yorker 6-28-12: Atul Gawande: Why the Uninsured Are Still Vulnerable — The debate rages on
Below is an excerpt from Atul Gawande’s op-ed piece that was published in The New Yorker after the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act last June. The debate rages on during the presidential campaign.
* * * * *
During the nineteenth century, for instance, most American leaders believed in a right to vote—but not in extending it to women and black people. Likewise, most American leaders, regardless of their politics, believe that people’s health-care needs should be met; they’ve sought to insure that soldiers, the elderly, the disabled, and children, not to mention themselves, have access to good care. But many draw their circle of concern narrowly; they continue to resist the idea that people without adequate insurance are anything like these deserving others.
And so the fate of the uninsured remains embattled—vulnerable, in particular, to the maneuvering for political control. The partisan desire to deny the President success remains powerful. Many levers of obstruction remain; many hands will be reaching for them.
For all that, the Court’s ruling keeps alive the prospect that our society will expand its circle of moral concern to include the millions who now lack insurance. Beneath the intricacies of the Affordable Care Act lies a simple truth. We are all born frail and mortal—and, in the course of our lives, we all need health care. Americans are on our way to recognizing this. If we actually do—now, that would be wicked.
See on www.newyorker.com
Modern Physician: Practice Makes Perfect: Preparing for shared-risk reimbursement models
In June, the MGMA-ACMPE released the results of a questionnaire that ranked members’ most-pressing practice management challenges. In this edition of “Practice Makes Perfect,” we’ll tackle No. 2 on that list: Preparing for reimbursement models that place a greater share of financial risk on the practice.
One of the many hot topics at our upcoming annual conference in San Antonio will be the changing healthcare environment and how practices can—and should—prepare for new payment methodologies. The federal government and commercial insurance companies are in the midst of changing the way they pay hospitals and doctors. Some of these changes are the result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as well as market forces. These changes will affect practices in all settings, and it’s important to prepare for reimbursement models that place a greater share of financial risk on the practice.
Physicians may soon be at financial risk as payers test and adopt new payment methods. The CMS and private insurers are proposing models to replace separate payments to hospitals, doctors and other providers with a single bundled payment, and we are seeing multiple definitions of bundling. A common type of bundled payment involves a single payment for all services furnished before, during and after a hospitalization, including outpatient diagnostic tests, inpatient facility costs, drugs, supplies and the professional services of every physician involved in the patient’s care.
In addition, the CMS and many insurers are testing variations on the capitation payment concept that was widely used in the health maintenance organization craze of the 1990s. Commonly referred to as “global payment,” this reimbursement method pays a set amount per patient (usually adjusted by demographics) and the provider accepts responsibility for a predetermined set of services regardless of the costs.
Both bundled and global payment reflects a sea change from the traditional fee-for-service payment system. Payers hope that bundled and global payments will create incentives for primary-care physicians, specialists and hospitals to better coordinate services and share accountability for the cost and quality of services. They hope the new payment systems will improve the care their beneficiaries receive while lowering the total cost of care by eliminating redundant services.
These new payment methods require doctors to think in new ways and will challenge the information systems of even the most sophisticated fee-for-service practice. Bundled and global payments change a practice’s profit calculation from emphasizing service volume to operating efficiency.
In this new payment environment, practices that gather the right information and provide high-quality, lower-cost care will be the most profitable.
See on home.modernphysician.com
For an aggregation of other articles on Hot Topics in Healthcare Law, go to my magazine on Scoop.it – Hot Topics in Healthcare Law and Regulation and my newspaper on Paper.li – Hot Topics in Healthcare Law.
For an aggregation of other articles on improving healthcare, go to my internet magazine Scoop.it! Changing Health for the Better.
Medical Homes Survey: Primary care with a personal touch – Modern Healthcare
Medical Homes Survey reveals diverse settings, but single goal: Increase quality of care.
When primary-care physicians needed to go somewhere new to revitalize their field, they found that there was no place quite like the patient-centered medical home: A practice model that emphasizes care coordination, increased access and enhanced doctor-patient communication—all with an emphasis on continuous quality improvement.
Modern Healthcare’s second annual Medical Homes Survey, conducted June 25-Sept. 28, drew responses from 29 organizations. The survey sample illustrates the wide variety of settings among the 4,870 sites that have been recognized as medical homes. One survey response came from an organization with a staff of 350 doctors, and another came from a solo practice. The largest group in the survey has an enrolled patient population of 939,000 while the smallest has 823. One thing they have in common is a desire to increase the quality of care by advancing an old-fashioned concept that is often enhanced by the newest technology.
See on home.modernhealthcare.com
For an aggregation of other articles on Hot Topics in Healthcare Law, go to my magazine on Scoop.it – Hot Topics in Healthcare Law and Regulation and my newspaper on Paper.li – Hot Topics in Healthcare Law.
For an aggregation of other articles on improving healthcare, go to my internet magazine Scoop.it! Changing Health for the Better.
Joseph Rugg's Health Law Blog 