Minimum Payment Act of 2011 - Rhode Island attempts to guarantee payment

Last month, legislators in Rhode Island introduced bills in the House and Senate that set a minimum reimbursement rate for commercial payers. 

The bills are in response to a study that shows most Rhode Island physicians are paid substantially less by commercial insurers than their counterparts in Connecticut and Massachusetts.  This is particularly problematic for medical specialists.

Payment inequities have made it difficult to recruit and retain physicians in the "Ocean State."  As older physicians retire, there are few physicians to take their place. Medical speciality providers are already in short supply in the state and according to the bill's authors, without a network of qualified physicians, citizens could soon face long waits for appointments or be required to travel out of state to see a specialist. 

If the bill becomes law, physicians who participate in medical assistance and devote at least 5% of their practice to free care could receive insurance payments at 125% of the Medicare rates.   Increased payments are viewed as a way to attract practitioners to the State and to increase access to high quality medical care.

The Rhode Island Medical Society opposes the bill, saying it doesn't like the idea of setting rates by law.  A similar measure failed last year.

ONC Names Mostashari National Coordinator for HIT

Last week, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services named Farzad Mostashari, MD, as the new National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, effective immediately. He replaces Dr. David Blumenthal, who is returning to Harvard University after leading Office for the past two years, the Department of Health and Human Services announced.

Trained at the Harvard School of Public Health and Yale Medical School, internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, Mostashari completed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Epidemic Intelligence Service.  Motashari joined the Office of the National Coordinator in July 2009, serving as deputy national coordinator for the office.  Before that he worked as an assistant commissioner for the Primary Care Information project at the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene.  In that role, he helped adopt prevention-oriented HIT used by more than 1,500 providers in under served communities.

Motashari was among the first developers of real-time electronic disease surveillance systems and acted as lead investigator in the outbreaks of West Nile Virus and anthrax in New York City.  He is expected to continue Blumenthal's push for providers to adopt electronic health records in order to optimize care quality and enhance communication between multiple medical professionals.