August 28, 2010: Healthcare reform is pushing the creation of entities called medical homes, accountable care organizations, and bundled payments. If you want to learn more about these organizations or how to establish one, here is a good website.
Accountable care organizations, electronic health records, economic pressures, and health reform is placing much more pressure on solo practices and small rural health clinics. So far the percentage of doctors practicing solo dropped from 41 percent in 1983 to 25 percent in 2008, and the portion of physicians in groups of six or less fell from 53 percent in 1997 to 42 percent in 2005. More and more young physicians, in particular, are going to work for hospital-owned groups. According to an oft-quoted study from the Center for Studying Health System Change, the percentage of physicians who are solo practitioners or are practicing in groups of fewer than 6 physicians fell from 53% in 1996 – 1997 to 42% in 2004 – 2005.
Here is an article on this
Rural health clinics were notably left out of the Medicare electronic health records stimulus payments and Senator Cantwell from Washington State has written a letter addressing this inequity. Here is the link.
http://cantwell.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=327283
August 26, 2010: We have a sample of the presentation on healthcare reform and some of the slides we will be using in our Fall RHC Update Seminar Series. This is a 31 page PDF and has lots of interesting information in it. Let us know of any ways to improve it or if we are missing something that you are interested in. Here is the link:
2010 Legislative Healthcare Reform presentation For RHC Update Seminar in Fall 2010.pdf
Another update on the seminar in Nashville. Glen H. Beussink, Director of Clinic Development & Research from Midwest Health Care, Inc. will be presenting on Tenncare Quarterly Settlements and some interesting information and tips he has for completing these important reimbursement forms.
In addition, Dale Rothenberg of Doctors Management, Inc will be attending the Knoxville, Tennessee seminar and will provide assistance and sponsorship of the meeting in Knoxville. We will be revealing our 2010 Benchmarking Report from our 2010 RHC Cost Report clinics which includes average number visits by provider, charges, and compensation data. This information is only available to attendees of the seminar and our clients. We will not post this information on the website or in a newsletter form. The only way to find this information out is to attend the seminars or be our client.
Thank you for taking a look at our blog. To find out more about our company, our services, and the upcoming RHC seminars go to our website at www.ruralhealthclinic.com.
