Government and Regulations

If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, then hell is full of unintended consequences.

The debate about whether hospitals’ reimbursements should be based on quality performance is not a unique concept. Similar systems have been implemented in other fields (e.g. education), and we in the medical field can learn from their experiences. In education, testing students is the driving force in measuring a “quality outcome.”

A growing number of educators now believe that the focus on testing to measure quality has actually reduced the quality of education; they cite the bureaucratic, inflexible, and cumbersome requirements placed on the educators, and the diversion of precious resources to focus on standardized test scores. The actual education of the students becomes secondary, and there are allegations of school systems manipulating their data to ensure maximum funding.

With the drive to pay-for-performance in the medical field, will the actual medical care of the patient become secondary to hitting the “quality” metrics set by the government? Add in a volatile mix of money, and this becomes a recipe for disaster.

Questions are many:

• What standards of quality are we going to use?
• Do these metrics truly translate into “quality”?
• Will the goal of reaching these metrics become the main focus of the hospitals instead of actual patient care?
• Is the goal to really improve the quality of healthcare, or is it just another vehicle for government and private third parties to come up with another excuse to reduce reimbursement in the name of quality?

Even now, ED physicians are giving antibiotics liberally for fear that they will be admonished for “missing” the pneumonia core measures. Whether this is appropriate care for the patient is irrelevant to hitting the statistical goal. Where is the incentive to deliver appropriate care? Are we even asking the right questions? Do bureaucrats know that even if appropriate, timely, quality care is given that a positive outcome is not guaranteed?

The field of medicine has made incredible advances in patient care, but the fact remains that a certain percentage of the sick and elderly become sicker and eventually die, especially in hospitals.

Potential Problems are Many

Unintended consequences pose a real danger to a system that rewards and penalizes. One potential issue is the “rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer,” as more provider focus is placed on buffering statistics by keeping healthy people healthier to achieve better outcomes, meanwhile shunning or diverting the seriously sick patients in order to keep quality metrics within goal.

How will the government and insurance providers guarantee the accuracy of each hospital’s statistics?

Think of the money and resources that will be diverted away from the clinical arena and into the bureaucratic nightmare of record-keeping needed to implement this pay-for-performance system. How many billions of dollars will be needed to fund this new bureaucracy? Do we need another bureaucratic, punitive layer in our already cumbersome medical system?

My answer is clear: No! TH

Dr. Yu is medical director of adult hospitalist services at Presbyterian Medical Group in Albuquerque, N.M., and a Team Hospitalist member.

If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, then hell is full of unintended consequences.

The debate about whether hospitals’ reimbursements should be based on quality performance is not a unique concept. Similar systems have been implemented in other fields (e.g. education), and we in the medical field can learn from their experiences. In education, testing students is the driving force in measuring a “quality outcome.”

A growing number of educators now believe that the focus on testing to measure quality has actually reduced the quality of education; they cite the bureaucratic, inflexible, and cumbersome requirements placed on the educators, and the diversion of precious resources to focus on standardized test scores. The actual education of the students becomes secondary, and there are allegations of school systems manipulating their data to ensure maximum funding.

With the drive to pay-for-performance in the medical field, will the actual medical care of the patient become secondary to hitting the “quality” metrics set by the government? Add in a volatile mix of money, and this becomes a recipe for disaster.

Questions are many:

• What standards of quality are we going to use?
• Do these metrics truly translate into “quality”?
• Will the goal of reaching these metrics become the main focus of the hospitals instead of actual patient care?
• Is the goal to really improve the quality of healthcare, or is it just another vehicle for government and private third parties to come up with another excuse to reduce reimbursement in the name of quality?

Even now, ED physicians are giving antibiotics liberally for fear that they will be admonished for “missing” the pneumonia core measures. Whether this is appropriate care for the patient is irrelevant to hitting the statistical goal. Where is the incentive to deliver appropriate care? Are we even asking the right questions? Do bureaucrats know that even if appropriate, timely, quality care is given that a positive outcome is not guaranteed?

The field of medicine has made incredible advances in patient care, but the fact remains that a certain percentage of the sick and elderly become sicker and eventually die, especially in hospitals.

