By Jaan Sidorov, MD
Let’s play a game. Today we are going to pretend you are a Vice President for Medical Affairs, or a Chief of Staff, or a health system CEO about to announce a collaboration with a major health insurer like CMS or a regional Blues Plan. You’ve done your homework, read the journals, listened to the experts, anticipated the future and haven't applied enough skepticism in reading all those pro-EHR and pro-bundled payment posts on THCB. You really believe payment reform and the EHR are the way to go.
You’ve called a meeting of your organization's physician staff – the professionals you are counting on, caring for all those patients – and your job is go to the front of the auditorium and convince them that the success of your new venture relies on lowering health care costs with new payment arrangements that align incentives, in tandem with the launch of a new EHR.
Armed with a 30-slide PowerPoint filled with the latest consultant nostrums, you launch into your presentation. The physicians listen in respectful silence. After a few easy questions, there's always that one doc in the back of the room who uncomfortably points out that the evidence about the ability of payment reforms and the EHR ability to optimize costs is uneven and that organization is making a huge bet. Many of the docs in the room nod in agreement. That's when you realize that the insights of all those economists, policymakers, politicians and bloggers mean nothing if you don't have the physicians on board.
That's the real message behind this telling survey that was just published in JAMA. While the overwhelming majority of physicians agreed that they have responsibility for health care costs, higher percentages felt hospitals, health systems, insurers, pharma, medical device manufacturers and personal injury attorneys had a greater mandate. In other words, everyone is responsible, but the physicians' duty is superseded by their ethical obligation to advocate for their patients regardless of cost. The survey also showed that not all physicians are convinced that the electronic health record (74%) is a cost-reducing panacea, while a minority felt readmission penalties (41%) and bundled payments (35%) were likely to lead to lower costs.
So what do you do? How do you convince physicians to get on board and make this thing work? What can you possibly tell them to convince them that they should set aside their preconceived notions about the grand adventure you are all about to engage on is a worthy one?
Many THCB readers probably believe physicians either don't understand the merits of health reform or are acting out of economic self-interest. I don't believe either are true, but that's not the point. After years of operating in their closed information loops, pre-reform pundits, policymakers and politicians have convinced themselves about benefits of information technology and payment reform without bothering to do a reality check with their doctors. These survey data should act as a note of caution to all those VPs, Chiefs and CEOs who believe that what the "experts" are telling them is really the truth.
Jaan Sidorov, MD, is a primary care internist and former Medical Director at Geisinger Health Plan with over 20 years experience in primary care, disease management and population-based care coordination. He shares his knowledge and insights at Disease Management Care Blog. This piece was adapted from a recent DMCB post.
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