ACP Internist

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Is the evidence piling up everywhere or just around me?

First, there was the session advising primary care docs to start making money off MRIs. Then, there was a big TIME magazine article about the success of the Geisinger model. Now, today I attended a seminar on coordinated diabetes care, and heard over and over again--from docs and other experts--that the reason doctors don't do more care coordination is because they're not getting paid specifically for it.

One alternative to motivate coordination is to pay for outcomes, but of course, that brings up concerns about gaming the system and general fairness (as Zeke Emanuel put it, the reverse-Lake-Wobegone effect, where everyone thinks their patients are sicker than average).

It's beginning to seem more likely, to me at least, that doctors may have to be provided the same incentives that the rest of us are. Why do I write obits and answer phone calls from PR people instead of just crafting snide blog posts all day? Because it's my job and I'm paid a--here comes the dirty word--salary to do it. I know, the loss of independence and entrepreneurship and all that, but when more and more medical students are deciding that they don't want to get involved in the primary care business, maybe it's time to change the model.

Labels: health care reform, pay-for-performance

American values and health care

I read a good post from the New York Times about Health Care Reform and 'American Values' and it got me a thinkin' ... just what are American Values when it comes to health care? Usually I get a little anxious when I see "American Values" in a sentence, because what usually follows is something about rugged individuality, pulling oneself up by bootstraps, getting the damn government out of our lives and those damn immigrants and welfare mothers who won't work and want to live off others.

But I have listened to about ten thousand patients over the past 25 years, and I have a good idea of what these Americans want for health care. They are the silent majority ... the people who work, study, raise their kids and seldom call into a radio talk show. They don't have time to go to town hall meetings and shout slogans.

They range from age 17 to 101 and most of them are middle class. They come in all races ... Asian, black, white, Pacific Islander and mixes of all.

Some are wealthy enough to have multiple homes and private planes.
Some are uninsured and watch their health care spending very closely. Most were thrilled to get Medicare and I've never heard a complaint from a Medicare patient.

Here is my list of what these Americans think about health care:
--They do agree that everyone should be covered for basic health care and would pay higher taxes if they could believe that there would not be fraud and waste. (The recent banking meltdown has destroyed all confidence that government can regulate or be independent from special interests.)
--They want choice of physicians and hospitals.
--They are sick of insurance companies and all feel like they have been screwed in one way or another. They are shocked at how little insurance companies pay toward the doctor visit and the way those fees are discounted.
--They are technocentric and want tests, imaging, referrals and think "more is better" when it comes to health care. They think tests are cures. Because of the perverse incentives, the "more is better" philosophy benefits doctors and hospitals, but not necessarily patients.
--They fear losing insurance if they have it.
--They are confused about the current reform debate and mostly fear losing whatever coverage they now have, because they know how impossible it is to get by without any coverage at all.

There are no such thing as "American Values" because we are a diverse group of people. But we all have certain things in common. We want to be healthy. We don't want to be screwed by anyone (big business or the government).

We want to be able to manage our own health care but we don't want to have to decide between numerous health plans every year with pages of information that cannot be understood. We are tired of not knowing where all the trillions of dollars really are being spent.

We want to know the price of a service up front, and we want a trusted physician to help us decide if that is how our money should be spent. We want smart, committed physicians to know us, and not hurt us.

Sounds American to me.

Toni Brayer, FACP, is an ACP Internist editorial board member who blogs at EverythingHealth, designed to address the rapid changes in science, medicine, health and healing in the 21st Century.

Labels: health care reform, health insurance, pay-for-performance

No performance for peanuts

This time, we're actually talking about doctors, not elephants. A new RAND study (published in Health Affairs) is the latest to assess the impact of pay-for-performance. Participating practices reported increased physician-level performance feedback and accountability, speeded up information technology adoption, and sharpened organizational focus and support for improvement.

BUT, they didn't see the P4P programs having any impact on quality. As researchers told Reuters, that might be because the performance bonuses were too small--about $1,500 to $2,000 per physician annually. "They suggested the incentives needed to be two to five times higher in order to achieve quality improvements."

Sounds like the payers need to find another zero if they want to get everyone's attention. Or just wait for the economic crisis/deflation to make the existing incentives sound relatively appealing.

Labels: pay-for-performance, quality reporting

ACP Internist hosted Grand Rounds on June 16, wrapping up the best of the medical blogosphere. Click here for the complete wrap-up.

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Blog log

American Journal of Medicine
Also known as the Green Journal, the American Journal of Medicine publishes original clinical articles of interest to physicians in internal medicine and its subspecialities, both in academia and community-based practice.

Clinical Correlations
A collaborative medical blog started by Neil Shapiro, ACP Member, associate program director at New York University Medical Center's internal medicine residency program. Faculty, residents and students contribute case studies, mystery quizzes, news, commentary and more.

db's Medical Rants
Robert M. Centor, FACP, contributes short essays contemplating medicine and the health care system.

Everything Health
EverythingHealth is designed to address the rapid changes in science, medicine, health and healing in the 21st Century.

Getting Better with Dr. Val
Getting Better is the continuation of Dr. Val Jones' previous blog at Revolution Health. It is devoted to helping people understand health issues from a balanced, scientifically sound perspective.

HealthHombre
A roundup of health policy news drawn from a database of hundreds of Web sites.

Interact MD
Michael Benjamin, ACP member, doesn't accept industry money so he can create an independent, clinician-reviewed space on the Internet for physicians to report and comment on the medical news of the day.

Kevin, MD
The alter ego of Kevin Pho, ACP Member, is the closest thing to royalty in the medical blog world.

LSUHSC-S Medical Library Evidence Alert
Major guidelines, systematic reviews, meta-analyses and/or major reviews by national and international organizations.

PLoS Blog
The Public Library of Science's open access materials include a blog.

White Coat Rants
One of the most popular anonymous blogs written by a doctor.

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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Is the evidence piling up everywhere or just around me?

Monday, September 21, 2009

American values and health care

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

No performance for peanuts

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