Doctors don’t know what hospitals are afraid to tell
By Ariana Berberich
In a recent survey, many hospitalist physicians were unable to accurately predict the cost of treating a hypothetical patient. According to the related article in Health Leaders Media, while many of the hospitalist physicians could identify the relative costs of treatments, they were unaware of the exact price tag of the treatment choices they were making.
This lack of price awareness, coupled with a culture of defensive medicine practice, encourage physicians to order excessive testing on patients. These patients, however, aren’t typically in a frame of mind to advocate for only the most economical (read: cost-for-value-added) treatment choices. However, they stand to foot the potentially inflated bill. Admittedly, the complicated hospital pricing structure, dependent on the specific payer, makes it difficult to ever accurately estimate what a final bill will be. Yet, that still isn’t a compelling enough reason to avoid educating physicians about the financial impact of their practice and utilization decisions.
HMC offers hospitals the tools to successfully educate and encourage their physicians to practice financially-responsible and evidence-based medicine. Some of the best practices around this include:
*Establishing a physician champion or medical advisory panel to lead discussions about scientific and best practice models
*Performing internal comparisons to understand the quality and cost impacts of procedure choices within ancillary and nursing costs
*Encouraging professional development conversations with all physicians about specific practice choices, including demand matching
* Reviewing the profitability of physicians, case types, and service lines
*Identifying quality issues requiring improvement
When physicians understand the costs of their practice choices, they can provide the best value of care.
Ariana Berberich is an HMC analyst.
