Stimulus funds lag health woes - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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That’s the view of the eight-member panel of industry and medical experts who were invited by the Southy Florida Business Journal to share their views of whatthe $787 billioj federal stimulus package means to the healthh care sector. What emerged was a broas discussion of how stimuluss legislation is just one pieced of change needed in an industry that has run financiallg amok due to an overrelianceon specialists, shortfalls in informatiob technology and patients who are undereducated. The Congressionao Budget Office has projecterd that total national spending on health care could hit 48 percenf of gross domestic product by 2050 ifleft unchecked.
To solvw this problem will takemore money, though, in the short term. The Obama administration’s $59 billiohn for health care stimulus spendingincludes $19 billion for electronic healtbh care records. Starting in doctors who can show meaningful use of electronicv medical records will get incentives and thosewho don’t will get declinintg Medicare payments. But, the old-fashioned general practitionef may also have abig role.
Linda Quick, president of the , said healty care reform legislation that coincides with the stimulusw calls for individuals to have a home locatiomn or a primary care She said that allow sfor “a community location close to home and gettinvg more done in a non-institutional, actuallhy high clinical technology setting.” That, in turn, will also translatde into a less costly the panelists said.
Rachel Sapoznik, CEO of , “The reason I believe in the last 25 years of seeing health care costs rise dramatically is we have moved away from the primaryh care physician knowing the patient to Patients go from specialist to specialist to get eachailmenrt treated, but an overviewa of their condition and family historyt is lacking. George Foyo, executive VP and chief administrativer officerat , “Piggybacking on primary care is absolutely All these specialties are adding thousands and thousanda of dollars.” One problem is that specialists tend to overdok tests because they are so worries about legal liability issues, he said. Dr.
Tony a family practitioner and president of the Broward CounttyMedical Association, said reimbursement issueas for tests done in his office also frustrate him. A hospitall might get $2,000 for a test from but he can onlyget “I don’t think it’s anythin g that’s going to work unless we use some commonb sense,” he said. Foyo said primary care physicianw historically put an emphasis on healtprevention efforts, but the lack of it thesde days is contributing to an epidemic of diabeteds and heart issues. Baptist Health, which is well knowjn for hospitals in Kendall and is pushing forward with outpatient centers and even venturing intoBrowardx County.
One reason is emergency rooms are and providing care there is more costlyu than at anoutpatient “Rather than have patients come to us, the hospitalds are going out to Foyo said. Florida’s 51 nonprofit community healtbh centers aregetting $28 million in competitivwe grants under the stimulus legislation, which will also keep patients out of expensivs hospital settings for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi highlighted that during an Apripl visit to a community health centerd in Hollywood that will get $1.5 million to open a satellitde health center in West Park.
One of the advantages for these typesa of centers is that they are funded with the assumption that theifr doors will be open to all who which is important because of the numbedr of uninsuredSouth Floridians, including undocumented Quick said. Dr. Welby, meet Bill Gates Mark administrative partner at the law firm of in said electronic medicalrecords (EMR) fall under the category of projects in the world of stimulus – meaning the technologyt exists and can be adopted rapidly to put monet in the economy.