Year: 2014

A Culture of Overtreatment

Nov 14, 2014• 12

JACK COCHRAN, MD & CHARLES KENNEY

The Dallas/Fort Worth Healthcare Daily ran a fascinating excerpt from the Steve Jacob’s book So Long, Marcus Welby, M.D.* The excerpt contained some very interesting assertions and statistics. For example:

Consultant PwC, relying on that Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report, estimated that malpractice insurance and defensive medicine accounted for 10 percent of total health-care costs. A 2010 Health Affairs article more conservatively pegged those costs at 2.4 percent of healthcare spending.
In a 2010 survey, U.S. orthopedic surgeons bluntly admitted that about 30 percent of tests and referrals were medically unnecessary and done to reduce physician vulnerability to lawsuits.
A 2011 analysis by the American Medical Association found that the average amount to defend a lawsuit in 2010 was $47,158, compared with $28,981 in 2001. The average cost to pay a medical liability claim—whether it was a settlement, jury award or some other disposition—was $331,947, compared with $297,682 in 2001.
Doctors spend significant time fighting lawsuits, regardless of outcome. The average litigated claim lingered for 25 months. Doctors spent 20 months defending cases that were ultimately dismissed, while claims going to trial took 39 months. Doctors who were victorious in court spent an average of 44 months in litigation.
A study in The New England Journal of Medicine estimated that by age 65 about 75 percent of physicians in low-risk specialties have been the target of at least one lawsuit, compared with about 99 percent of those in high-risk specialties.
According to Brian Atchinson, president of the Physician Insurers Association of America (PIAA), 70 percent of legal claims do not result in payments to patients, and physician defendants prevail 80 percent of time in claims resolved by verdict.Continue reading…

65 Million People Lost Weight With MyFitnessPal?

Nov 13, 2014• 13

Vik Khanna

65 million people lost weight with MyFitnessPal. Really?

Now, let’s see, according to Gallup, 18% of American adults are at their ideal weight, so we’ll assume they don’t want to lose weight.

That means 82% of American adults or about 198 million people might want lose weight. Thus, based on My Fitness Pal’s headline boast, their market penetration is nearly a third of the adults who need to lose weight, which is just boffo if you are a potential advertiser.

Or, is it? Observe, my dear Watson, as we play 20 questions with My Fitness Pal:

How many of these people were repeat customers?
How often did they come back?
At what time intervals?
When they came back, how much weight had they (re) gained?
How much weight did the average user lose?Continue reading…

Reimbursement, Prepare to Die!

Nov 12, 2014• 26

JORDAN SHLAIN, MD

“Prepare to Die”, said Inigo Montoya to the six fingered man.

Reimbursement, prepare to die.

Doctors get reimbursed? Interesting….

Do Lawyers get reimbursed? Do accountants get reimbursed? When you send your check to pay for your Aetna premiums, are you reimbursing them?

The last time I checked, the act of being reimbursed implies that a person gave money and awaiting for someone to give them the money back.

Let’s take a quick look at Webster’s Dictionary.
reimburse |ˌrē-imˈbərs|
verb [ with obj. ]
repay (a person who has spent or lost money): the investors should be reimbursed for their losses.

• repay (a sum of money that has been spent or lost): they spend thousands of dollars that are not reimbursed by insurance.
#wtf
How did it come to pass that doctors don’t get paid, but reimbursed?

The Glass Is Half Full

Nov 12, 2014• 5

JEFF GOLDSMITH

Many health care executives and professionals are wary, glass-half-empty people, conditioned by long experience to dwell on business risks. However, today’s health care environment is actually full of good news. Reflect on the following:

Expanding coverage. We’re on the way to cutting the number of uninsured Americans in half. No, we didn’t get to universal coverage with the Affordable Care Act. And its implementation has not been a pretty sight. But after decades of political failure, tens of millions of Americans are receiving coverage, no longer having to postpone care for serious health risks. Hospitals are already seeing their uncompensated care decline rapidly, especially in those states that expanded their Medicaid programs.

Cost crisis abated. We’ve achieved durable health cost stability. Since 2008, health costs have grown only 3.6 to 3.9 percent per year — growth rates not seen since the Eisenhower administration (five years before Medicare). The Congressional Budget Office recently forecast that 2016 per capita Medicare spending would be almost 30 percent lower than they projected in 2006. The difference, around $4,000 per capita, translates into a 2016 Medicare bill hundreds of billions of dollars lower than forecast in 2006. It’s worth repeatedly reminding policymakers that hard work from hospital executives and their clinical partners in controlling expenses and reducing readmissions have made a major contribution to this welcome cost stability.

A New Era for our Military Health System

Nov 11, 2014• 7

By DAN GARRETT

The last day of October was the deadline for proposals in response to the U.S. Department of Defense’s call to overhaul its electronic health record software, also known as the Defense Healthcare Management Systems Modernization (DHMSM). PwC’s proposed solution, called the Defense Operational Readiness Health System (DORHS), seeks to bring innovations from the commercial marketplace to the military health system by using technology that is seamless, proven and reliable.

With team members DSS, Inc., Medsphere Systems Corporation, MedicaSoft and General Dynamics Information Technology, PwC’s goal is to enable every healthcare professional to provide the finest medical care possible to members of the military and their families during every phase of service, through retirement, and assist the Defense Health Agency in its continued business transformation to help implement and manage effectively the world’s largest healthcare delivery system.

