Physicians writing on KevinMD about policy as it reaches the exam room: prior authorization and the state and federal rules now written for it, scope of practice laws state by state, the CDC opioid guideline and what forced tapers did to patients, and public health from vaccination to the pandemic. Four maintained records draw on this archive: Prior authorization: what physicians say, in their own words, Scope of practice: what physicians, nurse practitioners, and PAs say, in their own words, Opioids: what physicians and pain patients say, in their own words, and Vaccines: what physicians say, in their own words.
It is amazing to me how far emergency medicine has come as a specialty. Until the 1970s, emergency rooms were staffed by low-level resident interns who moonlighted for extra money or physicians who couldn’t find work elsewhere. After finally getting recognized as a specialty, the specialty still spent a few decades finding its way: developing training programs, improving quality, and generally trying to raise the bar on emergency care in …
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ER physicians can help meet the triple aim
Like most of my age cohort, I was brought up to believe that the great Satan threatening to undermine the bloated American health care system was our broken-down, antiquated, self-interested model of reimbursement for care provided called “fee-for-service.” Being a professional who, to the best of my ability, tries to maximize the value of the care I provide to my patients, I subscribed wholly to the notion that the cause …
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Is there a role for doctors in the brave new health care world?
Recently, I had the opportunity to sit at the table with some of the nation’s top thought leaders. We convened at the Newseum in Washington, DC, for the Healthcare Leadership Council’s National Dialogue for Healthcare Innovation; it was like a health policy nerd red carpet. Center for Medicare Director Sean Cavanaugh was there. Leapfrog Group CEO Leah Binder was there. America’s favorite bioethicist–oncologist–provocateur Zeke Emanuel was there. The chief executives …
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What exactly is value in health care?
One of the most revolting pleasures in life is to read learned opinions and in-depth analyses of consumers’ behavior written by beautiful people clad in designer clothing, dining at eclectic chic trattorias or enjoying the occasional canapé under crystal candelabra at their favorite charity gala. These wondrous creatures, having pored over a few disjointed numbers selectively allowed to escape from our struggle with health care, are informing us that there …
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Health care consumer products need not contain real doctors
SGR has been the bane of my time in policy. And I want it to be yours.
SGR, formally known as the sustainable growth rate, is a formula developed under none other than the Balanced Budget Act (the same one that set the cap for GME-funded residency slots at 100,000) to determine the Centers for Medicare And Medicaid Services (CMS) reimbursement payments to physicians. And because the universe loves a good …
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The unsustainable SGR: It’s time to stop kicking the can
I understand that there is a difference between perception and reality. I also get that the kind of people one meets on a tropical vacation in the middle of March are of a certain economic and sociopolitical status.
Nonetheless, I am amazed at how history seems to repeat itself. Year after year, while sitting in the shade and relaxing by the pool, …
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Our health system is changing, and it’s a damn shame
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
For many of the millions of low-income families seeking quality health care in the safety net, the quest can be bewildering. They may walk into a drab, disorganized and unwelcoming clinic, with the staff, signage, and endless medical forms all using unfamiliar language, with unexplained, lengthy waiting times, and with providers burying them in information they can’t understand. On a second visit, they may feel even worse when they end …
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The health care safety net: Put patients first
I admittedly don’t understand much about the intricacies of economics. But I don’t have to in order to recognize the significance of Walmart’s decision to raise the minimum pay for its lowest paid hourly employees. In the week following the company’s announcement, plenty has been written about the impact that such a move will have on the company’s success and on local economies. It goes beyond that, however. What I see is …
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Raising minimum wage directly impacts health
Whether you like it or not health care financing is transitioning from payment for discrete services to global payment for value. Whether you agree with this trend, or comprehend its meaning, if it has one, is largely irrelevant in the short term. The government of the United States, the Chamber of Commerce, both political parties, all health care stakeholders, and even your own medical associations are fervently supporting, and actively …
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The transition to value-based care: Think Starbucks
In a recent grand rounds on the future of medicine, the buzzwords were “collaboration” and “managing of the health of populations.” The same day, a group of ten residents were presented with their patient data about cancer screening rates. In both venues, the call to “population health” elicited sighs of exasperation. It’s just another checkbox we are being asked to click off. How can we be assessed on that as …
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How to make outpatient population health more exciting
Medicaid expansion “is one of the biggest milestones in health care reform,” according to the Obamacare Facts website. The goal was to provide insurance coverage to low-income Americans, specifically the uninsured. The major problem with Medicaid is low reimbursement. “Due to low payouts, many doctors don’t take Medicaid, and the quality of care tends to be poor,” admits the website. The solution was to raise the amount doctors get paid under …
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How Medicaid’s bait and switch fooled doctors
More and more hospitals are realizing that the 30 to 50 percent of waste occurring within their organizations is not only real, but a tremendous opportunity. This is good news for both our patients and our health care system. The bad news is that many hospital executives believe that this waste is largely limited to processes like materials management, ER wait times and operating room first-starts.
The next step in our …
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Where is the waste in health care?
Incentive structures in health care have to change. Right now, we pay for services, or have a so-called, fee-for-service system. The idea is that the more patients doctors see, the more expensive tests doctors order and the more patients doctors hospitalize, the more money clinics and hospitals make. This incentive structure has transformed our health care into sick care.
The reality is, in America, we are adept at caring for complicated medical problems that require …
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3 ways to change the way we pay for care
Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves.
– Genesis 11:4
With these words, so begins the biblical story of The Tower of Babel. The tale was written, at least in part, to explain the origin of different languages. Essentially, a group of earth’s early inhabitants started to build a tower to the sky in order …
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The two towers of medicine. Which one will you choose?
For years, policy experts have been predicting the end of fee-for-service. Yet it can be said of fee-for-service that, like Mark Twain’s alleged demise, reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated. (Actually, this is an often-used misrepresentation of what Twain actually said. After the New York Herald incorrectly reported that he was “grievously ill and possibly dying,” an “amused” Mark Twain wrote that “the report of my death has been …
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Physicians need to be ready for the end of fee-for-service
Infrastructure is never quite as interesting or exciting as innovation. The grand opening of a new building incorporating all the latest integrated technology is far more exciting than bridge repairs. In our fascination for the innovation, we often turn a blind eye to our nation’s crumbling infrastructure.
In the United States today, one quarter of our bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete and more …
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What do bridges and public health have in common?
As our medical system attempts to evolve to better deal with the modern epidemics of lifestyle-driven chronic disease, much time and attention is being placed on the clinical models for prevention. Rightly so, and various viable models are popping up with names like lifestyle medicine, preventative medicine, and functional medicine.
But one area that is hardly addressed is the payment structure and business model of the practices. Are there structures that …
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Emerging health care models for innovators
Of all the radical changes affecting health care that have sent providers reeling, we are about to experience the knockout punch: the effort to change health care reimbursement from a quantity-based to a quality-based system. Of all the changes to health care, I can’t think of any other that has been based on more false assumptions. Given the fact that there is always low hanging fruit, supporters of the quality-based …
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Quality-based health care is based on false assumptions
