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.
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.
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.
SEC Charges Five Physicians With Insider Trading in Stock of Medical Professional Liability Insurer
The Securities and Exchange Commission last week charged five physicians with insider trading in the securities of an East Lansing, Mich.-based holding company for a medical professional liability insurer.
The SEC alleges that Apparao Mukkamala learned confidential information from board meetings and other communications about the anticipated acquisition of American Physicians Capital Inc. (ACAP) by another insurance company. Mukkamala in turn shared the nonpublic information with fellow physicians and friends Suresh Anne, Jitendra Prasad Katneni and Rao A.K. Yalamanchili as well as his brother-in-law Mallikarjunarao Anne. The five physicians each purchased ACAP stock based on confidential information about the impending sale in the months leading up to a public announcement. Collectively, they made more than $623,000 in illegal profits on their ACAP stock following the announcement.
Without admitting or denying the allegations in the SEC’s complaint, the physicians agreed to pay a combined total of more than $1.9 million to settle the SEC’s charges.
According to the SEC’s complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan’s Southern Division, Mukkamala is a resident of Grand Blanc, Mich., and served as a member of ACAP’s board since its formation in July 2000. He became its chairman in May 2007. At a meeting on March 12, 2010, ACAP’s board confidentially discussed whether it should consider a potential sale of ACAP and instructed company management to evaluate whether or not to continue as an independent, stand-alone company.
The SEC alleges that as ACAP’s board and management continued undertaking definite steps toward a sale, Mukkamala routinely disclosed material nonpublic information along the way to the other four physicians. Between April 30 and July 7, 2010, they illegally purchased nearly $2.2 million of ACAP stock based on the confidential information that Mukkamala shared. Mukkamala himself made a trade in the trading account of Chinmaya Mission West, a charitable organization for which he was then serving as president. On July 8, the acquisition of ACAP by Napa, Calif.-based insurer The Doctors Company was publicly announced, and ACAP shares closed approximately 28 percent higher than the previous day’s closing price.
See on www.sec.gov
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.
Physicians Need to Use Social Media in Their Practices
Who purchases a product or a service without first checking the vendor’s website and consumer reviews? Patients do the same with their physicians.
The social media revolution is here to stay. Not only is there no place to hide, no one in business can afford to hide. As Eric Qualman puts it, “We don’t have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is how well we DO it.”
It’s easy to badmouth the use of social media in professional settings, because many see Facebook and Twitter and YouTube as only about posting what restaurant or concert a person is at or the latest video or photo about someone’s new kitten. However, for physicians, there are good professional reasons to use social media.
Fundamentally, the use of social media is all about better communication with patients and improving their health by giving them tools to take an interest in and more control over their health care decisions. And the use of social media is also very much about business by giving physicians the tools to compete more effectively because they communicate better. It is about improving a physician’s practice.
Dr. Kevin Pho is a leading practitioner in (and advocate for) the use of social media by physicians. His blog, KevinMD.com, provides great insight in the effective use of social media to educate and inform.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization understand the power of social media to alert many people at once about health care issues.
Incorporating social media into a physician practice is not easy nor does it happen overnight. There are many legal and practical issues — patient privacy, copyright laws, designating the practice’s social media “leader” and giving that person enough time to communicate, training employees and informing patients, etc. The AMA has adopted policies relating to the use of social media in professional settings, as has the Federation of State Medical Boards.
Getting a consultant who understand the intricacies of healthcare and social media and the practice’s IT system can be very helpful to having a good social media presence.
And regardless of whether a physician practice decides to use social media, it must monitor social media to see what is being said about it, and it must adopt a social media policy for its employees to make sure that their social media behavior does not harm the practice (but there are issues to be dealt with on what an employer can and cannot do).
People of all ages are using social media for many personal and business reasons. Moving in the same direction (if not at the same speed) as one’s patients is critical, and waiting is rarely a good option.
Hot Topics in Health Care Law — Saturday July 7, 2012
Today’s edition of Hot Topics in Health Care Law is available. This topic aggregator/newspaper contains articles that I think are on the cutting edge of health law.
California physicians sue Aetna over out-of-network referrals
The California Medical Assn., the largest physician group in the state, and more than 60 individual doctors sued health insurance giant Aetna Inc. The suit against Aetna is part of a growing legal battle over what patients are charged when they go outside a health insurer’s network.
See on www.latimes.com
Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative: Barely A Ripple Now, Enormous Promise For Later – Health Affairs Blog
The initiative to prioritize primary care by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is one of the most significant and promising initiatives to come out of health reform to date.
Joseph Rugg's Health Law Blog 