Archive
Finding a Consultant to Help a Physician’s Practice with EHR Selection, Implementation — www.physicianspractice.com
Here are some of the ways a consultant can help you get your EHR picked out and implemented seamlessly.
1. You and your office can meet with a single person, at a single time, and give them your list of wants, needs, concerns, and special considerations.
2. Your consultant can contact and sort through the 100s of EHR companies out there and determine a concise list that serves your needs and specialty most appropriately. Your consultant can even handle all of the necessary preliminary software demos and meetings single handedly.
3. Consultants will arrange for you to view and choose from a minimal list of companies/systems.
4. A consultant will stay by your side and negotiate pricing, warranty, tech support, and arrange implementation and assist you and your staff in getting everything started and converted.
5. Have I mentioned one point of contact instead of 2 to 3 per company you speak with?
6. Consultants provide assistance in implementation. They will hold your hand (or your nurse’s hand) until you are ready to take the training wheels off.
See on member.ubmmedica.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.
Five Strategies to Survive as a Physician Under the ACA — www.physicianspractice.com
Recent surveys about physicians leaving practice or going out of business in droves were done in the heat of the moment of the Supreme Court ruling. Nonetheless, they signify a long-term concern, uncertainty, and fear, and there is good reason for all three.
Everyone in the practice and allied health world should take the title of the legislation seriously — The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). It does not say physician protection nor does it say it will be affordable for you. Most practices will suffer serious consequences, or fail without proper planning.
The safest course of action is to presume the ACA will continue either in whole or in part. Any replacement is a blank page, and either way, physicians will be negatively affected.
Here are five things you must do to protect your practice:
1. Get involved.
2. If you are a primary-care physician, take care in becoming dependent on Medicaid even though they will be paying Medicare rates.
3. If you are not a primary-care physician, act now to develop and implement strategies to manage your payer mix.
4. Improve your quality of service.
5. Cut every ounce of fat in your operation and invest the savings in quality, image and marketing to keep and add as many privately insured patients as possible.
See on member.ubmmedica.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.
Hospitals Reaping Financial Benefits of Telehealth – HealthLeaders Media
Telemedicine, or telehealth, is the practice of patient caregiving through virtual office visits and virtual rounding. It encompasses the use of various information technologies and clinical applications that capture medically significant data, diagnoses, and consults. Numerous technologies are used in telehealth ranging from standard telephone connections, video conferencing, robotics, healthcare kiosks, PC webcams, iPads, and smartphones.
The passing of the years has softened resistance by patients to using this approach. Patients are now willing to forego an in-person visit with the doctor in order to get the care they need swiftly, without having to travel, and in some instances at a lower cost. Moreover, the reimbursement environment is changing.
“Telemedicine can lower healthcare costs by reducing avoidable hospital visits and providing regular access to care in remote parts of the state, and it’s more convenient for patients,” says Georgia Partnership for TeleHealth CEO Paula Guy. The nonprofit telehealth provider works with more than 350 partners and 175 specialists and other healthcare providers and has handled some 40,000 patient encounters as of 2011.
Before GPT was started in 2005, the Georgia southeastern public health district realized it had a problem: Children with special needs in rural areas were having difficulty getting access to specialty care. It was decided that telehealth could address the care deficit but the state didn’t want to wait for providers to establish telehealth programs. At the time, Georgia payers weren’t reimbursing for telehealth so providers lacked the incentive to shell out the capital for the technology-driven systems needed. Instead, the public health district secured two federal grants.
We were able to bring all the players together into one coordinated telehealth network,” says Guy.
GPT operates a Web-based system that allows doctors and nurses to schedule visits, and it provides marketing, education, and training on telehealth; plus the system permits providers to electronically share medical records and other data. The undertaking has been so successful that GPT is working to duplicate the program in Alabama, Florida, and other states, she says.
