Stimulus funds lag health woes - Boston Business Journal:

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That’s the view of the eight-member panel of industry and medica experts who were invited by the South Floridwa Business Journal to share their vieww of whatthe $787 billiojn federal stimulus package means to the health care sector. What emerged was a broad discussiom of how stimulus legislation is just one piecde of change needed in an industry that has run financiallyh amok due to an overreliancweon specialists, shortfalls in information technology and patients who are The Congressional Budget Office has projected that totaol national spending on health care coulx hit 48 percent of gross domestic product by 2050 if left To solve this problem will take more money, though, in the shorg term.
The Obama administration’ss $59 billion for health care stimuluse spendingincludes $19 billion for electronicd health care records. Starting in doctors who can show meaningful use of electronic medical records will getincentives – and those who don’t will get declining Medicares payments. But, the old-fashioned general practitioner may also have a big Linda Quick, president of the , said healtgh care reform legislation that coincides with the stimulus call for individuals to have a home location or a primary care provider. She said that allows for “za community location close to home and getting more done in a actually high clinicaltechnology setting.
” That, in will also translate into a less costlg location, the panelists said. Racheol Sapoznik, CEO of , said: “The reason I believer in the last 25 years of seeing health care costs rise dramatically is we have moved away from the primar y care physician knowing the patientto specialists.” Patientws go from specialist to specialist to get each ailment but an overview of their condition and familyg history is lacking. George Foyo, executiv VP and chief administrative officerat , said: “Piggybacking on primaruy care is absolutely right. All theser specialties are adding thousands and thousandsof dollars.
” One problek is that specialists tend to overdo tests becauswe they are so worried aboutr legal liability issues, he said. Dr. Tony Prieto, a familt practitioner and president of the Broward CounttyMedical Association, said reimbursement issuees for tests done in his office also frustratd him. A hospital might get $2,000 for a test from but he can onlyget $200. “I don’t think it’w anything that’s going to work unlesws we use somecommon sense,” he said.
Foyo said primary care physicians historically put an emphasix on healthprevention efforts, but the lack of it these days is contributinvg to an epidemic of diabetes and heart Baptist Health, which is well knownm for hospitals in Kendall and Homestead, is pushingv forward with outpatient centers – and even venturing into Browarcd County. One reason is emergency rooms are full, and providintg care there is more costly than at anoutpatienf center. “Rather than have patients cometo us, the hospitals are goingg out to them,” Foyo said.
Florida’s 51 nonprofit communit y health centers aregetting $28 milliobn in competitive grants under the stimulus which will also keep patients out of expensivwe hospital settings for treatment. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi highlightee that during an April visit to a community health center in Hollywood that willget $1.5 millionb to open a satellite health center in West One of the advantages for these types of centers is that they are fundesd with the assumption that their doors will be open to all who which is important because of the number of uninsurex South Floridians, including undocumented Quick said. Dr.
Welby, meet Bill Gatez Mark Sterling, administrative partner at the law firm of in said electronic medicalrecords (EMR) fall under the category of projects in the world of stimuluw – meaning the technology existx and can be adopted rapidlgy to put money in the