Medaxiom Blog

It seems as though every day I hear about the next big thing. Sometimes there is merit, and sometimes there isn’t. There is undoubtedly merit to the coming changes in Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR), and they are exciting. The changes are going to revolutionize how we use TAVR and how we contract to provide TAVR services. By contracting for TAVR, I’m referring to ways in which TAVR services are sold, which can mean negotiating with private payers, participating in bundles with CMS via BPCI-A, or working with jumbo employers to create bundles for TAVR procedures.

Trends in the Data For the fifth year in a row and for the seventh year out 10 overall cardiology compensation increased from the previous year, with the median now sitting at $586,888 (see Figure 1). This despite many predicting that incomes would come down, including my audience at the Spring CV Transforum where data from the 2019 MedAxiom survey were first debuted. When polled nearly 70 percent predicted that total compensation for cardiologists went down in 2019 (based on 2018 data), with nearly identical results whether considering employed cardiologists or those in private practice.

At the start of last week’s conference, I asked attendees to fire up the conference app by answering a few polling questions. When I asked people to choose their top three concerns from a list of eleven, “staff/operational efficiency” came out far and away as everyone’s biggest issue. 58 of you, in fact, put it in your top three. And when we asked people to rate their number one challenge, staff/operational efficiency was again at the top.

Last month, the long-awaited dream of patients being able to access all their medical and insurance information from any device, and take it with them to another provider or healthcare organization, got a major boost toward becoming reality.

As the Advanced Practice Practitioner (APP) role evolves and the industry moves toward value-based care and alternative payment models, establishing a method for tracking and monitoring the productivity and performance of APPs is more important than ever. In fact, I would argue that more important than productivity is tracking/quantifying the value that they bring to the team. In addition, per Peter Drucker, “What gets measured gets managed,” continues to hold true.

As Peter Drucker so famously said, “you can’t manage what you don’t measure.” Whether you work in healthcare, financial services, manufacturing or another industry, tracking metrics and comparing them to external benchmarks is critical to assessing performance, and monitoring how you rank against competitors and peers. External benchmarks aid in goal setting and provide critical data points for decision-making. They help healthcare administrators put status updates and recommendations in context for physicians.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how EHRs have drastically changed the way that we deliver healthcare. From 2004 to 2015, practice EHR use shot from 20.8% - 86.9%.1 Many thought that the EHR implementation would allow for better access to data, better communication, and improved workflows. All of these occurred in other industries that adopted automation and computerized systems. But that's not what happened in healthcare.

The recent flurry of press generated by last week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has me thinking a lot about technology and its role in healthcare and improving health outcomes. Health-related technology was front and center at last week’s show as more than 100 companies displayed their latest health-related devices, software and services in the hope of gaining exposure and credibility in the crowded health-tech market. For example, consumer “wearables” were bigger than ever this year. Devices to monitor your ECG, hydration levels, brain activity, skin pH and even a device to measure baby diaper activity were all introduced. A new device from Black & Decker was particularly interesting…a voice-recognizing digital assistant optimized for home healthcare. Time will tell if it is effective, but I appreciated the effort to help seniors age in place rather than a nursing home or assisted-living center.

Last week we discussed some of the industry trends and growth strategies that practice administrators are focusing on in 2019, as well as some ways to apply them. I thought a good follow up would be to encourage members to take a step back and assess how their organizations are doing on the inside before they start tackling new initiatives.

A report published by the New England Healthcare Institute opened by stating that ‘Adults in the United States receive only about half of the health care they need when they need it.’[i] The report outlines the reasons why clinical care guidelines that improve health outcomes aren't being followed and proposes industry changes that would improve this.