What’s Your Position on Healthcare Reform?
When asked,” What is your position on healthcare reform?” I routinely answer, let the free market system work it’s magic through just a few incentives. I beleive that competition is the answer to the healthcare crisis. If we allow insurance to be sold across state lines and groups and associations band together to purchase healthcare, the cost will come down and providers will have to compete on quality not just price.
Second I believe that some tort reform is needed to reduce the frivolous lawsuits, thereby reducing the cost of defensive medicine.
Lastly, we need to mandate that the healthcare industry (providers and insurance companies) adopt health information technology. Card swipe technology has been used successfully in the banking industry for years, yet insurance companies are not yet required to issue card readable membership cards to their subscribers.
There is no magic bullet for healthcare, but a major overhaul is not called for. We have the best healthcare system in the world and we need to protect it from politicians who are eager to implement a single payer system and have the government run healthcare like the IRS.
Enjoy!
Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) Position on Healthcare Reform
MEDPAC Report Recommends Rate Increase for Physician Services
In its March 2010 report to the Congress, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) recommends that the Congress update payments for physician services by 1 percent in 2011. They also recommended increases in payment rates for the acute inpatient and outpatient prospective payment systems (PPS) in 2011 by the projected rate of increase in the hospital market basket index, concurrent with implementation of a quality incentive payment program. To recapture overpayments to hospitals resulting from the conversion to Medicare severity diagnosis-related groups, MedPAC recommends reduced payment rates in the inpatient PPS by the same percentage (up to 2 percentage points) each year in 2011, 2012, and 2013. The lower rates would remain in place until overpayments are fully recovered.
The principal focus of the report is MedPAC’s recommendations for annual rate adjustments in fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare. These updates are based on an assessment of payment adequacy taking into account beneficiaries’ access to care, supply of providers, the quality of the care they receive, and Medicare margins.
MedPAC recommends that the Congress update payments for physician services by 1 percent in 2011. The commission calls for a budget-neutral payment adjustment for primary care services billed under the physician fee schedule and furnished by primary-care-focused practitioners. MedPAC recommends no update to payment rates for skilled nursing facilities in FY11. The report also recommends a 0.6 percent increase in payments for ambulatory surgical center services in CY11 concurrent with requiring ASCs to submit cost and quality data.
