physician practices

An outside consultant released a report concluding that Utah's InterMountain Healthcare does not improperly use its market position to stifle competition. That finding contradicts earlier arguments by a task force formed by the state's legislature to study InterMountain's impact on the state's healthcare system. Critics had argued that the non-profit had a negative impact on rivals and physician practices in the state and had called for it to be broken up. The 91-page report by David …

The Palm Beach Post looks at the impact of concierge physician practices on the Florida healthcare market. The newspaper reports that 50,000 patients have switched physicians after their doctors adopted the business model, which requires an annual fee ranging from $1,500 to $5,000. Many of the 100 or so practices in the Palm Beach area that have adopted the strategy are affiliated with MDVIP, a national chain that works with concierge practices across the country. Participating …

Details of a not yet public Google plan for a new service called GDrive leaked out on to the web and were picked up by the news media. The company is planning a remote hosting service that would allow users to store computer files and data. While the project targets the consumer market and thus far Google has made no formal moves into healthcare, the data storage market for small businesses that need to store lots of information (think physician practices) could also be impacted. Article (WSJ sub. req.)

The first major national summit on pay for performance (P4P) is taking place in Los Angeles. The biggest P4P program, in California, is now coming up to its second annual payout and is showing some interesting results. At this stage it only is really working with the HMO population in the larger medical groups and IPAs. Most of the rewards went to the top performers, rather than to those improving the most.

GE's Francois De Brantes described the Bridges to Excellence program, which …

Cerner said late yesterday its revenue has reached the $1 billion mark. The maker of hospital electronic medical records and CPOE systems for hospitals and physician practices said revenues for new bookings were up $386.3 million in the last quarter, an increase of 58 percent. The company adjusted its earnings forecast for next quarter, saying it expects to make 26 cents to 27 cents per share, lower than the 29 cents per share analysts had wanted. Wall Street is not happy about the news. …

> Bend Memorial Clinic, Oregon's largest private physician group, said it has selected the Allscripts EHR. Release

> The Harvard Risk Management Foundation argues that many malpractice claims are due to poor communication and mismanaged expectations. Services that help manage patient expectations before treatment are likely to become increasingly popular with hospitals and physician practices. …

Over the past few years several different surveys have claimed different rates of health IT adoption. The Department of Health and Human Services is attempting to get to the bottom of the issue by commissioning a series of surveys designed to accurately measure how doctors and hospitals are using different types of technology. George Washington University and the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Institute for Health Policy will conduct the research. The partnership's first report, …

A study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that pay-for-performance may not performing quite as well in real life as some health policy wonks had predicted. The two-year study by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health compared the use of pay-for-performance at physician practices affiliated with PacifiCare in California with practices in the Pacific Northwest which do not use incentive programs. Clinical quality scores for …

With Washington now officially convinced that electronic medical records could have helped alleviate much of the confusion following Hurricane Katrina, look for more attention to be paid to the topic. The New York Times looks at the Taconic Health Information Network and Community, one effort to link small physician practices in upstate New York, which was funded by grants from the eHealth Initiative and the Agency for Health Care Quality. Proponents suggest that the Taconic …

The eHealth Initiative released details of a new survey on the state of health information exchanges (HIEs), which suggest that the networks are gaining traction after years of delays. The organization reports that the number of HIEs describing their networks as "fully operational" has risen from nine to 25 over the last year. Of the 109 groups participating in the study, a majority said "obtaining funding for start up costs and ongoing operations" remains a key priority. A …