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| Pay here | | Thought of the Week | | "Success is not measured by what you accomplish but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds."
Orison Swett Marden |
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Vermont Considers Its Own Single-Payer System | | |
The House version calls for a public-opinion insurance system
Supporters of single-payer healthcare rallied in Vermont over the weekend, hoping to maintain momentum after lawmakers passed legislation that could allow the state to experiment with its own universal healthcare system.
Both the state's House and Senate passed similar bills late last month that call for the creation of a commission to look at options for reducing healthcare costs and covering all Vermonters, one of which must be a government-administered and publicly-financed single-payer system. The program would be "decoupled from employment and allow for private insurance coverage only of supplemental health services," according to the Senate bill.
The House version calls for a public-option insurance system and expanding previously-enacted reform efforts in addition to the single-payer experiment. Differences between the two bills still have to be worked out before final passage, and it is unclear whether Republican Gov. Jim Douglas will sign or veto the bill.
If passed, the legislation would make Vermont a laboratory for testing a radically different healthcare financing system. Previous reform efforts--such as the Massachusetts model and the recently-passed national reform--have attempted to expand coverage while retaining the existing private insurance system.
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| Be the first to tour the brand new Phoenix Children's Hospital... virtual tour, that is. | |
Patient tower expected to be finished in 2012
In a world where technology just continues to soar, today you can now take a 360 interactive virtual tour to catch an "inside look" of the new building that's been raising eyebrows of commuters driving on the SR-51 since construction began.
We've all been watching the construction site of the new 11-story patient tower grow during the last several years, which is expected to be complete in 2012. By navigating your way through the new building with the click of a mouse, you'll have a chance to check out the $588 million expansion that makes Phoenix Children's the soon-to-be second largest children's hospital in the nation.
The tour, which is housed at www.phoenixchildrens.com, will allow you to take a glimpse into the future that uses high-tech software to merge live-time photos and architectural graphics to give a personal look at the 2-story lobby reception, cafeteria, operating rooms and patient rooms will be like.
This is as especially a treat for future guests and patients to "visit" the facility from the comfort of their home before ever physically arriving.
The completed facility will include:
- 11 story tower
- 96 PICU/CICU rooms
- 12 more operating rooms
- 626 licensed beds, 520 beds in all-private-room setting
- All private rooms
- 1,500 new parking spaces
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| Specialists Make Twice as Much as Primary Care Doctors, Study Finds | |
New Duke University study
The amount of money medical specialists accumulate over their careers is twice as high as that of primary care physicians, according to a new Duke University study published in the journal Health Affairs, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Many observers consider the higher income for specialists a significant reason for the shortage of primary care physicians in the U.S., according to the Journal (Wang, Wall Street Journal, 5/4).
Duke researchers examined income and interest minus living expenses -- what they called career wealth accumulation -- for cardiologists, PCPs, college graduates with Master's in business administration, college graduates who became physician assistants and people with bachelor's degrees (Rovner, "Shots," NPR, 5/4).
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| GAO report validates physician complaints on Medicare claims contractors | |
New contractors have not been fully up to speed, according to the GAO
In the federal government's rush to overhaul the system of contractors that process Medicare claims, payment delays to physicians and other administrative problems have cropped up, according to a new oversight report.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is finalizing a nationwide initiative to replace the old patchwork system of Medicare carriers and fiscal intermediaries with the Medicare administrative contractor system, which will be divided into 15 distinct jurisdictions. When the effort is complete by Oct. 1, 2011, all physicians and hospitals in a given multistate region will have one MAC to handle all of their Part A and Part B claims. In many cases, physicians will have an entirely new outfit with whom they file their claims.
But according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office, CMS has followed an accelerated schedule in an attempt to beat the 2011 implementation deadline. The faster rollout has led to some problems in the new system.
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Are Concierge Medical Services on the Upswing? | | |
A longtime pediatrician, Natalie Hodge, MD, was living the life of primary care despair.
For years she rushed from patient to patient in her office, giving them a few minutes here and there, doing a ton of insurance paperwork, and then decided enough was enough. Like many physicians, she felt drained and lost.
"People calling, people answering phones, people scheduling, people verifying eligibility, people checking on insurance, people . . ." she says. You get the picture.
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Congress is not listening: it is time to
get patients involved |
| Sign the Petition Online!
The Arizona Medical Association (ArMA) has tried for the last five years to convey to our legislators how devastating a reduction in Medicare payments will be to the sustainability of the program. Virtually every state medical association has taken the same action. While there is uniform agreement in D.C. that the sustainable growth rate (SGR) is broken, there is still no fix, and realistically, one is not on the horizon. It is time to take action to a new level and get patients involved. The Texas Medical Association (TMA) has launched a campaign called Stop the Medicare Meltdown. Their goal was to collect 1,000,000 signatures for a petition letting Congress know that a continuing series of temporary holds are no longer acceptable. The TMA's direct, hard-hitting campaign was shared with every state and our participation was welcomed. In two days this has gone viral; almost every state has joined, along with a growing number of specialty societies. Expectations now have been raised to collecting multiple millions of signatures. This will let Congress know the time for talking is over. ArMA is joining the campaign and everything you will need to get involved is contained in this STAT. Using the electronic petition, sponsored by the TMA, will provide an accurate accounting of all signors in a verifiable format which will be presented to Congress. Every physician and patient signature counts in this campaign. ArMA leadership urges you to assist with the petition drive and to encourage your patients to do so as well. Sign the Petition OnlineShare the Flyer with your Patients |
RX for Business Seminar
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Saturday, May 15 at 9:00 a.m. The Institute for Healthcare Business Education is offering a five hour course entitled, "Rx for Business" at the Phoenix Doubletree Guest Suites in Phoenix on Saturday, May 15 at 9:00 a.m.
The course, presented by Ann Couch, CPA and Sara Eversden, CPA is designed to educate new and existing physicians about the business essentials of operating their own business small businesses.
Click here to register or for more information call 602-955-5952.
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