|
November 24,
2008 |
|
IN THIS ISSUE
Editor's Column: A Prescription For Drug Companies
Medicare Advantage Plans Increase Cost and
Complexity
MSMS Establishes Nation's First Statewide
Physician Network
Dr. Palmer Appointed To Newly Created Position At
WSUSOM
Chair Of Otolaryngology Appointed At HFHS
Dr. Schenk Elected To Cancer Society Board
DMC-Affiliated Emery King Video Library Wins Award
No Way To Know If Hospitals Are Prepared For
Disaster |
|
Click Here To Contact Us
|
A Prescription For Drug Companies
By JOSEPH WEISS, MD
A front-page article in the Oct. 22 New York Times announced that
the American pharmaceutical industry was experiencing a drop in
prescriptions, an event never heard of in the industry in the 60
years of tracking such information.
The headline comes as no surprise to physicians. Probably,
any physician seeing patients regularly over the last 12 months can
cite repeated experiences of patients saying: “If what you want to
give me doesn’t come generic, I can’t afford it.” If at that time,
economic forecasters had the foresight to interview physicians about
the state of the economy, we could have told them long before the
other indicators, that something was amiss and that the nation was
headed for hard times.
Of course, physicians were wisely keeping to themselves. The
pay –for-performance advocates were happily noting the drop in
prescription drugs and rise in generic prescribing and giving pay
for performance incentives the credit. Physicians were not about to
give up the bonuses the pay-for-performance advocates were handing
out. The truth was that generic drug use increased and brand
prescriptions dropped because patients were letting us know their
concerns and financial problems. That one-to-one relationship
establishes reality better than the railing of critics or the
strategy of bonuses administrators take from their MBA courses.
Any other industry faced with a loss of sales, lowers the
price for example, the auto industry, the gas and oil producers and
the stock market. In contrast to attempting sensible pricing in face
of a changing marketplace, the pharmaceutical houses uniformly raise
the price of their drugs 10-12 percent a year, every year. These
companies lament the decline in sales, but none have come forward
with decreases in prices of their products.
We should ignore the blandishments, promises, proposals, and
assists the drug companies offer us as long as the pharmaceutical
industry continues to ignore the needs of the public. With the money
saved from wooing the medical community, the pharmaceutical industry
should lower the price of their goods so that patients could, at the
least, afford their co-pays.
Share Your
Thoughts on this Article
Back
to top
|
Medicare Advantage
Plans Increase Cost, Complexity
Private
Medicare Advantage Plans Increase Cost, Complexity of Program
Without Evidence of Improving Care, Studies Find
[Nov 24, 2008]
Private
Medicare Advantage plans are increasing costs for Medicare but not
necessarily improving care, according to two studies published on
Monday in the journal Health
Affairs, the
New York
Times reports. Nearly 25 percent of all Medicare
beneficiaries, or about 10.1 million people, currently are enrolled
in private plans, the Times
reports.
In the first study, Marsha Gold, a senior fellow at
Mathematica Policy Research,
wrote that private MA plans "are now widely available nationwide,"
including in rural areas, since a 2003 overhaul of the program.
However, the study noted that 48 percent of the new enrollees are
covered under private fee-for-service plans, which mimic traditional
Medicare plans and do not adequately coordinate care. Enrollment in
private fee-for-service plans has increased from 26,000 in December
2003 to 2.3 million, the
Times reports.
In the second study,
Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
analysts Carlos Zarabozo and Scott Harrison found that increased
enrollment in the private plans had, in turn, raised costs because
the federal payment rate to private plans on average is 13 percent
higher than what it would be for the same beneficiaries in
traditional Medicare. Zarabozo and Harrison wrote, "The higher
payment rates have financed what is essentially a Medicare benefit
expansion for Medicare Advantage enrollees, without producing any
overall savings for the Medicare program, and with increased costs
borne by all beneficiaries and taxpayers."
