Vermont’s Bold Experiment: A Rebuttal

As commented on The Health Care Blog

Vermont's Bold Experiment

         

Hsaio 1989                                  Hsaio 2010

Harvard Professor William Hsiao is fond of the phrase “bold experiment'.

In the late 1980s Hsiao supervised and analyzed a study of expenses in medical practice which specifically analyzed services by physicians accounting for physician time, overhead, capital outlays, malpractice and other physician overhead items.

He developed the RBRS scale based upon RVUs (relative value units). The formula was based upon a survey and analysis of practices among different specialties, in different locales in the United States. The current system of fees is based upon these units coded for by the CPT codes (current procedural terminology).

I am very familiar with this since my ophthalmology practice was one of those in the 1989 survey. My opinion is that whatever input was put into that study....the output was pre-determined.. My evaluation of the figures garnered from the study bore little resemblance to what I found in my typical solo ophthalmology practice.

The RVBRS methodology set off a wave of high specialty fees vs primary care physician fees, based upon Hsaio's flawed methodology Move forward 30 years to 2011 where the disparity between PCP fees and specialty fees is now even greater. For one thing there are many more procedures available to specialists as the explosion in technology took place. By comparison there have been few changes available to PCPs. I am not even sure if the RVUs were adjusted over the past 30 years.

The increasing divide between specialty and PCP reimbursement can be squarely placed at the feet of “Harvard superstars”.

Harvard's academic staff is always available for another study, or to evaluate and/or pontificate about things surrounding the Boston region. Vermont borders on and touches a good part of Massachussetts.

Vermont may be bold, however it is far different in demographics and/or challenges delivering health care.

Let's assess the following:

Vermont: Total Population (2010 census) 625,741

New York Total Population (2010)  19,378,102

Texas Total Population (2010)  25,145,561

California Total Population (2010) 37,253,958

Census Map by County-- Vermont (pdf)

Using Vermont as a ‘representative’ case for health reform is comparing apple’s to oranges, or at least disingenuous. Any statistician can easily negate the results of this ‘pilot example’.

Other confounding metrics are:

1. Vermont has largely been untouched by multiculturalism

2.It is predominantly a rural state.

3.The population is not mobile, nor immigrant, it is uniform and fairly homogeneous.

4.What is bold about Vermont is that it is highly atypical.except for a few      other states such as Wyoming, Montana, No. & So. Dakota,

del.icio.us Tags: hsaio,census,vermont,rvs,cpt,health reform

Why Would Anyone Want to become a Physician?

Good question, given the current atmosphere of doom and gloom amongst my colleagues and peers.

Well first of all like most folks when one has worked at the same job for 10-20-30-and even 40 years the human spirit does need replenishment. Many pubic servants (and that is what we are), police, fire department personnel, correction officers have some things very much in common. Stress ! Stress related disability is actually a compensated employment related disability category.

Medicine is stressful….but not so much about the art and science of  medical practice.  Some things are life threatening, but for most MDs the day is routine. Perhaps in some specialties such as cardiology, surgery, ophthalmology where the outcomes are critical to life and function stress levels may be chronically higher.  However the education and training process tends to self-select those built for that type of environment. And some people thrive on stress.

Stress and anxiety increase in situations over which any person has little if any choice in the outcome. And that is precisely what is eroding physician satisfaction with their chosen career.

Daniell Ofri MD writes in the New York Times in Tara Parker-Popes syndicated health column about “Why would Anyone want to become a Doctor?”

I don’t know Dr. Ofri or even what kind of medicine he practices. The basic truths are there. (in my opinion).

There are many avenues to reduce the stresses, spiritual, time outs, and frequent breaks, shorter work weeks, eliminating specific stress related non clinical tasks, second careers. These avenues are available to private practice physicians. Even a horizontal move to perhaps a group practice.

Becoming a physician not only creates a vast knowledge base in health care, but also many other skills that are transportable to other occupations. Even without an MBA doctors who have run their own business have considerable skills in business management (yes there are a few of us out there).  Like me some turn to writing, some are gifted in the arts, music, theater, performance art, philosophy and others.

I remember a mentor (an Uncle) who practiced medicine until he was over 80 years old.  He told me (interesting approach given today’s pre-med students)..not to work in a hospital prior to med school, take a wide variety of courses in humanities, liberal arts and save the sciences for medical school, except for the essential pre-requisites. Knowing the basic soul of a man was a key ingredient in leading one back to health.

And when my day is done and I give myself the  inevitable “career talk,” I tell myself that there is nothing else I’d rather do in my life than medicine. If I had it to do all over again, I’d end up right here. — telling them that there’s nothing else I’d rather have done.  After all my role is not yet complete.

