Robert B. Sklaroff, M.D.
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Managed Health Care ["MHC"]:
A Stakeholder’s Perspective

College of Nursing and Health Professions, Drexel University

October 14, 2006 ["Saturday Scholars" – Room 4217]

Stephen F. Gambescia, Ph.D., M.Ed., M.B.A., CHES

Robert B. Sklaroff, M.D., F.A.C.P. ["Anti-Tobacco Activist"]

Quality/Access/Cost of Care as related to the Services/Providers

Background: MHC Organization, Delivery, Medical Management

Discussion Points: Specialist, The Blues, Organized Medicine

Enduring Myths: Insurer=Deliverer, Time=$$$, Gag-Rules

Parameters: Ideal>Reality, Demand>Supply, Longitude>Latitude

Terms: Primary Care Physician, Consultant, Principal Care Delivery

Pitfalls: Single-Payor, Professional Liability, Indemnity=Dinosaur

 

 

Discovering a Philosophy of Health Education

Society for Public Health Education – Annual Meeting 11/2/2006

Presidential Address [pre-print] – Updating Hippocrates

1. How do I know what I know? (epistemology, absent dogma)

2. What should I do; how should I behave? (ethical and moral discourse, viewed as a community of practitioners)

3. How do I interact with others; and what is my relationship to them? (governance and justice, eschewing paternalism)

"Health Education is the most essential service of a Public Health Department in a democratic society."

"Macro"-application: American Council of Science and Health

"Micro"-application: The Patient-Physician Relationship

 

Managed Health Care ["MHC"]:
A Stakeholder’s Perspective

College of Nursing and Health Professions, Drexel University

October 14, 2006 ["Saturday Scholars" – Room 4217]

Stephen F. Gambescia, Ph.D., M.Ed., M.B.A., CHES

Robert B. Sklaroff, M.D., F.A.C.P. ["Anti-Tobacco Activist"]

Quality/Access/Cost of Care as related to the Services/Providers

Background: MHC Organization, Delivery, Medical Management

Discussion Points: Specialist, The Blues, Organized Medicine

Enduring Myths: Insurer=Deliverer, Time=$$$, Gag-Rules

Parameters: Ideal>Reality, Demand>Supply, Longitude>Latitude

Terms: Primary Care Physician, Consultant, Principal Care Delivery

Pitfalls: Single-Payor, Professional Liability, Indemnity=Dinosaur

 

 

The Specialist

C.V. – Medico-Legal, Disability, Handouts

Pre-Approvals for Imaging Studies and Selected-Rx

Serial CT’s (Breast Cancer) and Gleevec (CML)

Clinical Pathways (Inpatient) and Bundling (Outpatient)

Issues:

Biased Quantitation (re: Professional Liability Insurance)

Divide and Conquer (Primary vs. Specialty Care Designation)

[De-]Credentialing (stills complaints, unnoticed by patients)

Types of Reimbursement Arrangements (for identical service)

Organizational Models for Capitating Specialty Services ( )

Common Problems with Specialty Capitation (SUB-Divide…)

Other Forms of Specialty Physician Reimbursement (Episode)

Risk and Reward ("Scoping for $$$")

 

Managed Health Care ["MHC"]:
A Stakeholder’s Perspective

College of Nursing and Health Professions, Drexel University

October 14, 2006 ["Saturday Scholars" – Room 4217]

Stephen F. Gambescia, Ph.D., M.Ed., M.B.A., CHES

Robert B. Sklaroff, M.D., F.A.C.P. ["Anti-Tobacco Activist"]

Quality/Access/Cost of Care as related to the Services/Providers

Background: MHC Organization, Delivery, Medical Management

Discussion Points: Specialist, The Blues, Organized Medicine

Enduring Myths: Insurer=Deliverer, Time=$$$, Gag-Rules

Parameters: Ideal>Reality, Demand>Supply, Longitude>Latitude

Terms: Primary Care Physician, Consultant, Principal Care Delivery

Pitfalls: Single-Payor, Professional Liability, Indemnity=Dinosaur

 

 

The Control over the Health Care Delivery System in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Watergate: "Follow the Money!"

