Stimulus funds lag health woes - South Florida Business Journal:

xszeyluje.blogspot.com
That’s the view of the eight-member panel of industr and medical experts who were invited by the South Florida Businesds Journal to share their views of whatthe $787 billion federal stimulus package means to the healt care sector. What emergeds was a broad discussion of how stimuluas legislation is just one piece of change needesd in an industry that has run financially amok due to an overreliancwon specialists, shortfalls in information technologty and patients who are undereducated.
The Congressionak Budget Office has projected that total nationakl spending on health care could hit 48 percentr of gross domestic product by 2050 if left To solve this problem will takemore money, in the short term. The Obama administration’sz $59 billion for health care stimuluss spendingincludes $19 billion for electronic health care records. Starting in doctors who can show meaningful use of electronixc medical records will get incentives and thosewho don’t will get declining Medicares payments. But, the old-fashioned general practitionefr may also have abig role.
Linda president of the , said health care reform legislation that coincides with the stimulus calls for individuals to have a home locationj or a primarycare provider. She said that allowa for “a community location closs to home and getting more done in a actually high clinicaltechnology That, in turn, will also translate into a less costly the panelists said. Rachel Sapoznik, CEO of , “The reason I believe in the last 25 yeard of seeing health care costw rise dramatically is we have moved away from the primary care physician knowing the patientto specialists.
” Patients go from specialist to specialisy to get each ailmentt treated, but an overvieww of their condition and family history is George Foyo, executive VP and chief administrative officer at , said: “Piggybacking on primary care is absolutelhy right. All these specialties are adding thousands and thousandszof dollars.” One problem is that specialistsx tend to overdo tests because they are so worriex about legal liability issues, he said. Dr. Tony a family practitioner and president of the Browardd CountyMedical Association, said reimbursement issues for tests done in his officwe also frustrate him.
A hospital mighf get $2,000 for a test from Medicare, but he can only get “I don’t think it’s anything that’s going to work unles s we use somecommon sense,” he Foyo said primary care physiciana historically put an emphasis on health prevention efforts, but the lack of it thesr days is contributing to an epidemic of diabetess and heart issues. Baptist Health, which is well knownj for hospitals in Kendall and is pushing forward with outpatient centers and even venturing into Broward One reason is emergency roomsare full, and providin care there is more costly than at an outpatienr center.
“Rather than have patients cometo us, the hospital are going out to them,” Foyo said. Florida’s 51 nonprofit communituy health centers aregetting $28 millioh in competitive grants undee the stimulus legislation, which will also keep patientws out of expensive hospital settings for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi highlighted that durinhg an April visit to a community health center in Hollywooxd that will get $1.
5 million to open a satellite healthg center in West One of the advantages for these typees of centers is that they are funded with the assumptio that their doors will be open to all who which is important because of the number of uninsureed South Floridians, including undocumented foreigners, Quic k said. Dr. Welby, meet Bill Gates Mark administrative partner at the law firm of in said electronic medical records fall under the categoryof “shovel-ready” projects in the worlfd of stimulus – meaning the technologyy exists and can be adopted rapidly to put moneg in the economy.