Potential Problems are Many

Unintended consequences pose a real danger to a system that rewards and penalizes. One potential issue is the “rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer,” as more provider focus is placed on buffering statistics by keeping healthy people healthier to achieve better outcomes, meanwhile shunning or diverting the seriously sick patients in order to keep quality metrics within goal.

How will the government and insurance providers guarantee the accuracy of each hospital’s statistics?

Think of the money and resources that will be diverted away from the clinical arena and into the bureaucratic nightmare of record-keeping needed to implement this pay-for-performance system. How many billions of dollars will be needed to fund this new bureaucracy? Do we need another bureaucratic, punitive layer in our already cumbersome medical system?

My answer is clear: No! TH

Dr. Yu is medical director of adult hospitalist services at Presbyterian Medical Group in Albuquerque, N.M., and a Team Hospitalist member.

If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, then hell is full of unintended consequences.

The debate about whether hospitals’ reimbursements should be based on quality performance is not a unique concept. Similar systems have been implemented in other fields (e.g. education), and we in the medical field can learn from their experiences. In education, testing students is the driving force in measuring a “quality outcome.”

A growing number of educators now believe that the focus on testing to measure quality has actually reduced the quality of education; they cite the bureaucratic, inflexible, and cumbersome requirements placed on the educators, and the diversion of precious resources to focus on standardized test scores. The actual education of the students becomes secondary, and there are allegations of school systems manipulating their data to ensure maximum funding.

With the drive to pay-for-performance in the medical field, will the actual medical care of the patient become secondary to hitting the “quality” metrics set by the government? Add in a volatile mix of money, and this becomes a recipe for disaster.

Questions are many:

• What standards of quality are we going to use?
• Do these metrics truly translate into “quality”?
• Will the goal of reaching these metrics become the main focus of the hospitals instead of actual patient care?
• Is the goal to really improve the quality of healthcare, or is it just another vehicle for government and private third parties to come up with another excuse to reduce reimbursement in the name of quality?

Even now, ED physicians are giving antibiotics liberally for fear that they will be admonished for “missing” the pneumonia core measures. Whether this is appropriate care for the patient is irrelevant to hitting the statistical goal. Where is the incentive to deliver appropriate care? Are we even asking the right questions? Do bureaucrats know that even if appropriate, timely, quality care is given that a positive outcome is not guaranteed?

The field of medicine has made incredible advances in patient care, but the fact remains that a certain percentage of the sick and elderly become sicker and eventually die, especially in hospitals.

Potential Problems are Many

Unintended consequences pose a real danger to a system that rewards and penalizes. One potential issue is the “rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer,” as more provider focus is placed on buffering statistics by keeping healthy people healthier to achieve better outcomes, meanwhile shunning or diverting the seriously sick patients in order to keep quality metrics within goal.

How will the government and insurance providers guarantee the accuracy of each hospital’s statistics?

Think of the money and resources that will be diverted away from the clinical arena and into the bureaucratic nightmare of record-keeping needed to implement this pay-for-performance system. How many billions of dollars will be needed to fund this new bureaucracy? Do we need another bureaucratic, punitive layer in our already cumbersome medical system?

My answer is clear: No! TH

Dr. Yu is medical director of adult hospitalist services at Presbyterian Medical Group in Albuquerque, N.M., and a Team Hospitalist member.

Ask a hospitalist “Is quality important?” and most will answer “Yes.” Now ask the hospital’s CEO/CFO that same question, and you’ll get a resounding “Yes.”

Quality, as the primary determinant of value, has become priority No. 1 for hospitals.¹ And with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposed rules for value-based purchasing (VBP), starting with a 1% withholding of Medicare reimbursement for demonstration of quality-measure performance, big dollars are at risk for hospitals.²

As the key providers of inpatient care, hospitalists will share in this financial accountability. The next-generation HM program must show value not only through efficiency and cost reduction, but also expanded services and quality.

