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April 20, 2009 |
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IN THIS ISSUE
Editor's Column: What P4P And The Stock Market
Have In Common...
Longtime WCMSSM Employee Faces Illness
5th Annual James C. Hazlett, Jr. Memorial Golf
Outing
DMC Brings Greenway Into IT Fold
Is There Really A Primary Care Physician Shortage?
Oakwood Physicians Earn Fellowship Designation
Kresge Eye Institute Names Interim Scientific
Director
Dr. Puklin To Chair Key
Research Committee At WSU |
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Click Here To Contact Us
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Editor's Column: What P4P And The
Stock Market Have In Common:
Both Are Losing Value Before Our Eyes
By JOSEPH WEISS, MD
The medical community is heading into its fourth year of
pay-for-performance (P4P) measures. From that experience, we have
learned that P4P uses time and resources. Personnel in the office or
the physician must record the indicator, keyboard the claim, and
track payments received. Efforts to make the process of entry and
reimbursement computer driven have proved complicated, resulting in
additional cost and questionable efficiencies. Furthermore, in most
cases, the amounts physicians receive are less than expected and do
not pay for the effort involved.
We have learned that P4P is demeaning to physicians and
irritating to the public. It appears that we need a bribe do
undertake the level of care we should provide as professionals.
Public feeling is to pay physicians less if they don’t come up to
the expected standard of care. US Rep. Henry Waxman, Chair of the
House Ways and Means Committee, shares this view.
As a way of minimizing the rolls of patients whose care will
not result in bonus payments, the logic of P4P would lead physicians
to drop non-compliant patients and refer treatment of complex cases
to other physicians.
Over the last three years no evidence has come to light that
indicates any savings to the insurers putting out dollars for P4P.
No study as yet indicates that under P4P the patient improves or
that physicians change behavior. Any reported improvements in care
can be attributed solely to better capture of data.
Insurers want to increase the measures under surveillance,
while physicians want increased reimbursements for the P4P items
they now report.
The strategy to correct present deficiencies in P4P is to
drop the idea; this suggestion is not a far-fetched dream. As
already noted, Waxman opposes it. His position gives him leverage to
exert unusually strong pressure to limit or end this form of
physician payment. The medical community should offer strong support
for his position.
If P4P is a failure at rewarding quality work, what can we
offer in its place? Michigan physician organizations (POs) already
have in place a plan that works. It is bonus payments of $5,000 or
more to physicians whose patient-per-thousand-members needing
emergency room visits are fewer than the physician group average.
The thinking is that a physician who can keep his numbers lower then
than others in the group is doing singular work and deserves credit
for the effort.
A PO is large enough to garner statistics that are both local and
meaningful, and thereby applicable to individual physicians in the
group. Furthermore, in contrast to P4P that imposes an immediate
national standard on all physicians, the PO approach introduces one
quality standard at a time, and follows its effect on the group.
Opposing P4P, supporting Henry Waxman, and putting forward the role
of POs is the best way, as of now, to encourage quality and keep the
monitoring of physician activity within the profession.
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Longtime WCMSSM
Employee Faces Illness
Linda Masters has
been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, family members announced last
week.
Linda has served
at WCMSSM for many years in various roles, including
administrative
assistant, specialty society coordinator and membership director.
Most recently served as executive secretary for local surgical
societies managed by WCMSSM.
She is in
Beaumont Hospital – Royal Oak receiving chemotherapy. There is no
definite date set for her release from the hospital.
Linda’s
friends and colleagues at WCMSSM wish her the best during this
difficult time.
The family has
set up a website for Linda’s family and friends to view the latest
updates on her condition. Messages may also be sent to Linda via the
site:
http://www.carepages.com/carepages/Nonni
The family has
provided the following contact information for those who wish to
contact them regarding Linda’s condition. Please call before
visiting Linda.
Leslie Backus
248.219.7721 – mobile
810.360.0532 – home
leslie@netastic.net
Lisa Masters
248.212.4231 – mobile
248.792.8593 – home
lkrmasters@comcast.net
Mark Masters
248.890.9258 – mobile
248.593.9341 – home
masterm@secrestwardle.com
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5th Annual James C.