Life has it’s seasons, mine is now being a physician and a patient advocate, and bring  us together in the pursuit of safer medical care, keeping corporatization of medicine at bay, resisting the significant and insidious cancer of government and insurance directed medical care and reflecting whatever wisdom I have obtained on to the next generation of doctors.  I am happy they have come along to take care of my patients.

Wisdom is not the memorization and regurgitating facts. It is the ability to step back, observe mistakes, change behavior patterns, and pass that along to willing listeners in medicine, politics and social planners. To do less when one has the time and willingness and remaining passions would be shameful.

(for me)

gml

Philosophers and Economic Reality

 

“Change, before you have to…” Jack Welch

“We live in a society that loathes uncertainty – particularly the unintended consequences that sometimes result from a catastrophic event or in the case of PPACA, landmark legislation”, this according to Mike Turpin in today’s edition of The Health Care Blog.

And accordingly this is the thing which prevents an active recovery, and also why the huge infusion of stimulus funds, is not being distributed by the holders of the capital.

Common sense overrides the edicts of big government. If I had just been through an economic disaster, or my neighbor became unemployed or my business was tottering, would I spend a largesse handed to me or bank it against another rainy day?

My family voted this week to purchase health insurance for all of us. So I went to my checkbook to pay the premium, only to find my balance was in the red.  Forget paying the premium !  So, wishes and mandates are overruled by economic realities, and the facts of life.

Sound familiar, of course it does. How about PACA ? Did congress realize the crushing and growing national debt when they passed this law? Of course they did, and that is what makes their behavior reprehensible.

The law itself place a plan on the table which can be implemented gradually, and I don’t believe the planners expected the roll out to be as scheduled. It can lie dormant for many years, a decade or more.

Responsible health policy makers need to act now to truncate the law and require balanced budgets, payoff of the national debt and assure a worthwhile quality of life for Americans.

The discussions of forestalling ‘retirement to age 70’ will have a secondary effect of many Americans winding up on disability, no matter what statistics say about longevity and senior health.

While some 60-70 year  old people function at a high level, the average American does not put in the hours they did at age 45, nor do they have the capacity   to work full time.

Statistics and philosophy just go so far in planning the future.

del.icio.us Tags: ppaca,health reform,retirement age,disability,health policy debt ceiling

Health Works Collective

There is a new kid on the block, HWC, otherwise known by the title of this post.  What does this have to do with Health Train Express? Well since there are limited hours in my day I will be publishing Health Train Express less often. Regular readers may have noticed the frequency of  the posts here have diminished.

I was  invited to add some exclusive content to HWC. This week the first article is on the entrance of Google Plus into the Social Media Stream for Physicians, along with the demise of Google Health.

It may be that snail mail, memorandums, yellow sticky pads, and even email or plain old chat have been dealt another blow.

eBooks are now also ‘The Rage’ as some large book franchises like Borders Books are in ICUs being resuscitated as we write.

No Sentimentality
There is no use getting sentimental about these trends, said Jame Gleik in yesterday’s New York Times, “Stop Being Sentimental about Books.” He should know. He has written a 2011 best-seller The Information : A History , a Theory, a Flood .
Go with the flow of history, Gleick says,”An object like this (A book) – a talisman, is like a coffin at a funeral. It deserves to be honored, but the soul has passed on.”

    

Will this be true for medical journals, and  medical texts as well?  Once upon a time, chat, email, were innovations whose time may be passing replaced by newer trends. As time advances the library of the past has morphed as well giving way to added space for terminals, and fewer book shelves. Access to libraries are immediately available in the classroom and laboratory by Wi-Fi connectivity.

These changes are fueled now by new anthropomorphic advances in computing hardware, Only imagination limits what is possible. The smartphone gives immediate access to voice, chat, video, application software for disease, medications, treatment algorithms, CDC warnings, FDA alerts, and EMR access to patient’s medical records. 

I began writing a blog almost eight years ago for a specific purpose as an easy platform to write about Health Information Exchange.

Since that time, ONCHIT, RHIOs, EMRs, HIT, HIE, HITECH, ACOs, The Patient Affordability and Care Act, and a major economic recession have passed over us in a wave.

Healthcare, medical practice have changed right under our feet, a very noticeable event, that somehow or other occurs all the while our patients continue to become ill, diagnosed, treated, sometimes healed. The uninsured have some hope of medical care.

I am cautiously optimistic that physicians will survive amidst the turmoil of change.