Quality is a means of defining good care. Historically, the medical profession has escaped external accountability for quality as part of practitioner autonomy. Today, more than ever, consumer groups, payors, and regulatory bodies are demanding demonstration of quality outcomes, which impacts reimbursement and market share.

Is this demand for quality performance negative? Misused, it can be a mechanism for cost control through seemingly arbitrary indicators. Considered more broadly, it can be positive: We will be able to evaluate our practices to improve care.

Either way, the quality ship has sailed. Accepting this change, we see that the direction and execution are largely left open-ended, which brings another positive: HM has an opportunity to charter the course.

Hospitalists are inpatient care experts; we understand and improve health systems to provide excellent care. Above all else, quality is what we stand for. As a field, we are at the leading edge of change. Getting ahead of quality at each of our institutions is a great opportunity, and helping hospitals implement and deliver on quality initiatives is job security. Being held to what we value, hospitalists should be incentivized by quality performance.

Quality and Compensation

Why tie compensation to quality outcomes? First, hospitals are financially accountable for performance, and HM is financially accountable to hospitals. Second, we incent important objectives, in addition to other mechanisms (e.g. transparent reporting), to drive performance.

The majority of HM programs have an incentive component to their compensation structure, and quality is the leading performance incentive (hospitalists in these programs also have higher incomes).³ We can expect to see HM compensation structures evolve toward pay-for-performance or gainsharing models. HM groups should turn their focus to using incentives or bonuses. Here are some tips:

1. Lead quality initiatives. Participate in hospital-based patient safety and satisfaction projects. Communicate the importance to your group to achieve buy-in.
2. Define mutual goals. Choose two or three measurable areas that are the top priority items for the hospital and your group, and put them on your scorecard. Consider measuring team performance.
3. Make it count. Make the amount of financial incentive a portion of compensation that is meaningful. Share data—and the effect on compensation—regularly to drive performance.

Quality is ours to lead. Define and deliver it, and you’ll find your group to be indispensable to the hospital, with dollars to gain—for all the right reasons. TH

Dr. Wright is senior medical officer at Hospitalists Management Company in Wisconsin and a Team Hospitalist member.

References

1. Wachter RM, Goldman L. The hospitalist movement 5 years later. JAMA. 2002;287:487-494.
2. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Medicare program: hospital patient value-based purchasing program. Federal Register. 2011;76(9).
3. State of Hospital Medicine: 2010 Report Based on 2009 Data. SHM website. Available at: www.hospitalmedicine.org/survey. Accessed April 2, 2011.

Ask a hospitalist “Is quality important?” and most will answer “Yes.” Now ask the hospital’s CEO/CFO that same question, and you’ll get a resounding “Yes.”

Quality, as the primary determinant of value, has become priority No. 1 for hospitals.¹ And with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposed rules for value-based purchasing (VBP), starting with a 1% withholding of Medicare reimbursement for demonstration of quality-measure performance, big dollars are at risk for hospitals.²

As the key providers of inpatient care, hospitalists will share in this financial accountability. The next-generation HM program must show value not only through efficiency and cost reduction, but also expanded services and quality.

Quality is a means of defining good care. Historically, the medical profession has escaped external accountability for quality as part of practitioner autonomy. Today, more than ever, consumer groups, payors, and regulatory bodies are demanding demonstration of quality outcomes, which impacts reimbursement and market share.

Is this demand for quality performance negative? Misused, it can be a mechanism for cost control through seemingly arbitrary indicators. Considered more broadly, it can be positive: We will be able to evaluate our practices to improve care.

Either way, the quality ship has sailed. Accepting this change, we see that the direction and execution are largely left open-ended, which brings another positive: HM has an opportunity to charter the course.

Hospitalists are inpatient care experts; we understand and improve health systems to provide excellent care. Above all else, quality is what we stand for. As a field, we are at the leading edge of change. Getting ahead of quality at each of our institutions is a great opportunity, and helping hospitals implement and deliver on quality initiatives is job security. Being held to what we value, hospitalists should be incentivized by quality performance.

Quality and Compensation

Why tie compensation to quality outcomes? First, hospitals are financially accountable for performance, and HM is financially accountable to hospitals. Second, we incent important objectives, in addition to other mechanisms (e.g. transparent reporting), to drive performance.