Hazlett, Jr. Memorial Golf Outing
Spots are filling
up! Register online @
http://www.golfdigestplanner.com/11468-HazlettMemorialGolfOuting
Payment and
registration can also be dropped off at Student Affairs
The 5th Annual
James C. Hazlett, Jr.
Memorial Golf
Outing
Bringing together
students, faculty, alumni, and friends
of Wayne State
University School of Medicine
Saturday, May 2,
2009
Twin
Lakes Golf and Swim Club
455 Twin Lakes Drive
Oakland Township, MI 48363
Come out for the
awesome golf, tasty dinner buffet,
and prizes -
including Winning Team, Longest Drive,
Closest to the
Pin, and tons of raffle giveaways!!!
Proceeds help to
support the James C. Hazlett Jr. Medical Student Scholarship fund,
graduation expenses for senior classmen, and the philanthropic
student organizations of Wayne State University School of Medicine
who actively volunteer in the Metropolitan Detroit community.
An associate
professor of anatomy and cell biology, Dr. James Hazlett, Jr. joined
the WSU faculty in 1980, and was instrumental in the design and
implementation of the medical school curriculum. He served as
course director for medical neuroscience and gross anatomy - two
critically important comprehensive areas that are required of all
medical students. In addition, he taught human body dissection,
anatomy, neuropharmacology and neuroanatomy in the School of
Medicine. In 2001, he was named assistant dean after serving many
years on the Admission and Curriculum Committees, which then allowed
him to play a critical role in the development of the Year I and II
medical doctorate programs.
The James C.
Hazlett Jr. Memorial Scholarship Fund and Annual Golf Outing were
established in honor of Dr. Hazlett's deep commitment to medical
education and student success after his death on February 22, 2005.
For more information or to donate to the fund, please contact Terri
Larrew at 313-577-8311.
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DMC Brings Greenway
Into IT Fold
Greenway Medical
Technologies, a leading provider of an integrated electronic health
record (EHR), practice management and interoperability solution,
recently announced a strategic deal with Detroit Medical Center (DMC)
in which physicians and care providers within the nine-hospital
network will have access to Greenway’s flagship EHR solution,
PrimeSuite®, along with other solutions in Greenway’s complete
integrated physician’s infrastructure, reported Greenway.
DMC is expanding
its portfolio of healthcare information technology (HIT) tools that
DMC physicians can use while treating patients by adding Greenway®
as a preferred solution to streamline clinical, financial and
administrative workflows of the center’s affiliated physicians and
medical practices. DMC physicians, staff and other care providers
selected Greenway as a preferred solution and as a part of this new
relationship, DMC will be donating a percentage of the qualifying
EHR technology to its affiliated physicians and medical practices
under the recently modified Stark exceptions and anti-kickback safe
harbors for donation of health information technology.
The partnership
with DMC highlights Greenway’s continued growth as healthcare
providers begin utilizing government HIT and EHR adoption incentives
to install health IT solutions that improve care, provide increased
return on investment and help establish an interoperable health care
system. These incentives (include/will soon include) financial
reimbursement offered through the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act (ARRA) and the Physicians Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI).
"By offering
Greenway’s solutions to care providers within our network, we add
yet another tool to help eliminate medical errors and improve
information exchange with our physicians," said Dr. Leland Babitch,
chief medical information officer at the DMC. "Our goal is to offer
a well-rounded array of tools that improve and enhance the ability
of our physicians and staff to provide the highest level of patient
care throughout our system and the community."
Greenway Medical
Technologies provides the latest in ambulatory health care business
solutions and services to more than 24,000 healthcare providers and
professionals nationwide, in 30 specialties and subspecialties, by
enhancing the delivery of patient care through innovative HIT
software. Established in 1998, Carrollton, Ga.-based Greenway
Medical Technologies is a privately held company with approximately
300 employees. For more information about Greenway, visit
www.greenwaymedical.com
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Is There Really A Primary Care
Physician Shortage?
Editor's Note:
The following comments are in response to a Scripps Howard News
Service item urging solutions to the what many perceive as a primary
care physician shortage. The editorial characterizes primary care as
the cornerstone of health care reform.
