for Marty

[Guest guest]

Thanks for finding this and sending it

along, Marty!  I was wondering if it would find its way to print – I saw 3

reporters there (actually, I only saw 2 of em, Gordon spotted the third).  I’m

sitting in the airport to go home, and will have to read it later.

A. Eads, M.D.

Pinnacle Family Medicine, PLLC

phone fax

P.O.

Box 7275

Woodland

Park, CO 80863

www.PinnacleFamilyMedicine.com

From:

[mailto: ]

On Behalf Of Marty Schulman

Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007

10:22 AM

To:

Subject:

Fwd: AAFP Update: Is pay for performance an opportunity to rebuild medical care?

First article is about

Eads' (yeah!!!) talk re: P4P. Second article is

about consumer-driven healthcare.

Marty

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Advanstar

Healthcare <primary_care_masterlistmgr (DOT) advanstar.com

>

Date: Oct 4, 2007 9:15 PM

Subject: AAFP Update: Is pay for performance an

opportunity to rebuild medical care?

To: MARTIN C SCHULMAN MD <MSCHULMANucsd (DOT) edu>

Welcome

to

Conference Update,

highlights from the

American Academy of Family Physicians

Scientific Assembly

in Chicago, Illinois,

Oct. 3-6.

Editor's Note:

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Patient Care and Geriatrics, or

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Medical Economics

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American Academy of Family Physicians

Friday, October 5, 2007

Pay for performance

is well on its way Oct. 5 — Chicago — The move to pay for performance is an

opportunity to rebuild medical care in the United States, according to

Eads, MD, of Pinnacle Family Medicine near Colorado Springs,

Colorado. However, many payers are paying for performance that may have

little to do with patient outcomes.

" Pay

for performance is often driven by treatment guidelines, " Dr Eads told

attendees at the American Academy of Family Physicians 2007 Scientific

Assembly on Thursday. " Since we take care of the entire body, not just

an organ system, we often see guidelines and performance targets that are in

conflict. Pay for performance can encourage physicians to avoid clinically

difficult patients and noncompliant patients. "

Consumer-driven

healthcare a reason to redesign practice Oct.

5 — Chicago — " Consumer-driven

healthcare, to the extent that it happens, is one more reason to redesign your

practice, " warns Bruce Bagley, MD, American Academy of Family Physicians

(AAFP) medical director for Quality Improvement, during the AAFP 2007

Scientific Assembly in Chicago on Thursday. He also noted that only

approximately 5% of the insured population nationwide has actually signed up

for one of the low premium, high deductible plans.

" There

has been a lot more talk about consumer-driven healthcare than there have

been sign-ups, " he said. " It is not exactly taking the nation by

storm. "

EMR can equal profit

and quality Oct. 5 — Chicago — Why invest in an electronic medical

record (EMR) system? That depends on who you ask, said Waldren, MD,

director of American Academy of Family Physicians' (AAFP) Center of Health Information Technology. Family

physicians invest in EMRs because they expect to streamline documentation and

enhance revenue streams. Outsiders, including the federal government and

private payors, want physicians to invest in EMRs because it will produce

higher quality care and lower costs.

We need

to find some way to align those two perspectives, " said Dr Waldren at

the AAFP 2007 Scientific Assembly Thursday in Chicago. " We need to jump from high

volume care and payment to value-based payment. EMR can help. "

Migraine

treatment update guides clinicians through diagnosis Oct. 5 — Chicago — A migraine

headache, while one of the more common conditions that physicians encounter

in patients, remains one that they usually miss. One in four U.S. households in America

has an individual who has migraines, said Bazzo, MD, clinician at the University of California,

San Diego,

who is also part of a faculty headache practice. Migraines are as common as

diabetes and asthma combined, yet physicians miss the opportunity to diagnose

nearly one-half of the migraine patients they see.

" Fully

52% of patients who meet the diagnostic criteria for migraine are never

diagnosed, " he said during the American Academy

of Family Practitioners 2007 Scientific Assembly on Thursday. " It is

very important to make that diagnosis because without (it), we are just

trying things at random. "

What

looks like asthma may not be . . . asthma Oct. 5 — Chicago — Just because a

patient presents with the classic signs and symptoms of asthma is no reason

to rule out inhaled corticosteroids, albuterol and the rest of the asthma

armamentarium. The first step is to be sure that what looks like asthma

really is asthma.

" A

trial of therapy is not the way to determine asthma and it usually won't work

anyway, " cautioned Alan Kaplan, MD, chair of the Family Physicians

Airways Group of Canada.

" You need objective lung function testing to establish asthma. Throwing

drugs at what looks like asthma does not work because you don't know what is

wrong. There are too many other (conditions) it could be. "

Contraception

trends feature rings, patches and skin implants Oct. 5 — Chicago — The

contraception arena has seen some significant activity in recent years. New

products, such as vaginal rings and transdermal patches, have joined refined

and reformulated versions of oral contraceptives, intrauterine devices, and

subdermal implants, as well as familiar methods, such as diaphragms and

condoms.

" Developments

in contraception are important because unintended pregnancy continues to be

such a huge problem in this country, " said Bope, MD, director of

family medicine residency at Riverside

Methodist Hospital

in Columbus.

Copyright

2007

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