Once it was established, Guy explains, the statewide telehealth network helped young and old alike. In 2010, for instance, in rural Nashville, Ga., 44 children arrived at the emergency department with asthma-related illnesses. So, as of 2011, school-based telemedicine clinics were added to area schools and last year only one child landed in the hospital ED, she explains.
Children with chronic conditions may not get the specialty care needed, but through these clinics they can be routinely checked by specialists—ensuring better continuity of care while also helping parents avoid work absences.
GPT has also placed telehealth into nursing homes.
See on www.healthleadersmedia.com
For an aggregation of other articles on improving healthcare, go to my internet magazine Scoop.it! Changing Health for the Better.
Palliative Care Deserves Physicians’ Attention – HealthLeaders Media
Palliative care is the comprehensive treatment for the very sick, but not for those who are dying. Although not widely practiced, palliative care is becoming part of the discussion among healthcare leaders to improve care and trim costs.
Because the scope of care is evolving for the elderly populations, it’s important that physicians work closely with families to consider palliative or hospice care options. The Sutter Health system, a network of doctors and hospitals in northern California, has an advanced illness management program that partners with patients and families to better coordinate care for palliative patients and also consider end of life options, says Brad Stuart, MD, chief medical officer at the Sutter Care at Home in Fairfield, Calif.
Stuart says it’s important that both disciplines (palliative and hospice) “collaborate for the best outcomes we can have.” Much of the focus for improved patient care, especially those in palliative care, is moving toward ” focusing on goals of patients in their own lives.”
See on www.healthleadersmedia.com
For an aggregation of other articles on improving healthcare, go to my internet magazine Scoop.it! Changing Health for the Better.
To Cut Costs, Motivate Nurses, Take a Cue From Airlines – HealthLeaders Media
An online scheduling tool and a points-based rewards program helped St. Francis Hospital in Columbus, Georgia hospital resolve its ongoing staffing problems, cut nursing costs, and improve morale.
See on www.healthleadersmedia.com
For an aggregation of other articles on improving healthcare, go to my internet magazine Scoop.it! Changing Health for the Better.
Low HCAHPS Scores at Safety Net Hospitals Examined – HealthLeaders Media
On nearly every measure of the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Survey patient experience questionnaire, 769 hospitals that treat the largest share of low-income patients scored 5.6 percentage points lower than their 2,327 non-safety net counterparts, according to a review of survey responses between 2007 and 2010.
See on www.healthleadersmedia.com
For an aggregation of other articles on improving healthcare, go to my internet magazine Scoop.it! Changing Health for the Better.
Physicians Weigh In on SGR Debate – HealthLeaders Media
Physicians added their voices on Wednesday to the intractable task of finding an informed solution to the sustainable growth rate. Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, hosted five physician group representatives, part of a series of roundtables about Medicare payments. Previous roundtables featured former administrators of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and private payers.
“Every year, the flawed sustainable growth rate, or SGR, leads physicians to fear dramatic reductions in their Medicare payments,” Baucus stated in his opening remarks. “Next year physicians will face a 27% cut if we don’t act. While Congress has intervened to prevent these cuts each year, it is time we develop a permanent solution.
“We need to repeal SGR and end the annual ‘doc fix’ ritual. The year-in and year-out uncertainty is not fair to physicians or the Medicare beneficiaries who need access to their doctors.
“The discussion covered a wide range of topics, including models of care, specialty reimbursements, and quality and efficiency.
Sen. Baucus noted that physicians seem caught in what he described as “stove pipes of care. How do we get rid of some of these pipes?”
Speaking for the American Medical Association, Ardis D. Hoven, MD, said that a variety of new models of care coordination and payment such as medical homes and bundled payments hold promise of a more flexible system and will help. “We have to be accountable as physicians to make sure we are getting the job done and producing outcomes and quality in our work. These new models that are being tested now are going to give us that information, which we have never had before,” she said.
