ACOs

How often are physicians recommending mobile apps to their patients as tools for improving their health?

Medicare's proposed rules for ACOs raise serious questions. Will it push private practice healthcare toward extinction? And, can services be reduced without reducing the quality of patient care?

Perhaps the folks in Washington, D.C., looking for a solution to the jobs crisis should look to an industry they've been focusing on changing for the last decade: healthcare. More specifically, they might want to look at office-based physician practices, which supported four million jobs in 2009, according to new AMA data.

Here's the data from our 2011 Staff Salary Survey.

For providers, HHS’ new Partnership for Patients initiative raises a few questions as to where the $1 billion will go.

Many physicians have discovered that blogging is a great way to build community with others in healthcare, share their opinions and successes, and vent.

Healthcare IT is in a state of flux and change, with constant improvement and upgrades. With established companies rolling out new versions of their systems, alongside new entrants who are bringing new systems to market, the features and horsepower of HIT systems has never been greater.

In one sentence, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson caused a nationwide tidal wave of reaction across the healthcare industry: "Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire [Affordable Care] Act must be declared void."

With a new year comes a new set of initiatives taking effect under the Affordable Care Act and we move another year closer towards other undefined initiatives. But if there is one current theme among the majority of reform initiatives it is teamwork to improve care, a goal that may be as challenging as making reform a reality.

Is private-office healthcare in its death throes? Was the just-passed health reform legislation the final thrust to push out independent physicians? Find out what editorial director Bob Keaveney has to say.

The old order is fading and a new order is starting to take its place. That new environment will reshape medical practice in ways that can be only glimpsed at present. But here are a few predictions for 2011.

Insurance companies are unlikely to have much more impact on spending growth than they’ve had for the past few decades. The real question about insurers’ role in health care is why they’ll be needed if providers can form organizations that are accountable for the cost and quality of care.

Consultant Greg Mertz feels there is a robust future for private practice, even though practice models will have to change.

A staggering 40 percent of physicians say they plan to leave patient care within the next three years, according to a recent poll by the Physicians Foundation. That spells big trouble for healthcare reform and for medicine in general. If even half of that number of doctors retire, find administrative positions, or leave healthcare entirely, we’re going to have medical assistants taking care of patients and the remaining doctors tearing out their hair in frustration.

While the ACO concept gained momentum as a result of the healthcare reform legislation, the idea is nothing new. The Clinton health initiative included similar networks of providers, Accountable Health Partnerships, a proposal that went nowhere. So why should we worry about the current ACO model?

Hospitals need not control ACOs. There are clinically integrated IPAs and PHOs that could easily become ACOs, and 50 to 75 other physician-led organizations are on the same path. Among these entities is the Beacon IPA of Manhasset, NY. Formed last summer, the IPA already has about 200 physician members, and the IPA’s long-term goal is to become clinically integrated and ready for whatever healthcare reform brings, including ACOs.

At the American Medical Association's recent policy-making meeting in San Diego, the association weighed in on the structure of accountable care organizations (ACOs) and professionalism when utilizing social media.

The AMA’s new policy on accountable care organizations (ACO) will undoubtedly please many physicians, but it doesn’t recognize the reality of the market or of healthcare reform. Once again, it shows how unprepared the leaders of medicine - and many of their followers - are for the massive changes that lie just ahead.

In a recent interview with Physicians Practice, American Medical Association President Cecil B. Wilson puts aside the notion that the group is no longer relevant and when asked if it still represents the majority of U.S. physicians, adds a confident "You betcha."

Doctors will continue to duke it out over reimbursement while pushing for a larger pot that will fund quality incentives. The problem is, the money available to pay physicians isn’t going to keep growing because we can’t afford to keeping paying more for healthcare. So physicians must accept the hard reality that they have hit their limit and will likely see reimbursement shrink in coming years.

Litigation can cost time, money, and even reputations for healthcare providers and their partners. At this year's MGMA annual conference, Michelle M. Skipper of the American Arbitration Association pointed out another solution: alternative dispute resolution.

Healthcare reform has passed, and many provisions are being implemented. But future milestones in the legislation are still very much up in the air. So what should you be doing now? And what will happen to the reform after the November elections? Two MGMA experts offer some guidance.

Panelists from the "Perspectives on Healthcare Reform" general session at MGMA 2010 discuss their concerns about the Affordable Care Act, accountable care organizations, and the Medicare sustained growth rate (SGR) formula.

A new Institute of Medicine report on the future of nursing - and the AMA’s response to it - has raised the doctor-nurse turf battle to a new level of acrimony. It’s time for this unproductive debate to end. Instead of talking past each other, physicians and nurses ought to recognize that medicine is entering a new era that will require an unprecedented amount of cooperation among all healthcare professionals.

A new report has discovered the "crucial element" to achieve effective, affordable care for Americans in the new world created by health reform: nurses.