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Editor's
Column
2006
By
JOSEPH WEISS, MD
What
can we expect in 2006? Conflict. And where? In reimbursement,
regulation, and technology.
As
of the writing of this editor’s column, Congress has
made a decision on our Medicare
reimbursement for 2006. The sustainable Growth Rate formula
will apply, resulting in a cut in physician reimbursement.
This decision creates circumstances that will lead to
penury for doctors. We must continue
to battle for a fair formula that reflects our circumstances,
not an antiquated one that stands mute against reality.
The
regulations descending upon us represent another area
of anger. For instance, the health insurance companies
are pushing their quality demands under the rubric of
Pay for Performance. Few would quarrel with the idea
of forwarding the practice of high quality medicine.
But what does it mean when those policing do so through "claims
data?"
Has
even one reader of this column heard anyone who monitors
our movements with "claims data" explain what
that means? What claims information is used, and how
is that information combined, massaged, and broken down
to recreate us not as physicians but as a fiscal
profiles? Likely we would not recognize or accept that
image.
Technology
poses its own concerns: how to master it, how to pay
for it. I refer to the technology entering our offices,
such as Internet prescribing and office-based computer
systems. Keep in mind that while the mantra for electronic
records is “better patent care," the offshoot is
greater outside control. The federal government is talking
about voluntary reporting in 2006, but the expectation
is a mandatory transmission of records for government
review by 2007. The expense of these electronic chains
is ours alone.
The
DMN will have no shortage of material to report in 2006.
Gear up your computers to receive us.
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