Independent Health’s Post

In the past few years, VMG Health has observed massive changes in call coverage arrangements. With a growing demand for physicians and an overall shortfall in supply, many care organizations are turning to concurrent call coverage shifts as a potential solution. Our latest article dives into the evolving landscape of concurrent call coverage and offers key considerations that are imperative to structuring these arrangements in a compliant manner.

With the rise of one off medical services outside of the standard healthcare system (e.g. whole body MRIs or genetic testing) the downstream financial tensions are likely going to require the US to consider some policy decisions on how to address this situation. I believe shared-decision making and patient autonomy as being front and center in that discussion.

According to Andis Robeznieks, senior news writer at the American Medical Association, two key elements of value-based care are patient attribution and benchmarking. Patient attribution helps you understand whose health you are responsible for, while benchmarking shows how well you're taking care of your attributed patients. Dr. Francis Mercado, from Virginia Mason Franciscan Health’s Franciscan Medical Group, emphasizes these points as essential for success in accountable care organizations (ACOs), like the Rainier Health Network. Dr. Mercado, who leads the Rainier Health Network ACO, found success by implementing best practices in care management and focusing on delivering high-quality care. He suggests voluntary attribution as an ideal mechanism, where the health system is responsible for patients who choose to be under its care. Benchmarking is also crucial, helping health systems track progress and adjust incentives over time to ensure they continue to be rewarded for providing excellent care. Collaborative relationships with payers and transparent feedback with physicians are equally important for success in value-based care. #ValueBasedCare #HealthcareManagement #AccountableCareOrganizations https://lnkd.in/gF7sCKBV

Every medical decision should be made with risk vs benefit vs cost analysis in mind… if more patients had there own dollars and were educated about shared decision making using a risk/benefit/cost analysis this would begin to shift to giving agency back to whom it belongs…. The patient!

🔥#CALL #TO #ACTION to the #GENERAL #PUBLIC: Please report #US #Healthcare #Companies to the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division for: #Anti-#Competition #Fraud #Unethical #Business #Practices Report violations on the DOJ Antitrust Division website: (at the following link) 🔗 https://lnkd.in/g4WFuBCQ ================================================= 📣 #PLEASE #BE #AWARE 📣 #US #Healthcare does NOT function like a #CAPITALIST #MARKET that benefits American consumers through #competition that drives up #quality while lowering #prices. #US #Healthcare consists of #monopolies that exploit & endanger the GENERAL PUBLIC by: ❌Eliminating competition ❌Eliminating consumer choice ❌Lacking price transparency ❌Overpricing medication & services ❌Delaying & denying medication & services ❌Reducing quality & safety for patients ❌Exploiting, abusing, silencing healthcare workers ❌Causing poor retention of experienced clinicians ❌Causing a staffing crisis of frontline clinicians 👉🏻Hold #US #Healthcare companies #accountable for #exploiting & #endangering the general public by reporting them for anti-competition, fraud, & unethical business practices. (Please use the link above). ================================================= #COMMON #EXAMPLES of #VIOLATIONS to REPORT: #LACK of #PRICE #TRANSPARENCY 🚫A healthcare facility or insurance company uses language in their contracts that keep patients from knowing the prices of services. 🚫A healthcare facility or insurance company does not provide the prices of services in a public & easy-to-read format. #CORPORATE #CONSOLIDATION 🚫A #PRIVATE #EQUITY company buys a series of hospitals, nursing homes, outpatient services, medical practices, or pharmacies in the same area to eliminate competition & consumer choice. 🚫A #health #insurance #company buys several medical practices that compete with each other to eliminate competition & consumer choice. 🚫A #pharmacy #benefit #manager (#PBM) buys a series of small independent pharmacies or specialty pharmacies. Then the PBM abuses its influence so the pharmacies it now owns are reimbursed at a higher rate than the competing pharmacies to put the competing pharmacies out of business. 🚫A #hospital #system buys other hospitals, outpatient services, or medical practices. Then it refers its patients to the facilities it owns to divert business away from competing companies to put the competing companies out of business. 🚫After a #merger, the hospital system closes some of its facilities and reduces services. Then it increases prices. This results in longer wait times, less access to affordable care, lower quality, and job loss. #PatientSafety #StaffingCrisis #FrontlineWorkers

Know and understand the health of the attributed patients you are responsible for thru effective benchmarking. Finally build those relationships with physicians and payers to gain access to all necessary information for successful claim payments and true quality patient care. #ACO #Valuebasedcare #patientcare https://lnkd.in/eFGTQvuM

Washington created this. It was evident to me and many others, a decade ago, this would be the result: driving out private practice and only a few big systems dominating. Banning physician ownership to be replaced by Wall St, massive increase in administrative burden and reporting requirements, reimbursement cuts, etc all contributed. Deep pocketed lobbyists got written what they wanted in the ACA/ObamaCare. What is obvious now, is that given the U.S. is a profit-driven capitalistic system, consolidation means a near monopoly. Scale and economics of scale attract private equity, who will drive up prices, sell assets, extract value for investors, then leave. That is exactly what Stewart Health Care did in Massachusetts and across the nation. https://lnkd.in/eydQQjCs It is what an investor did in Philadelphia. https://lnkd.in/eQcFPEns Capitol Hill’s handwringing now demonstrates how irresponsible and unreliable these “public servants” are who get elected to public office, ostensibly to serve the people, but really to serve corporate interests and the lobbyists who fund their campaigns. This was my biggest source of frustration when I worked in government. Those of us service oriented get our time wasted by special interests who have no interest in fairness.

Primary care in distress is only marginally more effective than no primary care at all. But with predictable, upfront cash flow and smaller patient panels, advanced primary care is liberated to unleash its full horsepower. In this setting, the most humanizing and impactful experience of health care blooms: the trusting, personal relationship between doctor and patient. Primary Care Collaborative, Direct Primary Care Coalition, American Academy of Family Physicians See how the Scituate Health Alliance succeeded in building a better health care system: https://ow.ly/Q9xL50QTytl

Senators Mike Braun and Bernie Sanders co-sponsored the Health Care PRICE Transparency Act 2.0, a bill that would mandate hospitals, insurers, clinical diagnostic laboratories, imaging service providers, and ambulatory surgical centers disclose detailed pricing information for the healthcare services they provide. The information publicized through this bill will allow Americans to access more affordable care options and share savings through lower premiums, and also gain the ability to scrutinize claims data to prevent overbilling, errors, and fraud. This transparency could also yield an annual economic stimulus of about $1 trillion by eliminating administrative waste and overcharging. With a little over three months until the end of the 118th Congress, both parties should come together to pass this bill. https://lnkd.in/eREw2JzV

Contracts. What course in med school taught that! The most successful groups in my career are led by a smart business person AND a doctor, but the most successful groups are almost all gone already to corporate ownership, where fealty to stockholders every quarter cares nothing about the doctors nor the patients, except as they are the source of revenue through coding and billing for services, or for the smaller amounts in value based parts. I'm sad that physicians feel they have no options but to sign bad deals like Dr. Weinstock describes. It's time that transactions become secondary to the caregiver/patient relationships, which are the CORE of healing. It's about relationships. Period.