The majority of HM programs have an incentive component to their compensation structure, and quality is the leading performance incentive (hospitalists in these programs also have higher incomes).³ We can expect to see HM compensation structures evolve toward pay-for-performance or gainsharing models. HM groups should turn their focus to using incentives or bonuses. Here are some tips:

1. Lead quality initiatives. Participate in hospital-based patient safety and satisfaction projects. Communicate the importance to your group to achieve buy-in.
2. Define mutual goals. Choose two or three measurable areas that are the top priority items for the hospital and your group, and put them on your scorecard. Consider measuring team performance.
3. Make it count. Make the amount of financial incentive a portion of compensation that is meaningful. Share data—and the effect on compensation—regularly to drive performance.

Quality is ours to lead. Define and deliver it, and you’ll find your group to be indispensable to the hospital, with dollars to gain—for all the right reasons. TH

Dr. Wright is senior medical officer at Hospitalists Management Company in Wisconsin and a Team Hospitalist member.

References

1. Wachter RM, Goldman L. The hospitalist movement 5 years later. JAMA. 2002;287:487-494.
2. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Medicare program: hospital patient value-based purchasing program. Federal Register. 2011;76(9).
3. State of Hospital Medicine: 2010 Report Based on 2009 Data. SHM website. Available at: www.hospitalmedicine.org/survey. Accessed April 2, 2011.

Ask a hospitalist “Is quality important?” and most will answer “Yes.” Now ask the hospital’s CEO/CFO that same question, and you’ll get a resounding “Yes.”

Quality, as the primary determinant of value, has become priority No. 1 for hospitals.¹ And with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposed rules for value-based purchasing (VBP), starting with a 1% withholding of Medicare reimbursement for demonstration of quality-measure performance, big dollars are at risk for hospitals.²

As the key providers of inpatient care, hospitalists will share in this financial accountability. The next-generation HM program must show value not only through efficiency and cost reduction, but also expanded services and quality.

Quality is a means of defining good care. Historically, the medical profession has escaped external accountability for quality as part of practitioner autonomy. Today, more than ever, consumer groups, payors, and regulatory bodies are demanding demonstration of quality outcomes, which impacts reimbursement and market share.

Is this demand for quality performance negative? Misused, it can be a mechanism for cost control through seemingly arbitrary indicators. Considered more broadly, it can be positive: We will be able to evaluate our practices to improve care.

Either way, the quality ship has sailed. Accepting this change, we see that the direction and execution are largely left open-ended, which brings another positive: HM has an opportunity to charter the course.

Hospitalists are inpatient care experts; we understand and improve health systems to provide excellent care. Above all else, quality is what we stand for. As a field, we are at the leading edge of change. Getting ahead of quality at each of our institutions is a great opportunity, and helping hospitals implement and deliver on quality initiatives is job security. Being held to what we value, hospitalists should be incentivized by quality performance.

Quality and Compensation

Why tie compensation to quality outcomes? First, hospitals are financially accountable for performance, and HM is financially accountable to hospitals. Second, we incent important objectives, in addition to other mechanisms (e.g. transparent reporting), to drive performance.

The majority of HM programs have an incentive component to their compensation structure, and quality is the leading performance incentive (hospitalists in these programs also have higher incomes).³ We can expect to see HM compensation structures evolve toward pay-for-performance or gainsharing models. HM groups should turn their focus to using incentives or bonuses. Here are some tips:

1. Lead quality initiatives. Participate in hospital-based patient safety and satisfaction projects. Communicate the importance to your group to achieve buy-in.
2. Define mutual goals. Choose two or three measurable areas that are the top priority items for the hospital and your group, and put them on your scorecard. Consider measuring team performance.
3. Make it count. Make the amount of financial incentive a portion of compensation that is meaningful. Share data—and the effect on compensation—regularly to drive performance.

Quality is ours to lead. Define and deliver it, and you’ll find your group to be indispensable to the hospital, with dollars to gain—for all the right reasons. TH

Dr. Wright is senior medical officer at Hospitalists Management Company in Wisconsin and a Team Hospitalist member.