The Cadillac Tax Attack

Nov 10, 2014• 11

By MICHAEL TURPIN

“You think healthcare is expensive now? Wait until it is for free…” PJ O’Rourke

In early 2011, The Boston Globe shared the findings of a 20-page report from the Boston Foundation and Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a report that somberly concluded that cities and towns must substantially increase the amounts their employees are required to pay in out-of-pocket expenses for services and to significantly increase their deductibles. Jeffrey D. Nutting, Franklin, MA. town manager, complained his town was still facing costs that wildly outpaced declining tax revenues or even the CPI. “Every dollar we spend on health care insurance is a dollar we don’t spend on jobs,’’ he said. “This is all about saving jobs. When insurance costs go up I have cut police, firefighters, or teachers.’’

Nutting said about 10 percent of the town’s $88 million budget now goes to health care costs, and he was facing a double-digit increase for next year. That was 2011.

In 2014, the healthcare conundrum is worsening. Despite the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the average per capita cost to provide health benefits for public employees is averaging as much as $ 20,000 per worker. This is almost twice the national average of most health plans – even higher than private sector bargained plans. The mounting evidence is irrefutable – low co-pay plans with maximum amounts of reimbursement do little to improve health or mitigate chronic illness — and often times lead to overconsumption of services, poor consumerism and limited accountability for personal responsibility around healthcare.Continue reading…

Health IT Newser

Nov 10, 2014• 2

MICHELLE RONAN NOTEBOOM

A No Way for Allscripts and MyWay

A North Carolina arbitration panel rules that Allscripts must pay Etransmedia $9.7 million for a breach of their partner agreement in violation of the state’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The panel found that Allscripts unfairly profited by inducing Etransmedia to buy MyWay software licenses and assuring Etransmedia that it would make the product Meaningful Use-compliant. Allscripts later announced that rather than update MyWay it would phase out the product, leading the panel to rule that Allscripts “deliberately sabotaged” Etransmedia’s sales efforts.

Post-Election Predictions

The recent Republican sweep of the House and Senate may bode well for health IT, predict several industry pundits. One issue that will likely be discussed: the reduction of Stage 2 MU reporting requirements from 365 days to 90 days. Also look for renewed interest in issues around interoperability, telemedicine, and regulation of medical devices, software, and mobile apps.

Stage 2 Attestations Numbers: Disappointing but Predictable

CMS reports that only 4,656 EPs and 258 hospitals have attested for Stage 2 MU through the end of September. That’s less than 17% of the nation’s hospitals and a mere two percent of EPs (though EPs have until the end of February to report their progress.) Officials from the AMA, CHIME, HIMSS, and MGMA called the results disappointing yet predictable, and renewed calls for a shortened MU reporting period in 2015 and more program flexibility. Continue reading…

Pay for Engagement: A New Framework for Physician Reimbursement

Nov 10, 2014• 26

By Ben Rosner, MD, Kyle Homstead & Jordan Shlain, MD

A thousand channels, and nothing’s on. “Patient engagement” has become an increasingly used buzzword in which healthcare finds itself awash. Yet little around patient engagement has been operationalized into any sort of enduring clinical reality. In part, this is due to the lack of convergence, until recently, of three major and arguably requisite ingredients: 1. A practical, operational definition of patient engagement that allows us to measure it continuously and treat it just as we do a vital sign, 2. A manner by which to connect the two most important parties in the patient engagement equation -‐ the patient and physician – between visits in a way that is clinically compatible and meaningful, and 3. An incentive that helps honor and reward a key missing ingredient – the physician -‐ for the time needed to promote engagement directly with his or her patients. We will discuss these three elements and highlight two current pilot studies that are beginning to break through these barriers.Continue reading…

ONC launches Pilot Program to Catalyze Health IT Innovation

Nov 10, 2014

Investments in digital health have never been higher, with reports indicating that $5 Billion has been invested in health tech startups in 2014. Encouraged by the increasingly favorable changes being made to health policy in the U.S., many entrepreneurs have answered the call to action to solve problems related to health care delivery and access, disease management, and cost reduction. Venture capitalists recognize the value of innovation in health care through technology yet few of these tools have gained widespread adoption. Health care organizations and providers are wary of implementing new technologies that haven’t been tested for fear of disrupting their workflows and causing more problems than before.

Market R&D Pilot Challenge Website

Recognizing these high barriers to entry for digital health startups the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is hosting the Market R&D Pilot Challenge to bridge the gap between health care providers and innovators. This competition, which is administered by Health 2.0, may award pilot proposals in four different domains: clinical environments (e.g., hospitals, ambulatory care, surgical centers), public health and community environments (e.g., public health departments, community health workers, mobile medical trucks, and school-based clinics), consumer health (e.g., self-insured employers, pharmacies, laboratories) and research and data (e.g, novel ways of collecting data from patients).Continue reading…

Inoculating Your Wellness Program Against EEOC Attack

Nov 7, 2014• 12

By AL LEWIS and VIK KHANNA

Two months ago Al wrote a column titled: Are Obamacare Wellness Programs Soon to be Outlawed? Truthfully that headline was picked for its sky-is-falling value, in an attempt to generalize one Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) lawsuit against one wacky wellness program to an EEOC risk for wellness programs everywhere.

As luck would have it, the sky has now fallen — right on the head of Honeywell…and the EEOC is indicating more lawsuits are to come. The scary part here: Unlike the wacky wellness program above, Honeywell was in compliance with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but compliance with the ACA doesn’t seem to get you a free pass on the EEOC’s own “business necessity” requirement, plucked from the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which they enforce.

Essentially the Honeywell lawsuit means no company doing invasive biometric screenings and mandating doctor visits or measuring health outcomes on individuals, and that has a significant financial forfeiture attached to it, is immune to prosecution, even if they are in compliance with ACA.Continue reading…