There was general acceptance among the five speakers that while the SGR should be repealed, no single payment replacement system would suffice. Glen Stream, MD, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, described a blended payment system—common among patient-centered medical homes—that includes a combination of fee-for-service (FFS), care management fee, and quality improvement payments.
See on www.healthleadersmedia.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.
PPACA Whips Up Uncertainty for Hospitals – HealthLeaders Media
Supporters of the PPACA cannot deny that implementation of the sweeping reforms will be a daunting task that may, ultimately, fail. Many critics of “Obamacare,” however, have provided no realistic alternatives to bending an unsustainable healthcare cost curve beyond vaguely worded demands for vouchers, block grants, and buying health insurance across state lines.
One reason why the American Hospital Association and other hospital groups supported the PPACA was because of its pledge to expand health insurance to tens of millions of people now uncovered, including dependent children age 26 or younger. But as Moody’s Healthcare Quarterly pointed out this month, that new revenue source for not-for-profit hospitals will be offset by Medicare reductions of $150 billion over the next 10 years, along with an additional $14 billion in Medicaid disproportionate share payments.
In addition, PPACA imposes new payment models that include lower reimbursements for hospitals with high readmissions and low patient satisfaction scores, and the effect of those is still unknown.
A study in the Archives of Internal Medicine estimates that safety net hospitals will take an additional hit on reimbursements because Medicaid patients tend to distrust the healthcare system and that distrust is reflected in their lower patient satisfaction scores.
Private payers will follow the government’s lead and suffer less tolerance for cost-shifting, preventable errors and other quality issues.
As a result, Moody’s deemed “credit neutral” the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June that PPACA is constitutional. The rating agency said the high court’s decision would have no effect on a negative outlook for the not-for-profit hospital sector.
See on www.healthleadersmedia.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.
Aetna and Hunterdon HealthCare Partners Forge Accountable Care Partnership
Aetna and Hunterdon HealthCare Partners announced on July 16, 2012 that they had entered into a new accountable care agreement that will improve the quality and cost of patient care, and help members and plan sponsors save money.
Under the new ACO agreement, 2,200 members in the Hunterdon Healthcare employee benefits plan, and approximately 5,700 fully insured Aetna members who live in five New Jersey counties will be served by the ACO. Aetna members served by this new model are ones who primarily received care from Hunterdon Healthcare’s providers in the last 24 months, as well as those who seek care from Hunterdon Healthcare physicians following the start of the agreement.
See on www.aetna.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.
Dr. Michael Maxwell: Improved health care is law’s overlooked goal | Tulsa World
Since the Supreme Court pronounced the Affordable Care Act constitutional, the local media have presented a balanced account for what this means to all stakeholders. I must admit I delayed my own education on this topic until the Supreme Court acted.
As a physician, my focus is on caring for people, with little energy left over for policy and politics. However, witnessing the public angst over this law compels me to speak out.
So far, most of the media coverage has centered on the payment methods for this law, the individual mandate, the expansion of Medicaid and the implementation of health insurance exchanges. What I hear from patients though are mostly poorly informed opinions and vaguely articulated fears. These concerns are all fueled by political agendas and rhetoric.
While the strategy for insuring those without health insurance may not be perfect, it is a smart, logical place to start. As with everything, we learn as we go, and I have yet to hear of any reasonable alternative. What has gone completely under-reported has been the Affordable Care Act’s strategy for improving the quality of health care in our country.
The opening line of the executive summary of the Report to Congress, March 2011 reads, “The Affordable Care Act seeks to increase access to high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans.” It goes on to outline its three broad aims of focus: better care for the individual, the community, and making it all more affordable. It then sets the specific early priorities and strategies for pulling this off.
Now, how do we argue with those goals? Enthusiasm and momentum for quality improvement in health care in our region has been building for years. The Affordable Care Act as well as the involvement of many local people and organizations are accelerating this agenda.
Read more from this Tulsa World article.
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.
Joseph Rugg's Health Law Blog 