References

1. Wachter RM, Goldman L. The hospitalist movement 5 years later. JAMA. 2002;287:487-494.
2. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Medicare program: hospital patient value-based purchasing program. Federal Register. 2011;76(9).
3. State of Hospital Medicine: 2010 Report Based on 2009 Data. SHM website. Available at: www.hospitalmedicine.org/survey. Accessed April 2, 2011.

I’ve been told by home health agencies that I have to fill out some additional paperwork to get my patients outpatient services. Can you explain to me what these new rules are all about?

Alicia Farrouk, MD

Evansville, Ind.

Dr. Hospitalist responds: In June 2010, the Affordable Care Act changed the rules regarding physician orders for durable medical equipment and for certifying or recertifying the need for home health services. Last November, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published the final rules in the Federal Register.

The new law went into effect Jan. 1, and I suspect that is why you have been asked to adjust the way you fill out your paperwork. The upshot of the change in the law is that providers can no longer use the discharge plan or transfer form as evidence of “certification” of need for home health services. The ordering provider, as a condition for payment for services, must document an in-person encounter within the 90 days prior or 30 days after the initiation of home health services. The documentation must detail the clinical findings supporting the need for home health services.

If you are a hospitalist and discharging the patient from the hospital but will not be following the patient as an outpatient, you must document the name of the primary-care physician (PCP) who will follow the patient’s need for home health services and initiate the order and plan of care. The PCP will then sign the home health certification and document that they reviewed your note and plan for home health services and agree with the plan.

If you are a hospitalist working in a teaching hospital, the resident can fill out the form, but it must list your name (as attending physician) and your NPI number. This new rule applies only to home health services and durable medical equipment (things that can be used over and over again for medical purposes, such as crutches, walkers, wheelchairs, etc.) but does not include drugs or supplemental oxygen.

HM Model Spreads to Surgical Specialists

I have a friend who told me there is a neurologist in the hospital where he works who I understand is calling himself a hospitalist. What gives? I thought hospitalists were all internists or family physicians.

Bill Mulley, MD

Flagstaff, Ariz.

Dr. Hospitalist responds: The vast majority of hospitalists in the U.S. are general internists. There are smaller numbers of family physicians, pediatricians, and medical subspecialists who also work as hospitalists. Although this is the face of HM in America, we are seeing other fields of medicine adopting this model of care.

I know of surgical hospitalists, OB-GYN hospitalists, and yes, even neurohospitalists (see “Generation Next,” October 2010, p. 1). It is hard for some people to get their heads around the notion of a surgeon as a hospitalist because when one thinks of a surgeon, you are thinking of a physician who works in the operating room. But the traditional surgeon also has a clinic where they provide pre- and post-operative care.

Herein lies the difference between traditional surgeons and surgical hospitalists: The surgical hospitalist is, for the most part, only doing work in the hospital—sound familiar? (Think traditional internist vs. internist working as hospitalist.) The traditional general surgeon performs scheduled elective surgeries and typically only does emergency surgeries when they are on call for the hospital. As I understand it, the life of a surgical hospitalist is spending a shift in the hospital waiting for a patient to show up needing emergency surgery.

The hospital CEO today has increasing challenges convincing physicians to take hospital call. Some find themselves paying sizable sums of money for surgeons to take call from home. Some have decided their money is better spent paying for surgical hospitalists to spend nights in the hospital waiting for their pager to go off.

From a patient’s perspective, this seems to be a no-brainer. Having a surgeon in the hospital increases their chances of more timely care. You have to believe the providers in the ED and the medical hospitalist also love having a surgeon in-house, available to provide consults when requested.

I am a bit surprised that we don’t already have a large number of surgical hospitalists in the country. Then again, I have no idea of how many surgeons are working as surgical hospitalists. I am not sure anybody knows that answer.

There is a belief that we are going to see the continued growth of “specialty hospitalists” in the U.S. I believe we are going to see neurohospitalists managing inpatients with stroke and other neurosurgical issues, working side by side with medical hospitalists. I share in the excitement that was pervasive in the early days of the hospitalist movement, even though I’m not sure what we are going to see next.

