Massmed Podcast » Health Policy

Worcester District Medical Society Forum: Retail Based Health Clinics

ffortin — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:16:05 +0000

The Worcester District Medical Society's member forum on
retail-based health clinics outlined the clinics' potential impact on physicians and some strategies that physicians can use to respond to their entrance in Massachusetts.

William Ryder, regulatory and legislative counsel for the MMS, summarized the two-year struggle by a coalition of concerned providers to ensure that retail clinics’ scope of practice was strictly limited, that the facilities are safe, and that visit records are efficiently transferred. Those efforts culminated with comprehensive DPH regulations in January 2008. Go to YouTube or watch the video below.

Peter Lindblad, M.D., a primary care physician and medical staff president at St. Vincent’s Hospital, noted that pharmaceutical companies are looking to get involved directly with retail clinics, raising conflict-of-interest concerns to a new level. He also said retail clinics will translate into missed opportunities for routine screenings and preventive care. Go to YouTube, or watch the video below.

Mary Philbin, Ed.M., director of faculty development at UMass Medical School, suggested that physicians respond to retail clinics proactively
by:

Adjusting office hours for more convenient patient access
Improving communication with patients for better outcomes and
higher patient satisfaction
Coaching patients on the appropriate use of retail clinics

Go to YouTube, or watch the video below.

Be Part of the Cost Solution, MMS President Urges

ffortin — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:53:12 +0000

MMS President B. Dale Magee, M.D., M.S., said on Nov. 2 that physicians must actively participate in efforts to solve the problem of
rising health care costs. Speaking at the opening session of the Interim
Meeting of the MMS House of Delegates, “We can’t just
stand outside and say this isn’t going to work. We have to be part of the
solution,” he said. “When the physicians are involved in this issue, patients
will feel better. They will know that they will get solutions that they can
trust. They will get solutions that everyone can live with.”

Listen to the podcast (Length 6:58) (This will open your computer’s default media player in a new window)

Download from iTunes

State of the State of Health Care: 2007 Overview

ffortin — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 22:02:02 +0000

In opening remarks at the Massachusetts Medical Society’s eighth annual State of the State of Health Care Leadership Forum on Oct. 18, 2007, MMS President Dale Magee, MD, provides an overview of the status of the sectors of the Massachusetts health care system

Listen to the podcast (Length 18:04) (This will open your computer’s default media player in a new window)

Download from iTunes

Slide presentation (in .pdf format)

Other speakers included:

Robert J. Blendon, ScD, Professor of Health Policy, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard University: "The Massachusetts Health Reform Law: Implications for the National Health Care Debate"
Steven A. Schroeder, MD
Distinguished Professor of Health and Health Care, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco: "Rising Medical Expenditures: The Achilles Heel of the Massachusetts Health Experiment?"
Michael K. Gusmano, PhD
Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University: "Health as an Investment: A Comparative Perspective"
Maggie Mahar, PhD, Author, Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much: "Why “Consumers” Can’t Rein in the Cost of Health Care"

Mass. Health Reform: Implications for the National Health Care Debate

ffortin — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:55:59 +0000

Robert Blendon, Sc.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health, shares the the results of surveys about the public’s opinions of the Massachusetts health care reform law.

Excerpted from remarks delivered at the Massachusetts Medical Society’s 2007 State of the State of Health Care Leadership Forum.

Listen to the podcast (Length 10:35) (This will open your computer’s default media player in a new window)

Download from iTunes

Slide presentation (in .pdf format)

Rising Medical Expenditures: The Achilles Heel of the Mass. Health Experiment?

ffortin — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:54:45 +0000

Stephen Schroeder, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco, discusses the possible effectiveness of various health care cost-containment strategies in the United States.

Excerpted from remarks delivered at the Massachusetts Medical Society’s 2007 State of the State of Health Care Leadership Forum.

Listen to the podcast (Length 10:32) (This will open your computer’s default media player in a new window)

Download from iTunes

Slide presentation (in .pdf format)

Why “Consumers” Can’t Rein in the Cost of Health Care

ffortin — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:53:30 +0000

Maggie Mahar, Ph.D., author of "Money-Driven Medicine," contrasts the consumer-driven model of health care with the patient-centered model, and concludes that patient-centered health care is more likely to provide better quality better patient experience, and perhaps even control costs more effectively.

Excerpted from remarks delivered at the Massachusetts Medical Society’s 2007 State of the State of Health Care Leadership Forum.

Listen to the podcast (Length 15:02) (This will open your computer’s default media player in a new window.)

Download from iTunes

Slide presentation (in .pdf format)

Health as an Investment: A Comparative Perspective

ffortin — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:53:00 +0000

Michael Gusmano, Ph.D., of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, discusses the impact of health insurance status and ethnicity on health care access, and their implications for the cost of health care. Gusmano compares access and clinical outcomes in New York City, London and Paris.

Excerpted from remarks delivered at the Massachusetts Medical Society’s 2007 State of the State of Health Care Leadership Forum.

Listen to the podcast (Length 16:19) (This will open your computer’s default media player in a new window.)

Download from iTunes

Slide presentation (in .pdf format)

Physician Tiering in Massachusetts

ffortin — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 15:51:39 +0000

In July 2006, the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission,
the agency that buys health insurance for all Massachusetts state employees,
launched the Clinical Performance Improvement Initiative.

This project compiles information on how individual physicians score against various cost and quality standards, then assigns lower co-pays to physicians who score well against the standards.

The program has been controversial since the start. The Mass. Medical Society has have had substantial concerns about the accuracy, relevance and timeliness of the data, and had real worries about whether it would create unintended consequences, such as driving a wedge between patients and their access to care, at precisely the moment when Massachusetts is trying to improve patients’ access to care.

In this podcast, MMS President Dale Magee, MD, discusses the GIC program, and what the MMS has been doing to ensure that it supports the delivery of good health care.

Listen to the podcast (Length 9:42) (This will open your computer’s default media player in a new window)

Download from iTunes