Zarabozo and Harrison added that "[p]ayment increases have been so
large that plans no longer need to be efficient to offer extra
benefits." HMOs on average were paid 12% more than what would have
been paid for traditional Medicare beneficiaries, while payments to
private fee-for-service plans were 17% higher, the authors found.
President-elect Barack Obama has called for eliminating the higher
payments to MA plans. In a debate on Oct. 15, Obama said the higher
payments to MA plans are "just a giveaway" to private insurers. In
addition, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), whom Obama reportedly
has chosen as secretary of
HHS, has expressed
similar views. In a book published this year, Daschle wrote,
"Medicare's solvency is now threatened by overpayments to private
insurers." MedPAC has
recommended that payments
to MA plans be reduced to the level of traditional Medicare.
Defense of Private Plans
Acting
CMS Administrator Kerry
Weems said, "Medicare Advantage plans are offering an average of
over $1,100 in additional annual value to enrollees in terms of cost
savings and added benefits." Karen Ignagni, president of
America's Health Insurance Plans,
said that HMOs and PPOs offered recognizable benefits by
coordinating care, which has facilitated early detection of diseases
and fewer patient visits to hospital emergency departments.
However, HMOs and PPOs "are not the types of plans that have been
growing most rapidly," Gold wrote, adding that private
fee-for-service plans continue to grow in popularity though they
"are not set up to coordinate care" (Pear,
New York Times,
11/24).
An
abstract of the first study is available
online.
An
abstract of the second study also is available
online.
Share Your
Thoughts on this Article
Back
to top
|
MSMS Establishes
Nation's First Statewide Physician Network
MSMS is
establishing a statewide physician-sponsored electronic portal
called MSMS Connect. The basic portal is a free benefit to MSMS
members that securely connects physicians to patient data and to key
resources-all through a convenient, single sign-on portal.
It will use
Compuware's Covisint subsidiary technology, securely connecting
physicians to patient information and to each other for referrals
and consultations--as well as to labs, patient registries and other
resources. It will expand to connect to insurance companies, state
agencies, other medical practice management resources and to other
networks.
MSMS Connect is
an important, tangible benefit that introduces or enhances
technology within the medical practice. It delivers an excellent
value, since it would be financially impractical for individual
physicians to contract with programmers to design and develop a
similar portal utility for their offices.
MSMS Connect is
compatible with more than 270 existing Practice Management Systems
(PMS), and can be connected when you purchase enhancements to the
basic MSMS Connect portal. When your PMS is connected, patient data
will be available to you (and only to you) in the MSMS Connect
portal. This will give you access to your patient schedule, and will
eliminate the need to re-enter patient data for other services such
as e-prescribing.
If you belong to
a physician organization (PO), you may wish to explore whether your
PO provides further discounts on existing portal services.
For more
information, contact Janet Foreman at 800-688-1895 or jforeman@msms.org.
Share Your Thoughts on this
Article
Back to top
|
Dr. Palmer
Appointed To Newly Created Position At WSUSOM
The
Office of Faculty Affairs is taking a new and innovative approach to
diversifying academic medicine and the ranks of future practicing
physicians and professionals by expanding its scope to also focus on
leadership and professional development within the School of
Medicine.
Dr.
Kenneth Palmer has been appointed to be the first vice dean for
Faculty Affairs, Human Resources and Professional Development
effective January 1, 2009. In this expanded role, Dr. Palmer will
devote his full-time energies to serving as an advocate for the
diverse School of Medicine faculty. He will be responsible for
interpretation, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting
of institutional policies and procedures. These procedures include
the development and implementation of expanded resources for
professional development and human resource administrative support
services.
Dr.
Palmer has been with the School of Medicine for 28 years. For ten of
those years he served as dean for Research and Graduate Programs. He
served five years as director of Preclinical Curriculum and has
chaired the Committee on Public Health Sciences, which led to the
establishment of the new Department of Family Medicine and Public
Health Sciences and Master of Public Health program. Most recently,
Dr. Palmer served as interim chair of Pathology, where he was fully
engaged in faculty development and the promotion and tenure
processes leading to successful clinical faculty promotions. He
successfully recruited nine new clinical faculty members and a new
director of Pathology Education while overseeing thriving GME, UME
and graduate biomedical education programs.