I never imagined that we would have more than 30,000 hospitalists, as we do today. But while the HM model can help improve care, I will always feel strongly that no system will improve care without the dedication of motivated and compassionate healthcare providers driving the system. TH

I’ve been told by home health agencies that I have to fill out some additional paperwork to get my patients outpatient services. Can you explain to me what these new rules are all about?

Alicia Farrouk, MD

Evansville, Ind.

Dr. Hospitalist responds: In June 2010, the Affordable Care Act changed the rules regarding physician orders for durable medical equipment and for certifying or recertifying the need for home health services. Last November, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published the final rules in the Federal Register.

The new law went into effect Jan. 1, and I suspect that is why you have been asked to adjust the way you fill out your paperwork. The upshot of the change in the law is that providers can no longer use the discharge plan or transfer form as evidence of “certification” of need for home health services. The ordering provider, as a condition for payment for services, must document an in-person encounter within the 90 days prior or 30 days after the initiation of home health services. The documentation must detail the clinical findings supporting the need for home health services.

If you are a hospitalist and discharging the patient from the hospital but will not be following the patient as an outpatient, you must document the name of the primary-care physician (PCP) who will follow the patient’s need for home health services and initiate the order and plan of care. The PCP will then sign the home health certification and document that they reviewed your note and plan for home health services and agree with the plan.

If you are a hospitalist working in a teaching hospital, the resident can fill out the form, but it must list your name (as attending physician) and your NPI number. This new rule applies only to home health services and durable medical equipment (things that can be used over and over again for medical purposes, such as crutches, walkers, wheelchairs, etc.) but does not include drugs or supplemental oxygen.

HM Model Spreads to Surgical Specialists

I have a friend who told me there is a neurologist in the hospital where he works who I understand is calling himself a hospitalist. What gives? I thought hospitalists were all internists or family physicians.

Bill Mulley, MD

Flagstaff, Ariz.

Dr. Hospitalist responds: The vast majority of hospitalists in the U.S. are general internists. There are smaller numbers of family physicians, pediatricians, and medical subspecialists who also work as hospitalists. Although this is the face of HM in America, we are seeing other fields of medicine adopting this model of care.

I know of surgical hospitalists, OB-GYN hospitalists, and yes, even neurohospitalists (see “Generation Next,” October 2010, p. 1). It is hard for some people to get their heads around the notion of a surgeon as a hospitalist because when one thinks of a surgeon, you are thinking of a physician who works in the operating room. But the traditional surgeon also has a clinic where they provide pre- and post-operative care.

Herein lies the difference between traditional surgeons and surgical hospitalists: The surgical hospitalist is, for the most part, only doing work in the hospital—sound familiar? (Think traditional internist vs. internist working as hospitalist.) The traditional general surgeon performs scheduled elective surgeries and typically only does emergency surgeries when they are on call for the hospital. As I understand it, the life of a surgical hospitalist is spending a shift in the hospital waiting for a patient to show up needing emergency surgery.

The hospital CEO today has increasing challenges convincing physicians to take hospital call. Some find themselves paying sizable sums of money for surgeons to take call from home. Some have decided their money is better spent paying for surgical hospitalists to spend nights in the hospital waiting for their pager to go off.

From a patient’s perspective, this seems to be a no-brainer. Having a surgeon in the hospital increases their chances of more timely care. You have to believe the providers in the ED and the medical hospitalist also love having a surgeon in-house, available to provide consults when requested.

I am a bit surprised that we don’t already have a large number of surgical hospitalists in the country. Then again, I have no idea of how many surgeons are working as surgical hospitalists. I am not sure anybody knows that answer.

There is a belief that we are going to see the continued growth of “specialty hospitalists” in the U.S. I believe we are going to see neurohospitalists managing inpatients with stroke and other neurosurgical issues, working side by side with medical hospitalists. I share in the excitement that was pervasive in the early days of the hospitalist movement, even though I’m not sure what we are going to see next.