 

del.icio.us Tags: health works collective,emr,hitech,hit onchit,rhio,smartphones,libraries,ebooks,pubmed

Health Care Conundrum

It requires an unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.

The daily review of health blogs, social media, and Health 2.0 pundits gives birth to today’s Health Train Express.

I can not but help quoting some profound statements.

It requires an unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious. Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the Modern World

It’s much more important to know what sort of patient has the disease than what sort of disease the patient has.  William Osler, MD, 1648-1919 

There’s no other profession as personal as the medical profession. If physicians continue to allow non-physicians and businesses such as hospitals and insurance companies to control them, they will lose their patients and will be nothing more than over-educated, hired technicians.

The family doctor was an institution. If there has been a change, the physician is not primarily to blame. On the contrary, it’s a tribute to the profession that the older idealism persists in such an unfavorable environment. The fault – if fault there be – is that the profession is now practiced in an industrial world dominated by business.
Walton H. Hamilton, MD, Medical Care of the American People, 1932

These snippets are from Richard Reece’s Medinnovation Blog of this week. It is a refreshing look at why we are going down the wrong path.  It’s a mixture of common sense, and disbelief at what physicians have allow, controlled by government and insurance companies.  Freedom and liberty come at a price, It must be aggressively defended, in all aspects of America.

The promises of entitlements also overflow from patients to their caregivers, physicians, as we become also dependent on the largesse of government guarantees.  This I was taught as a medical student at George Washington University, mid-20th Century in a building built in the late 19th Century. We had no computer labs, internet, iPads, or iPods.  Am I saying those advances are not good? No, I am not. It does reveal that somehow we functioned quite well in a more balanced system.  Were some patients and the aged uninsured? Yes, however the self-correcting mechanisms of charity care by doctors and hospitals, local cities, friends, family and faith based organizations, as well as county hospitals took up slack…adequate health insurance carrier income balanced the negative balance on hospital and physician books. In todays health environment doctors are now rarely giving free care, more patients are sent to collections (an almost never event in the past century). I would even call it shameful that physicians have had to descend into the pit of parasites earning a living off less fortunate people at a time in life when some patients are even more vulnerable.

I am often amazed that there are not more physicians irate and in the face of government and insurance companies….outside the business realm of attempting to collect earned monies

del.icio.us Tags: Obama,reform,family doctor,rural medicine,medinnovation blog,entitlement

Google + Replaces Google Health

 

How convenient

Google + is the new girl on the block. Just like a new face in school, everyone wants to get to know him/her. After a few days you will either love or hate the new one.

I spent the greater part of the weekend learning about this 'stranger'. It was about like waiting for a chance to meet the mysterious new stranger as I waited and pleaded with those who already had access to the “G+”. Twitter came in great handy as I asked everyone for an introduction to the seductress. It seems she had already been in many bedrooms, living rooms, and even perhaps in the backseat of a few vehicles.

Everyone seemed quite willing to share the temptress, she has several personalities, friend, family, professional, acquaintances and more.

She was flexible enough to allow you one or all categories. Warm, friendly and outgoing she is a social butterfly and loves to hangout....in fact that is one of her best attributes, being able to see her, talk to her and even write all at the same time.

It was easy to get to know her she is designed to warm you up, as you feel your way into her inner recesses and explore her strengths and weaknesses. She is new, so her network of friends is still a bit thin, however this lady will be the queen of the prom very quickly.

G+ is easy to get to know....she is an easy read, no instruction book needed here...just a tap here or a swipe there and G+ responds. There is nothing mousy about G+. I could not break her and I tried, no bugs, no error messages, and she did not turn cold nor freeze up during my advances.

My other loves, Facebook and Twitter will have to wait to see me more often. My new playmate will fascinate me for some time to come. I think friends like me will want to hangout with G+ and perhaps some API developer will integrate Twitter, G+ and Facebook. Maybe Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or Rupert Murdoch will buy all three.

The only thing she is missing is a mobile app. Has anyone taken her for a ride on a tablet?

I may have to give up working and call in sick to be with G+. I did have the social whereabouts to leave a message on Twitter and Facebook that I would be out of town for awhile, not to worry, I will probably be back after sampling the G+. Mark Zuckerberg....eat your heart out !

I am willing to share, so send me an email or a tweet @glevin1 if you want an invite. Oh by the way, she now has over ten million suitors.

In the next Health Train Express I will be discussing the potential impacts on medicine and healthcare.