A
National Institutes of Health-supported basic science principal
investigator for 12 years, Dr. Palmer has served as program director
for the first 18 years of our successful Pathology Graduate Program,
and as director for the last 27 years of our highly regarded Year 2
medical Pathophysiology course. He has directed several graduate
courses, including leading a systemic pathophysiology course for
biomedical students for 14 years.
Dr.
Palmer was recruited from Boston University School of Medicine and
the Mallory Institute of Pathology. A Massachusetts native, Dr.
Palmer received his M.S. in development biology from Villanova
University, in Villanova, Pennsylvania, and his PhD in pathology
from Boston University.
Share Your
Thoughts on this Article
Back
to top |
Chair Of Otolaryngology Appointed At
HFHS
Kathleen
Yaremchuk, MD, has been appointed chair of the Department of
Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at Henry Ford Hospital. She
had been Interim Chair of the department for nearly a year.
With the
appointment, Dr. Yaremchuk becomes one of two female chairs of
Otolaryngology-head and neck surgery in the country, reported HFHS.
Dr. Yaremchuk is
a national expert in quality and managed care. She is a surveyor for
the National Committee for Quality Assurance of Health Care
Organizations and sits on its Review Oversight Committee. She has
led the medical groups in national and regional pay-for-performance
initiatives and organized the group's efforts in HMO contracting and
performance management.
On Jan. 1, 2007,
Dr. Yaremchuk implemented five new policies to eliminate the
conflict of interest created by relationships between vendors and
the health care industry, to support patient privacy compliance, and
to improve quality and safety.
In addition to
policies to reduce and control supplier presence in patient care
areas, to ensure that suppliers meet with patient care givers only
with their approval, and to make sure that decisions are always made
in the best interest of the patient without undue influence from
suppliers, Dr. Yaremchuk implemented the first vendor certification
program in the nation.
Henry Ford's
vendor policy has been adopted by many organizations nationally, the
health system reported.
In her surgical
specialty, she has achieved subspecialty certification in Sleep
Medicine and has been awarded leadership roles in national
professional societies and journal editorial boards.
She will continue
to serve in her current position of vice president of Clinical
Practice Performance for the Henry Ford Medical Group, the 1,000
member medical group that staffs Henry Ford Hospital and 26 medical
centers throughout southeast Michigan.
Dr. Yaremchuk
joined Henry Ford in 1984 and was appointed director of the
department of Otolaryngology's Smell and Taste Clinic in 1994. She
received her medical degree in 1978 from the University of Michigan
medical school. She has a master's degree in health care
administration. She is a former president of the Michigan
Otolaryngological Society, the first woman elected to the post, HFHS
reported.
Share
Your Thoughts on this Article
Back to top
|
Dr. Schenk Elected
To Cancer Society Board
Maryjean Schenk, MD, MPH, MS, chair of the Wayne State University
School of Medicine Department of Family Medicine and Public Health
Sciences, was elected as an at-large member of the national board of
directors of the American Cancer Society.
Dr.
Schenk was elected to a two-year term as one of six at-large members
of the board at the recently held annual ACS meeting in New York.
“This election is testimony to Dr. Schenk's career-long work in
cancer-related issues and to her leadership in primary care,” said
Richard Wender, MD, past president of the American Cancer Society
and the first primary care physician to serve on the board and to
become president of the organization. “It also confirms the ACS
appreciation of the vital role played by primary care clinicians in
the cancer fight. The interests of our discipline, and, it follows,
the best interests of public health, will be well served by Dr.
Schenk's election.”
Dr.
Schenk is only the second primary care physician elected to the ACS
board, reports Wayne State.
“Dr.
Schenk’s dedication to patient care and to educating those devoting
their lives to family medicine exemplify the model of physician and
instructor who continues to develop the fine reputation of the
School of Medicine,” said Robert M. Mentzer Jr., MD, dean of the
Wayne State University School of Medicine and senior advisor to the
president on Medical Affairs. “Her boundless energy will no doubt be
appreciated by the American Cancer Society, as it is here at the
School of Medicine.”
