Top 8 challenges physicians face

As physicians and health systems are under significant pressure to change, managed care executives should continue to keep the pulse of physicians in evolving collaborations, according to a recent issue brief.

The Issue Brief: 8 Physician Pressure Points in 2016, outlines what will matter most to all doctors this year. This includes:

1.   Medicare reimbursements and value-based payments

2.   Medicare policy changes

3.   Business relationships

4.   Meaningful Use

5.   ICD-10

6.   Mega-mergers

7.   Patient engagement

8.   Supreme Court and federal court cases

Ransom

“The [Brief] is intended to provide insights on some of the current challenges that physicians and clinical practice leaders are experiencing. Managed care executives must keep their specific priorities to physicians in perspective,” says Scott Ransom, managing director, Navigant Healthcare.

The Issue Brief also discusses what will help integrate the numerous electronic health records (EHRs) so that patients can have records easily transferred to new doctors or sent to specialists.

“The EHR market has rapidly consolidated and improved the transferability of records to doctors within the same health system network,” Ransom says. “Specifically, physicians within the same health system network generally has full access to all other provider’s records in that same network. Unfortunately, challenges continue to exist for patients being cared for across two or more networks.”

According to Ransom, most EHRs have incorporated pharmacy programs that include electronic prescription writing ability by the provider.

“The complete understanding of the patient’s medication use can help providers and pharmacists limit adverse medication errors by better identifying all prescriptions that the patient is utilizing,” Ransom says.

In addition, price and quality transparency is in transition, according to Ransom.

“Many health systems are developing patient and consumer access points to better appreciate quality metrics and costs,” he says. “In addition, several third-party organizations are providing selected metrics for consumer’s use.”