If Airline’s were run like Healthcare

 

Fasten your seatbelt, it’s going to be a bumpy ride, if you can get there at all. If you wish to read Jonathon  Rauch’s popular article in National Journal Review, read on…..comparing Airline Travel and Health Care.  otherwise watch the video.

del.icio.us Tags: airlines,healthcarebluebook,jonathon rauch

A Marxist Turned Libertarian on The Health Train

 

In preparing for today’s journey on the Health Train my travels took me to a video by Thomas Sowell. Dr. Sowell was born a poor African-American black man (as opposed to a poor white African American (which is a real possibility, although statistically unlikely),  whose innate intelligence, drive, and smart choices enabled his gifts. He chose to follow the ideas and the man who mentored him rather than the institutions that brought them together.

Thomas Sowell indicates that his mentor was Milton Friedman, a name well known to those interested in economic theory.  Here is the video….it should spark some controversy and lead you to learn more about Mr. Sowell and more important, the simplicity and detail about how Government Medicine works and why it does not work well.

Dr. Sowell’s opinions are at times controversial. (Wikipedia)

Dr Sowell has been a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute of Stanford University (1980-present)

Sowell has been criticized for various remarks such as a comparison he

del.icio.us Tags: marxist,libertarian,thomas sowell,hoover institution

made between President Barack Obama and Adolf Hitler in an editorial for Investor's Business Daily^[26] after the creation of a relief fund for the BP oil spill. This has been criticized by liberal groups such as Media Matters^[27] and the Democratic National Committee.^[28] However, Republicans such as Sarah Palin^[28] and Representative Louie Gohmert^[29] have endorsed Sowell's comparison. Sowell was also criticized for an editorial in which he stated that the Democratic Party played the Race card, instigating ethnic divisions and separatism, and argued that a similar situation occurred between the Tutsis and the Hutus in Rwanda.^[30][31]

Which List Do You Want to be On?

 

Tweeting has added a new dimension for connecting to others with similar interests. The short 140 character only slightly exceeds my short attention span. I can quickly absorb and scan through tens of ideas between patients, while waiting in the doctor’s lounge to start a surgery, and G-d forbid waiting for an attorney to give a deposition.

A tweet attracted my attention from @MtnMd, ,Founder&Chief Medical Officer of eMedicalMall, technology company serving medical community & patients to improve health care. @ MtnMD also posts a blog,

 Sprocket, a compendium of lists divided into categories of credibilty. Sprocket is now added to my followed blogs, I find it useful as a starting point to expand my meager knowledge base of social media stars in medicine.

del.icio.us Tags: MtnMd,eMedical Mall,Sprocket,blog lists,twitter lists

Medical State of Mind

 

Medicine has gradually been drawn into a state of mind where legalese and bureaucracy have replaced medical and scientific results.  “Evidence based medicine” has surpassed scientific results, or empirical outcomes as the arbiter for treatment choice.  Anecdotal clinical opinion has been replaced by ‘hearsay’, and humans are enhanced or even replaced at times by machines.

Evidence Based Medicine can best be graphically modeled by the ‘evidence pyramid’ a term borrowed from the food pyramid:

The pyramid best outlines the progress in medicine, and the addition of 4 new levels of critical analysis of treatments. 

Clinical medicine is never stationary,nor should it be, without which there would be no progress.

Has blogging enhanced medical practice?  I say yes, and the evidence is the exponential use of the social media, which allow practitioners to share knowledge on a daily basis, not only in science, and clinical practice, but in the management of medical business. It can be accomplished from the office, home, even on the street. The same resources are present almost no matter where you are working.

3D imaging is becoming available which will enhance mobile CT, MRI, and Optical Coherence Tomography and  remote telemedical applications.

Nanotechnology is now better understood and wishful ideas about it’s applications are becoming a reality in drug delivery systems, manufacturing of better, stronger and more durable products. These will slowly infiltrate our biomedical devices in the operating room, endoscopic equipment and electronic equipment, including computers.

Physicians and patients alike will have another ‘gee-whiz’ device.

L-R  Physician, Patient

Drug Delivery System

Hopefully this new ‘paradigm’ will bear fruit, and not deceive us.

borrowed from ‘Humbug”, the skeptics guide to fallacies thinking.

 

 

del.icio.us Tags: evidence based medicine,meta-analysis,skeptics,nanotechnology

a field manual to fallacies in thinking 

  .

Welcome new Interns and Residents

Another July 1st arrives at the Medical Centers of America. Educated observers remark at the fresh neatly pressed white coats entering the hospital. At the same time these fresh young eager newbies enter there are others exiting, looking a bit scraggly, with facial hair and coats that are a bit yellowish in places.