I never imagined that we would have more than 30,000 hospitalists, as we do today. But while the HM model can help improve care, I will always feel strongly that no system will improve care without the dedication of motivated and compassionate healthcare providers driving the system. TH

I’ve been told by home health agencies that I have to fill out some additional paperwork to get my patients outpatient services. Can you explain to me what these new rules are all about?

Alicia Farrouk, MD

Evansville, Ind.

Dr. Hospitalist responds: In June 2010, the Affordable Care Act changed the rules regarding physician orders for durable medical equipment and for certifying or recertifying the need for home health services. Last November, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published the final rules in the Federal Register.

The new law went into effect Jan. 1, and I suspect that is why you have been asked to adjust the way you fill out your paperwork. The upshot of the change in the law is that providers can no longer use the discharge plan or transfer form as evidence of “certification” of need for home health services. The ordering provider, as a condition for payment for services, must document an in-person encounter within the 90 days prior or 30 days after the initiation of home health services. The documentation must detail the clinical findings supporting the need for home health services.

If you are a hospitalist and discharging the patient from the hospital but will not be following the patient as an outpatient, you must document the name of the primary-care physician (PCP) who will follow the patient’s need for home health services and initiate the order and plan of care. The PCP will then sign the home health certification and document that they reviewed your note and plan for home health services and agree with the plan.

If you are a hospitalist working in a teaching hospital, the resident can fill out the form, but it must list your name (as attending physician) and your NPI number. This new rule applies only to home health services and durable medical equipment (things that can be used over and over again for medical purposes, such as crutches, walkers, wheelchairs, etc.) but does not include drugs or supplemental oxygen.

HM Model Spreads to Surgical Specialists

I have a friend who told me there is a neurologist in the hospital where he works who I understand is calling himself a hospitalist. What gives? I thought hospitalists were all internists or family physicians.

Bill Mulley, MD

Flagstaff, Ariz.

Dr. Hospitalist responds: The vast majority of hospitalists in the U.S. are general internists. There are smaller numbers of family physicians, pediatricians, and medical subspecialists who also work as hospitalists. Although this is the face of HM in America, we are seeing other fields of medicine adopting this model of care.

I know of surgical hospitalists, OB-GYN hospitalists, and yes, even neurohospitalists (see “Generation Next,” October 2010, p. 1). It is hard for some people to get their heads around the notion of a surgeon as a hospitalist because when one thinks of a surgeon, you are thinking of a physician who works in the operating room. But the traditional surgeon also has a clinic where they provide pre- and post-operative care.

Herein lies the difference between traditional surgeons and surgical hospitalists: The surgical hospitalist is, for the most part, only doing work in the hospital—sound familiar? (Think traditional internist vs. internist working as hospitalist.) The traditional general surgeon performs scheduled elective surgeries and typically only does emergency surgeries when they are on call for the hospital. As I understand it, the life of a surgical hospitalist is spending a shift in the hospital waiting for a patient to show up needing emergency surgery.

The hospital CEO today has increasing challenges convincing physicians to take hospital call. Some find themselves paying sizable sums of money for surgeons to take call from home. Some have decided their money is better spent paying for surgical hospitalists to spend nights in the hospital waiting for their pager to go off.

From a patient’s perspective, this seems to be a no-brainer. Having a surgeon in the hospital increases their chances of more timely care. You have to believe the providers in the ED and the medical hospitalist also love having a surgeon in-house, available to provide consults when requested.

I am a bit surprised that we don’t already have a large number of surgical hospitalists in the country. Then again, I have no idea of how many surgeons are working as surgical hospitalists. I am not sure anybody knows that answer.

There is a belief that we are going to see the continued growth of “specialty hospitalists” in the U.S. I believe we are going to see neurohospitalists managing inpatients with stroke and other neurosurgical issues, working side by side with medical hospitalists. I share in the excitement that was pervasive in the early days of the hospitalist movement, even though I’m not sure what we are going to see next.

I never imagined that we would have more than 30,000 hospitalists, as we do today. But while the HM model can help improve care, I will always feel strongly that no system will improve care without the dedication of motivated and compassionate healthcare providers driving the system. TH