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Written by American Medical Association
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Thursday, 22 July 2010 00:00 |
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Congress
creates a $19 billion subsidy program
Early
in 2009, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) which
created a $19 billion subsidy program to help physicians and hospitals purchase
electronic health records (EHR) systems. For many physicians, the cost of an EHR
has simply been out of reach. The new program, therefore, provides an
opportunity to enter the digital era. As with any government subsidy program,
however, there are strings attached.
CMS
and the ONC develop criteria
While
the law broadly laid out the parameters under which physicians could receive
these incentive payments, the specific rules that will govern the program are
developed by the administration.
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Written by Mick Raich
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Monday, 05 October 2009 10:18 |
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Last week I attended a meeting in D.C. where Rep. Pete Stark, D-CA, was speaking on the national healthcare plan. This was an interesting experience as I received a first hand look at how the new plan may play out. At this point there is nothing written in stone, but you can be fairly certain something will be passed on this issue and it looks like it will take place before Thanksgiving.
One of the more interesting things I heard was the concept of a “productivity adjuster” being included in this 800-page bill. The idea of a productivity adjuster seems to be something that was created by the government to echo the private insurance industries budget-neutral adjustment model. The overall goal here is to keep costs from rising by changing the payment formula to keep payments the same year to year. This means they are actually paying less for those that are more efficient. In fact you can argue this is in essence a non-productivity adjuster.
The new healthcare plan also has some interesting concepts concerning productivity. The government is strongly pushing a “pay-for-performance” platform; however, under their proposal, this is a pay for non-performance plan. Those that are more efficient-the top performers-will be paid less under the plan for their effort, not more. This eliminates the motivation to become more efficient, as one’s compensation is not rewarded but negatively impacted.
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Written by Mick Raich
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Monday, 17 August 2009 08:22 |
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Recently I penned a letter to my Senator and Congressman expressing my concerns about the proposed national healthcare plan. I sent a copy of this letter to all 450 pathologists that I work with urging them to do the same. Here is my opinion on this concept.
In our day to day activities here at Vachette we spend countless hours auditing and researching how claims are denied and unpaid by both government and non-government payers. It seems sometimes the only goal of the employees of these organizations is to delay payment and frustrate our efforts.
From a strictly financial point of view the national health plan appears to look like a national Medicaid plan and this is not good news. We deal with Medicaid across the nation and see issues time and time again where the various Medicaid plans run out of money and refuse to even talk with a provider. Imagine a national plan with a national bureaucracy behind it. It boggles the mind the level of frustration this could cause.
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