Consider This...Healthcare Observations by Ralph P. Fargnoli, Jr.
6/19/09

If you've been procrastinating on physician integration, ARRA should be your catalyst

This is the second of a four-part Summer Series that focuses on issues affected by ARRA

It's no secret that there are many benefits to physician integration. Physicians can greatly influence a large percentage of all expenditures on healthcare via referrals and thus play an important role with a hospital's overall financial performance.

With the current economic downturn, the competition for a declining patient dollar makes cooperation a critical element to a hospital's financial success.

For those organizations that can use improvement in this area, consider ARRA/HITECH as a catalyst to get you on track.

A major component to receiving incentives under the ARRA economic stimulus plan is to implement EHRs and show "meaningful use" in doing so. But the major stumbling blocks for both physician practices, hospitals and health systems is lack of funds, procrastination and being able to show meaningful use of these EHRs in time to receive the incentives.

If physician integration is going to be a priority within your healthcare organization, investing in EHRs and offering it to area physicians will only help better connect you to the physician community and facilitate more referrals.

How to pay? Use grants available from the ARRA economic stimulus incentives to help fund this effort. Since it's budget season for many of you, this must be part of your strategy.

Some of the money that you invest, but not all, will come back to you via the incentives. However, don't think of it as being lost money. The ROI will come with improved connectivity to area physicians, optimizing potential referrals--and ultimately--improve your bottom line. More importantly, your clinical outcomes will progress through improved patient safety and overall patient satisfaction.

According to the recent KLAS report on the "Executive Reaction to the Stimulus Package," 43% of CIOs have made "no immediate changes, and are anxiously watching and researching."

My reaction to this? As I've said many times in this column: what are you waiting for? Physician integration is a great motivator.

Ralph P. Fargnoli, Jr.
President & CEO
Beacon Partners, Inc.

Questions or comments, contact
ConsiderThis@BeaconPartners.com

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