The
ACS is the largest health related not-for-profit organization in the
world, and the fourth largest charity of any kind. The society is
dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by saving
lives, diminishing suffering and preventing cancer through research,
education, advocacy and service.
Dr.
Schenk oversaw this year the opening of the new Wayne State
University Physicians group Family Medicine Center on Crittenton
Hospital's campus in Rochester Hills.
Share
Your Thoughts on this Article
Back
to top |
DMC-Affiliated
Emery King Video Library Wins Award
For the second
year in a row, the
Emery King Medical Video Library
at DMC.org has taken home a top honor in the eHealthcare Leadership
Awards, sponsored by eHealthcare Strategy & Trends. The 208 Gold
Award was presented to the DMC in the category of “Best Web 2.0/Rich
Media.”
“A growing
number of healthcare organizations are clearly embracing the Web and
emerging technologies,” says Mark Gothberg, eHealthcare Leadership
Awards chairman. Gothberg notes that organizations like DMC have
invested in new sites or made significant improvements in existing
sites. “Such rich media forms as videos, audio, blogs, and
discussion groups are changing the landscape of Web sites,” he says.
The Emery King
Medical Video Library houses more than 75 exclusive, custom videos,
including sub-libraries created by health and fitness expert Peter
Nielsen and Detroit Shock Trainer Laura Ramus. The DMC videos
feature breakthrough procedures offered by DMC specialists and
experts. Response has been exceptional – patients from as far away
as Romania have found DMC specialists via the Library. A
recent video featured a
patient who sought out a DMC Neurosurgery specialist for his own
spinal procedure, after watching that specialist in one of the
existing videos.
DMC extends
the reach of the health videos by posting them to video sharing
sites like YouTube, Google Videos, Yahoo Videos, vimeo.com,
icyou.com and digg.com. DMC embraces the use of Web 2.0 social
networking with Emery King-focused pages on both MySpace and
Facebook.
Share
Your Thoughts on this Article
Back
to top |
No Way To Know If
Hospitals Are Prepared For Disaster
The findings
of a new study published this month in the American Medical
Association’s (AMA) Disaster Medicine and Public Health
Preparedness journal found that consistent, evidence-based
performance measurements are needed to accurately evaluate
hospitals’ ability to manage patient care during a disaster. The
study has been released early on the AMA disaster journal
Web site and will be published in the journal’s December issue.
“Although
health care institutions regularly perform quality assessments of
routine clinical services, few metrics are available to evaluate the
quality of their emergency management initiatives,” said study lead
author Eliot J. Lazar, MD, MBA, vice president of medical affairs
and chief medical officer at New York-Presbyterian Healthcare
System. “The need for universally accepted, evidence-based
performance measures continues to grow, as hospitals must be able to
demonstrate their progress or needs for disaster readiness.”
Health care
institutions have invested considerable resources in emergency
management preparedness, but because major disasters are rare, they
continue to be challenged in evaluating the strengths and weaknesses
of their emergency programs. Evidence-based preparedness policies
are needed that model current health care quality improvement
programs. One way to create such models is to evaluate hospital
procedures during times that approach disaster levels. Traditional
hospital quality measures, like wait times and missed diagnoses, can
be applied, and the results can be compared to peer hospitals to
determine strengths and weaknesses.
“It is
important that performance standards be established for times of
disaster to ensure uniformity across institutions systems, and
regions,” said Dr. Lazar. “Ultimately, we must advance achievable
recommendations in performance measurement to guide resource
allocation during emergencies. Hospital emergency management
strategies are essential to our nation’s preparedness.”
Share
Your Thoughts on this Article
Back
to top |
|
This publication brought to you by
Natinsky Publishing Network.
Problems seeing this email? You may view it online at
http://www.wcmssm.org
To subscribe or unsubscribe to this newsletter contact
info@wcmssm.org |
|
