MGMA Reports Results of Annual Survey of Members
The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) has reported results of their annual survey on members’ healthcare management challenges, called MGMA 2010 "Medical Practice Today: What Members Have to Say".
The top 3 concerns facing MGMA members include:
- Dealing with rising operating costs
- Managing finances with the uncertainty of Medicare reimbursement rates
- Selecting and implementing a new electronic health record system
Other issues made the list, but it is hardly surprising that these three challenges made the top of the list. Rising operating costs is a huge motivator to improve billing collections, and that actually makes the top of the list of “how the recession is affecting their medical groups and how they are responding.” Medicare reimbursement rates have faced a vote in Congress every month of this year to stave off the SGR but for only a month at a time until last week’s bill that allowed for a 6-month revprieve in addition to a 2.2% increase. And, the motivation is huge this year to select an EHR system. Implementation before September 2010 for a hospital and January 2011 for a practice can result in maximum HITECH Act incentive dollars. Delay of EHR implementation for as late as 2015 will result in Medicare payout reduction.
For further details on this survey, members can follow this link to MGMA’s press release that includes a link to the actual survey results.