Several weeks ago The Washington Post ran an article, “Pentagon Buries Evidence of $125 Billion in Bureaucratic Waste.” This article written by Craig Whitlock and Bob Woodward told the story of a study originally authorized by Deputy Defense Secretary, Robert O. Work, in 2014. The study produced results indicating there were opportunities to save $125 billion over five years. Unfortunately, the ...
This year, 2016, has been a challenging year for physicians and the “professional services” that they are trained to provide. In addition, the year has put into question the sincerity that many physicians have demonstrated when they took the Hippocratic Oath at graduation which mandates that whenever they are treating patients, above all, their care should “do no harm”! Early in 2016, a ...
MACRA – Part 3: The Toxic Side Effects In the Part 2 Blog in this series, the critical success factors for MACRA were identified. Although they are challenging, they can all be eventually achieved if they have the full support of the physicians. It would seem that all physicians would support achieving the components of the value equation for all those that they serve, that being improving ...
MACRA – Part 2: The Critical Success Factors Based on information in the previous blog (MACRA – Part 1: The Realities), it is clear the “train has left the station” on the demise of fee-for-service payments for clinical services and the growth of value-based payment reforms. Although the actual full implementation of this transformational program by CMS may be delayed, physician practices, that ...
This is the first blog of a three-part series on MACRA, Medicare’s new payment system for physicians. In it, we describe the realities of MACRA for providers. These are significant and somewhat over-whelming for many. Part 2 will be “MACRA – The Critical Success Factors”, followed by Part 3 “MACRA - The Toxic Side Effects”. In the most simplistic terms, MACRA (Medicare Access & CHIP Reimbursement ...
Dr. Royer and I had a very interesting meeting with leadership from the company, Vestagen. The company produces high performance apparel for healthcare workers. The apparel has several unique qualities. “Vestagen’s VESTEX fabric has robust liquid repellency and antimicrobial properties, along with breathability, comfort and durability.” I will be the first to admit I’m not an epidemiologist nor ...
The Latin “Primum non nocere”, which translates to “first, do no harm”, has been a guiding principle for physicians since the beginning of time. It means that whatever the intervention or procedure, the patient’s well-being is the primary consideration. Although this phase is not in the Hippocratic Oath which nearly 100% of physicians swear to on graduation from medical school, its intent is ...
Most leaders in health care today know that physicians are the significant driver of the quality and costs associated with medical care. Because today payment reform is being driven by the value equation, the traditional roles providers have played in the past must be transformed. These transformations are requiring changes in practice style and focus, which many of the older physicians are ...
Recently I was asked to present at the annual meeting of the MDMA – The Medical Device Management Association. The program committee requested that I speak about the most significant changes over the last five years and what I am forecasting for the next five years. In addition, they indicated the audience of device inventors, investors, and regulators from CMS and the FDA, would be interested in ...
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the Chef Medical Correspondent for CNN, recently wrote that overdoses are the most common cause of preventable deaths in America today. In addition, the 2016 presidential primaries have highlighted states where opioid addiction and related deaths are their governments’ number one concern. Although drug dealers are part of the problem, we are reminded that doctors have contributed ...
Question: Are nurses being educated and treated as knowledge workers? Background: As early as the 1950’s, Peter Drucker identified numerous challenges and opportunities related to the growth in knowledge work and knowledge workers. In Drucker’s 1973 book Management he stated, “Managing knowledge work and knowledge workers will require exceptional imagination, exceptional courage, and leadership of ...
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Thomas Royer MD, Peter Maddox and Jay Herron
We have no special powers. We are not clairvoyant. Rather, we have lived within the healthcare management world for nearly 100 years, combined. We all recall the days docs made house calls. Being entrenched in the ever changing health care scene, the three of us made many predictions. Some of which, people may have thought were ludicrous. But, today, they are all a part of health care reality. ...
In 2010, Michael Lewis enriched our lives through the book, The Big Short, by explaining how a small group of individuals became extremely wealthy by short selling the US housing market. To make everyones’ Christmas more special, Hollywood decided to further the enrichment process by having holiday movie goers relive the financial crisis by releasing the The Big Short in movie form. Being a ...
