These are the clinicians you want for your ACO

Health Policy
April 18, 2015

I am of the belief that every ACO must be physician-led. We must depend on them not only for clinical improvement, but also for developing a culture of improvement. Culture is vitally important. Culture trumps dollars, technology, data, and about anything else you would use in clinical medicine.

If I was getting into the ACO business, I would start recruiting clinicians that embrace these characteristics:

1. Team leadership. Every doc is a leader to some degree, …

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These are the clinicians you want for your ACO

Can doctors afford to ignore the changes in medical practice?

Health Policy
April 5, 2015

As the CMS Innovation Center rolls out the Next Generation ACO Model, I wonder what doctors are thinking. The Next Generation ACO model ups the ante on risk and reward and is the next delivery model iteration as CMS marches on to 30 percent at risk Medicare in 2016. Some of the docs will generally acknowledge that medicine is changing, but there is often no corresponding change in behavior. Other …

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Can doctors afford to ignore the changes in medical practice?

Why you should help your local hospital improve

Health Policy
March 20, 2015

As we begin the journey to value-based health care, the relationships between a hospital and its medical staff are changing. For decades, these relationships were straightforward: doctors admitted patients to the hospital, performed procedures and delivered therapies, and at some point, sent the patients home. This simple formula was the business model for hospitals, and it worked well.

Same with the doctors. The hospital would pretty much let us do what …

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Why you should help your local hospital improve

Why hospitals have to dramatically change their missions

Health Policy
December 15, 2014

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I think I will become a neurosurgeon. Tomorrow.

It shouldn’t be too hard, right? I’m a breast cancer surgeon, and that is kind of like being a neurosurgeon, isn’t it? I wear scrubs and know how to tie knots really well. OK, maybe I don’t know much about the brain, and the last time I was on a neurosurgical team was during …

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Why hospitals have to dramatically change their missions