M. Salhaney,
MD, submitted comments referencing the last line in the
editorial, which reads: If our health care system is broken, primary
care is the place to start fixing it.
The last sentence
in the article is highly significant. "If" leaves me with a question
about the premise of a current or future shortage of family
physicians. What and where is the supporting evidence? What societal
factors confound the issue of “doctor shortage?” How is the term
"family physician" defined? Is a physician that administers primary
care also a family physician?
I wonder if the
critical shortage of family physicians that is supposed to be upon
us, may be, in some measure, ameliorated by rationing of health care
that is sure to arrive, as in other locations where the government
is the single payer ?
The full Detroit
News/Scripps Howard editorial can be found at:
http://www.detnews.com/article/20090416/OPINION01/904160325
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Oakwood Physicians
Earn Fellowship Designation
Oakwood
Healthcare System recently announced that Bobby G. Lee, MD, of
Oakwood Hospital and Medical Center, has earned the Fellow in
Hospital Medicine (FHM) designation. Becoming a Fellow is an avenue
for special recognition by the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM)
members who have distinguished themselves among their colleagues and
the hospital medicine specialty.
To be designated
as a Fellow in Hospital Medicine, an applicant must be a hospitalist
for five years, a member of SHM for three years, demonstrate their
dedication to quality and process improvement, commitment to
organizational teamwork and leadership, as well as lifelong learning
and education.
Approximately 500
Hospitalists will be inducted in the inaugural class of Fellows this
May at Hospital Medicine 1009 in Chicago.
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Kresge Eye
Institute Names Interim Scientific Director
Paul Finlayson,
PhD, assistant professor of Otolaryngology and Ophthalmology for the
Wayne State University School of Medicine, was named interim
scientific director of the Ligon Research Center of Vision at Kresge
Eye Institute.
Dr. Finlayson’s
role will be to guide and work directly with researchers in the
Ligon Center, including Nicolas Cottaris, PhD, and Sylvia Elfar,
PhD, (Ophthalmology), and further collaborations with Yong Xu,
Ph.D., (Electrical Engineering), R.M. Kannan, PhD, (Chemical
Engineering) and former Ligon scientific director Raymond Iezzi, MD,
now at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
“We will be
continuing the effort to develop prosthetics to restore sight in
visually impaired individuals,” Dr. Finlayson said. “I will be
supervising the fabrication, development and testing of new devices
for electrical and neurotransmitter stimulation of the retina.”
In collaboration
with members of the center, Dr. Finlayson will strive to add new
grant funding, and will also work with the director of development
at Kresge Eye Institute to solicit additional funding for the Ligon
Center.
The Ligon
Research Center of Vision is a multidisciplinary center and one of
only a few centers in the world that is exploring the possibility of
artificial vision for the blind. The center is dedicated to
restoring vision in patients who are losing their sight or have
become blind from retinal degenerations.
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Dr. Puklin To Chair
Key Research Committee At WSU
James E. Puklin,
MD, professor of Ophthalmology at the Wayne State University School
of Medicine and a retina expert at Kresge Eye Institute, knows his
way around medical research. His more than 260 presentations, dozens
of grants, 58 published scientific articles and six book chapters
have put him in good stead to become a reviewer himself.
Dr. Puklin
recently received two prestigious appointments that put him in a
position to review research by many types of scientists and medical
researchers. At Wayne State University, he has been named chairman
of the Human Investigation Committee, reporting directly to the
university president. The committee’s six Institutional Review
Boards review, approve and supervise 2,500 protocols for local
studies and national clinical trials in the biomedical and social
sciences.
“IRBs were
established by the federal government to protect the safety of human
subjects who participate in all types of research,” Dr. Puklin said.
“We work to ensure patients are not coerced into participating; that
risk levels are reasonable; and that patients are treated with
dignity, respect and openness.”
Before being
named chair, Dr. Puklin served on the IRB since 2000.
In 2008, he was
reappointed to the Medicare Evidence Development Coverage Advisory
Committee of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. As the
only ophthalmologist among 100 experts on the national committee,
Dr. Puklin advises CMS on which medical procedures provide effective
and appropriate patient outcomes and should receive Medicare
reimbursement. He had previously served on MedCAC from 2005 to 2007.
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