Most of these new entrants have already accomplished registration, parking lot ID cards for their cards, and obtained personal ID badges, computer access codes, locker keys, and been directed to where their incoming mail is deposited.

Some are already familiar with electronic medical records, while some may not be, however all will have to learn a new EMR system (unless they went to Medical  School at this Medical Center)

Some people know better than to be admitted to a teaching facility during July, and certainly not in the first week, certain that new interns and residents will make errors, and forbid, ‘A Never Event’.

Now there will be additional stress and inefficiency as the new house officers struggle taking three times as long to enter data into an EMR as it does to see and care for you, the patient. However I am told, “This is progress”

Many changes have taken place over the 4 decades I have been in clinical medicine.  Work hour limitation rules,,  Specific competency certification and documentation of procedures and the numbers performed by each trainee, also a bevy of new numbers, NPINs, DEAs,UPINs, Medicare, Medicaid, MD license, and many more.

Most are carrying their own preference for a smart phone..pagers are almost gone, iPads and lightweight notebooks are in.  Many are comparing their iPhone apps or Android apps seizing opportunity where it may be.

eMail and Chat are out, Social Media is in.  So much in fact that major health centers have developed strict guidelines for the use of Twitter, Facebook and lesser known social networks.

Health Blog Q&A: Mayo Clinic’s New Center for Social Media  announced the creation of a Center for Social Media.

Washington University, St. Louis has promulgated Social  Media Guidelines

The Wall Street Journal weighs in with advice for tweeting for new medical residents.

The Mayo Clinic’s social media statistics read; Twitter 60,000 followers (paltry compared to Lady Gaga), although their YouTube channel is said to be the most popular medical provider channel. Their Facebook page enumerates over 20,000 connections (or friends)

Mayo Clinic

The Use of Social Media in the Patient Care Environment:

3 commentaries on Social Media Admonitions

del.icio.us Tags: twitter,facebook,tweeps,social media,mayo clinic,cleveland clinic,geisinger,interns,resident physicians,emr,white coat

 

 

ACO's and CMS

The Accountable Care Organization is really an accounting mechanism and may have little to do with quality of care, or improving outcomes. Commonly called, “ACO” in health care circles it holds a high place in current opinion and controversy revolving around health reform.

Added to the mix are claims that HIT is an essential component of ACO. Health IT is essential not only to accountable care organizations (ACO) but also healthcare in general, said HIT advocate Kathleen Sebelius, MPA, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (pictured), at today's Second National Accountable Care Organization Summit in Washington, D.C.

Reactions from organizations and providers have ranged from lukewarm ambivalence to visceral outrage from some of the leading health systems and professional physician associations. CMS is currently reviewing 1,200 comments after it issued the draft rules in March and is expected to take the comments into consideration before issuing a final rule.

Some health systems reacted with letters to HHS with suggestions based upon their own plans and projections for developing integrated health systems. In reviewing many of these projects it becomes apparent that the ACO moniker applies to many forms of integrated health systems. Some have been in development for five or more years.

12 ACO Developments Between Hospitals, Payors and Health Systems

At the same time, some health systems have implemented ACOs of their own design without HHS mandates or guidelines. Some are in different stages of planning and implementation.

The process is gradual and some have utilized their early iteration of integration as a base for further progress for their organizations. That is as it should be. For HHS, CMS or any governmental organization to mandate how this will be done is foolish and probably very wasteful.

One of the barriers to ACOs, organizations and providers have criticized, are the associated start-up costs of implementing such an overhaul of the system for Medicare payments away from fee-for-volume In addition, ACOs present legal challenges in which antitrust laws may prevent market dominance that could be an indirect result of organizational and provider collaboration. In addition, there are challenges in patient notification of ACO participation.

Several large prominent Health Systems, such as the Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Geisinger Health System, and Intermountain Health Care have either indicated they will not participate in ACOs or have blasted CMS. Numerous physician groups, the AMA, AMGA, AAFP, and ACP call into question the ability to form ACOs without massive disruption of health care. 

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released it's draft rule, 42 CFR Part 425, a proposed ruling in the Fedral Register, Vol 76, No 67/April 7, 2011), not quite as long as the Patient Affordable Care Act (1200 pages) however 127 pages

The current iteration of ACO by HHS is by no means final. Secretary Sibelius acknowledged that the proposed draft was just that, a proposal. CMS is currently reviewing 1,200 comments after it issued the draft rules in March and is expected to take the comments into consideration before issuing a final rule.

del.icio.us Tags: CMS,ACO,accountable care organization,hhs,cms,sibelius,mayo clinic,geisinger,cleveland clinic,health information technology