MGMA Urges Practices To Take Charge

By Ken Congdon, editor in chief, Health IT Outcomes

There is no doubt that these are turbulent times for the U.S. healthcare system, and many private practices aren't coping well with the change. With the federal government driving EHR adoption, health information exchange, and accountable care, some medical practices feel acquisition by a hospital/health system or early retirement are their only options in this new era of healthcare. The mass media has only fed the bleak disposition of health providers with headlines predicting the extinction of private practices under healthcare reform.

With this tumultuous environment serving as the backdrop, the MGMA (Medical Group Management Association) 2011 Annual Conference took place last week in Las Vegas. In response, one message above all others resounded through the conference halls — private practices are in control of their own future healthcare destinies.

ACOs And HIE Take Center Stage
Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and health information exchange (HIE) were two topics that received a great deal of attention at the event. In a presentation at MGMA, Justin Barnes, VP of Greenway Medical Technologies; co-chairman of the national Accountable Care Community of Practice (ACCoP); and chairman emeritus of the HIMSS Electronic Health Record (EHR) Association stressed how important it was for private practices to examine the ACO models being proposed and engage their peers and payers in ACO discussions and strategy mapping.

"The ACO conversation isn't just being driven by CMS anymore," says Barnes. "Private payers such as UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Cigna, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and others are now mindful of the savings accountable care can bring to their operations along with the promise of better care. Coordinated care and accountable care are the future of how healthcare will be delivered and reimbursed in the U.S. Private practices need to be part of and, in many cases, initiate these ACO discussions in order to ensure their place at the table. If they're on the outside looking in, that will not be a good place to be."

Medicity, an HIE technology vendor, also delivered clarity around how practices can exchange electronic patient data going forward. "There is a misconception among private practices that the only way to exchange data with other providers is to become part of a hospital or healthcare delivery system," says Robert Connely, SVP of strategy and innovation at Medicity. "This is not the case. Private practices can easily, and relatively inexpensively, establish the links they need to exchange data with other hospital networks and still remain an independent operation. All it takes is some initiative and the support of a good vendor or consultant."

Optimizing Revenue Will Feed IT Initiatives
While ACOs and HIE may have been new topics of conversation at MGMA, one topic always seems to be a focus area for private practices at the event — getting paid. Several dozen vendors on the exhibit hall highlighted products and services dedicated to helping private practices get paid faster and drive more revenue. Profitability seemed even more vital to the practices in attendance this year given that an influx of revenue will be necessary to fund current and future IT initiatives such as EHRs, HIE, ICD-10, etc.

Have a comment or feedback for Ken on this article? He can be reached directly at ken.congdon@jamesonpublishing.com.