Posts tagged AMA
AMA to Start a Campaign against Administrative Waste
Mar 12th
The American Medical Association seeks assistance from the business community in order to reduce administrative waste, a major issue of the healthcare industry. According to the AMA, a lack of standardization of industry processes is the root cause of a loss of $200 billion every year.
Healthcare administrative tasks are complex, redundant and incredibly costly as they are about 10-14% of physicians’ gross incomes. In order to ease the strain of administrative tasks, planning and designing of efficient processes is required. In order to achieve this, the AMA is organizing a work group that embraces the labor, business and employer communities. By simplifying administrative procedures, efficiency will be greatly enhanced.
This administrative simplification campaign by the AMA promotes a uniform, fully automated, industry-wide claims processing system for insurers, physicians and patients; electronic health records will make this effort more fruitful.
Moreover, the health reform law requirement will help make the claims process simpler and more transparent by Oct. 1, 2012 as it will necessitate that every health plan use a unique identifier in healthcare transactions.
AMA Develops New Models of Healthcare to Ultimately Benefit Patients and the Healthcare System
Dec 15th
The American Medical Association (AMA) recently has developed a plan to encourage competition and innovation in order to benefit patients and the healthcare system. The AMA calls its model of patient care the Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), and at the heart of these ACOs will be physicians, removing the need for consolidation under a hospital system.
The AMA gave the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) its recommendations for adopting this system of ACOs. According to AMA President Cecil B. Wilson, M.D., “The AMA’s recommendations make it possible for physicians in all practice sizes and settings to successfully participate in ACOs, which will foster competition and innovation…to optimize patient care and curb health care costs.”
Some of its recommendations include developing new payment models for physicians that transition Medicare away from the physician payment system currently in place, a whole host of new payment methods, loans and grants for small physician practices, alleviating of anti-trust regulations that may hinder providers from collaborating, and real-time access to important and useful data.
“Competition fosters innovation, which ultimately helps patients receive efficient high-quality care. Care coordination is vital, and physicians can work together with a health care team to keep patients healthy and out of the hospital while maintaining independent medical practices. CMS should adopt policies that facilitate physician-led ACOs and do not inadvertently bias participation in favor of large health systems and hospitals,” said Dr. Wilson.
To learn more about the AMA’s recommendations, you can view its outline here.
AMA Calls on the Debt Commission to Repeal the SGR Formula
Oct 14th
The country’s largest medical society, the American Medical Association (AMA), has urged the bipartisan Debt Commission created by President Obama to repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula. AMA expressed its demands to members of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. It requested that a proposal be sent to Congress to permanent repeal the SGR formula.
SGR is Medicare’s controversial method for setting physician reimbursement. Unless Congress intervenes, the SGR is currently scheduled to decrease by 23% on December 1st, an additional 6.5% in January 2011 and 2.9% more in 2012. Failure to repeal the SGR formula may force underpaid physicians to reject services to Medicare patients and military families under TRICARE coverage. “Physicians want to care for seniors and military patients, but we can’t keep our doors open to all patients when the government doesn’t cover the cost of providing that care,”said AMA board member Ardis Hoven, MD.
The Debt Commission was created through an Executive Order issued by the President on February 18th. The panel is responsible for identifying policies to improve the nation’s fiscal situation in the short term and achieve sustainability in the long term. The Commission will vote on a report containing recommendations before December 1st.