November 21, 2012 John DeGaspari
news
Patients with online access to their medical records and secure email communication with clinicians have increased use of clinical services, including office visits and telephone encounters, compared to patients who do not have online access.
November 1, 2012
news
A Kaiser Health News analysis of the latest federal data on the nation’s nearly 1,200 community health centers showed wide variation in the quality of care delivered by the private, nonprofit clinics that are expected to play an important role under federal healthcare reform.
October 27, 2012 Mark Hagland
article
Ronald N. Riner, M.D., chief medical officer of Health Management Associates, a hospital management company that manages smaller community hospitals and physician practices in 15 states, reflects on the challenges and opportunities inherent in moving forward on practice management and EHRs across a widely diffuse nationwide health system
October 25, 2012 Gabriel Perna
news
The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA-ACMPE) has revealed a ‘Patient Satisfaction Benchmarking Tool,’ with the San Diego-based patient satisfaction consultant and software vendor, SullivanLuallinGroup. MGMA, which revealed the tool at its annual conference this week, says the tool will aim to help medical group practices put together an accurate assessment of their current patient satisfaction and look for ways to improve on it.
October 22, 2012 Gabriel Perna
news
According to a new research data from the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), the “better-performing medical practices” are the ones that have focused specifically on patient satisfaction, profitability and cost management; productivity, capacity and staffing; and accounts receivable (A/R) and collections. The report, Performance and Practices of Successful Medical Groups: 2012 Report Based on 2011 Data, looked at data from 348 better-performing groups that responded to the MGMA 2012 Cost Survey.
September 13, 2012 Gabriel Perna
blog
Almost everyone says that changing the way healthcare is delivered is a long-lasting, cultural transformation. When thinking of the recent New York City soda ban, it’s hard not to draw comparisons. However, it’s important to ask, what role does government play in changing behavior, and can it overstep its bounds?
September 13, 2012 Gabriel Perna
article
In honor of National Health IT week, the National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC) recently hosted a webinar about the challenges and successes of implementing health IT in rural and underserved communities. The webinar featured insights from Chantal Worzala, director of policy for the American Hospital Association (AHA), and Earle Rugg, CEO of the Rural Health IT Corporation. One of the main themes was the issue of averting a digital divide between rural and urban communities, something that has already begun.
August 29, 2012
news
The Medical Group Management Association has released a new survey that indicates practice administrators in small medical groups report slight increase in compensation, while those in larger groups say their compensation has gone down. According to the report, groups with seven to 25 full-time-equivalent (FTE) physicians reported median compensation of $120,486, an increase of 4.8 percent from 2010, while for groups of 26 or more FTE physicians, practice administrators reported a 2.8 percent decrease in median compensation.
August 24, 2012 Gabriel Perna
article
The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently issued the final rule for Stage 2 meaningful use under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act/Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (ARRA-HITECH) Act. The first reactions have begun to come in from various provider-based organizations, and the reaction to the Stage 2 final rule is mostly positive.
August 23, 2012 John DeGaspari
blog
As technology becomes more pervasive in healthcare, examples of how it is being used effectively to improve care are cropping up everywhere. I came across one example yesterday, during a conference call regarding the announcement by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regarding the selection of primary care practices to participate in the agency’s Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative.
August 3, 2012 Gabriel Perna
blog
This week was a big one for healthcare in my home state of Massachusetts. Along with announcing the creation of a statewide HIE from CMS funds (making them the first state in the nation to receive federal funding participation approval through CMS to create a HIE), lawmakers from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts passed another landmark bill. Appropriately named the Health Care Cost Control Bill (HCCB), it has a goal of cutting healthcare costs by $200 billion by 2028 by implementing a spending limit.
July 25, 2012 John DeGaspari
blog
At the Healthcare Financial Management Association ANI annual conference last month in Las Vegas, I heard a presentation by Randall Gehle, D.O., about his involvement with helping his medical group make the transition to the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model. He described the transition process, some of its challenges, and how it has had an impact on his family medicine practice.
