MHA's Executive Briefing

HHS urged to permanently extend protections for health IT donations

The American Hospital Association on May 13 voiced support for extending federal self-referral (or Stark) and antikickback protections for hospitals that want to help physicians adopt health information technology, but urged the Department of Health and Human Services to make the regulatory protections permanent. “We believe that they will continue for the foreseeable future to be of critical importance to the nation’s efforts to adopt and expand operation of a robust national health IT infrastructure,” AHA said in identical comments submitted to HHS’ Office of Inspector General and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Their proposed rules would extend the protections, set to expire at the end of this year, through 2016. Among other recommendations, AHA said the final rule should continue to explicitly include all hospitals and health systems within the scope of donors protected by the regulations; remove a confusing statement about covered technology from the rule’s preamble; and avoid adding unnecessary complexity and administrative burden to the existing regulatory requirements.

Senate Finance leaders seek input on physician payment reform

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-UT) on May 10 urged physicians and other stakeholders to submit specific suggestions on how to improve Medicare payment for physicians. In a letter to the health care provider community, the senators seek input on recommended reforms to the physician fee schedule to ensure physician services are valued appropriately, as well as policies to reduce unnecessary use of services within the current physician fee-for-service system and encourage structural and behavioral changes needed to participate in alternative payment models.

“While the ultimate end is new payment models, we recognize that the current fee-for-services system will continue to be the standard in the short term and, for certain physician practices, for the longer term as well,” the senators said. “…We must improve the current system to ensure that it makes appropriate payments for physician services, reduces unnecessary utilization, and improves quality while also easing the transition to new payment models.”

Comments should be emailed to sgrcomments@finance.senate.gov by May 31.

Primary-care docs generating more hospital revenue: survey

While physicians in general generated less net revenue for their affiliated hospitals last year, primary-care doctors generated more, on average, than other specialists, according to a survey of hospital chief financial officers conducted by Merritt Hawkins (PDF), an Irving, Texas-based physician recruitment firm.

Read more from Modern Physician here.

Medical Director Compensation Increasingly Tied to Value, Quality

While patient flow and practice efficiency were once the primary focus of medical directors in physician practices, directors are now shifting their focus toward delivering value and clinical quality. Read more from HealthLeaders Media here.

7 New Statistics on Physician On-Call Pay

On-call rates for physicians vary depending on specialty, and surgical specialists usually receive on-call pay that is eight times higher than primary care physicians, according to a recent compensation survey from MGMA. The data comes from the MGMA Medical Directorship and On-Call Compensation Survey: 2013 Report Based on 2012 Data.

Here are seven statistics on physician on-call compensation based on the report.

Leveraging nonemployment to achieve hospital-physician alignment

Despite increasing employment by hospitals, many physicians are and will remain independent. For this group, various forms of professional services agreements (PSAs) are a means of closer alignment that can provide hospitals with financial benefits and greater stability from strengthened service lines, a growing patient and referral base, and the potential to increase downstream revenue from ancillaries.

Read the full article from hfm Magazine here.

'Rapid' Rise in Physicians Seeking to Sell Practices

Physicians—not hospitals—are taking the initiative in seeking hospital-based acquisitions of their practices. This is setting the stage for the evolution of how healthcare is delivered, survey data suggests.

Read more from HealthLeaders Media here.

Trend Watch: Physician Practice Acquisitions, 2012-2013

Are hospitals actively acquiring physician practices, and if so, which specialties? That's the question the first in a planned annual survey by Jackson Healthcare sets out to answer. Here are the key findings.

Monograph helps hospital boards engage physicians

The latest monograph from the American Hospital Association's Center for Healthcare Governance looks at the evolution of hospital/physician relationships from alignment to engagement and integration as a critical path for the improved performance necessary to achieve greater value. Authors William Jessee, M.D., and David Rowlee from Integrated Healthcare Strategies focus on the important role of culture as a driver of greater engagement, and suggest that the board’s role will encompass ensuring that robust systems are in place to measure, analyze and improve performance, including the areas of culture and engagement.

The monograph includes examples of instruments that measure culture in health care organizations and medical groups, and presents nine steps that organizations and their governing boards can take to improve performance.

Are medical staff bylaws considered hospital contracts?

A Minnesota district court ruled medical staff bylaws are not a contract between hospitals and physicians, challenging the traditional role that bylaws serve between management and clinicians, American Medical News reported. Read more here.

(MHA members: To stay updated on information on medical staff bylaws, join the Physician Relations community on MHA Connect. If you need a username and password, email Shawn Rossi at srossi@mhanet.org.)