Silent Hand: The Blues (W-/SE-BC have 85%/65%)

Structure: Not-for-Profit Shell encompasses For-Profits

Goal: One Statewide Entity (sandwiching C-/NE-BC)

Antitrust Analysis (HHI): Geographic/Service Parameters

Geography: Statewide vs. Regional (vs. sub-regional)

Service: Insurance vs. All-Products (vs. sub-types)

CHALLENGER empowered to DEFINE the defect!

The Blues – I - Context

C.V. – Pennsylvania Society of Internal Medicine (Prez)

Insurance Regulation

- State - McCarron-Ferguson Act (1945) {antitrust import}

- Federal - ERISA (1974)

Employee Retirement Income and Security Act
- Protects interstate commerce

- Protects interests of employee benefit plan participants

- Protects beneficiaries of financial and other information

- Establishes standards of conduct & responsibility

- Excludes government and church plans

The Blues – II - Events

C.V. – Pennsylvania Society of Internal Medicine (Prez)

PA Blue Crosses (1937) including "Western PA"

PA Blue Shield (1939) statewide

Consolidation (12/6/1996) creating "Highmark"

Decision Challenged (12/5/1996) by PCMS/PSIM

Adjudicatory Adverse-Party Hearings (12/19-20/2002)

Commonwealth Court (with Capital Blue Cross case)

Time-Frame: end of 2007 (after PA-Supremes rule)

Goal: permanently ensure TRUE competition

 

 

Managed Health Care ["MHC"]:
A Stakeholder’s Perspective

College of Nursing and Health Professions, Drexel University

October 14, 2006 ["Saturday Scholars" – Room 4217]

Stephen F. Gambescia, Ph.D., M.Ed., M.B.A., CHES

Robert B. Sklaroff, M.D., F.A.C.P. ["Anti-Tobacco Activist"]

Quality/Access/Cost of Care as related to the Services/Providers

Background: MHC Organization, Delivery, Medical Management

Discussion Points: Specialist, The Blues, Organized Medicine

Enduring Myths: Insurer=Deliverer, Time=$$$, Gag-Rules

Parameters: Ideal>Reality, Demand>Supply, Longitude>Latitude

Terms: Primary Care Physician, Consultant, Principal Care Delivery

Pitfalls: Single-Payor, Professional Liability, Indemnity=Dinosaur

 

 

[Dis-]Organized Medicine

C.V. – AMA/PMS/PCMS plus sub-entities thereof

Proactive: Medical/Health Savings Accounts

Reactive: Administrative Analysis of Statutory/Procedural Actions

Act 68 Critique: Overall intent was to enhance user-friendliness

Policy Compendium: http://www. AMA-Assn.org

Policy Implementation: Means Testing vs. Income Relatedness

Tort Reform: Failures/Successes Strategies/Colleagues

Blues Litigation: Stephen Foreman, Ph.D. & Dennis Shea, Ph.D.

Membership/Dues/Interactions/Services: Egoism/Manipulativeness

Solution: Collaboration to achieve Efficiency-of-Scale

Physician-Members choose Employers over Medical Societies

Ergo: Physician-Income Decrements (from MHC) enervate Societies

 

Overview

Conclusions

THIS PRESENTATION IS SUBJECT TO CRITIQUE, INPUT, FEEDBACK, ANALYSIS…BOTH PHILOSOPHICALLY AND WHEN VIEWED ON A PRACTICAL LEVEL.

THERE ARE NO SIMPLE-ANSWERS, AND THE BIASES OF EACH OF THE "PLAYERS" MUST CONSTANTLY BE WEIGHED WHEN ASSESSING "SUGGESTIONS."

ULTIMATELY, THE PATIENT-FOCUS MUST BE PRESERVED; INDEED, IT MUST BE ENHANCED MAXIMALLY!!!

 

To contact me--Robert B. Sklaroff, M.D.--just send an e-mail (rsklaroff@comcast.net).