Becker's Spine Review

22 Lifestyles Geisinger Medical Center Joins Employers Centers of Excellence for Spine Care — 6 key notes By Laura Dyrda G eisinger Medical Center was named one of three hospital providers for spine sur- gery in the Employers Centers of Excel- lence Network from e Pacific Business Group on Health. e Pacific Business Group is a non-profit busi- ness coalition of 60 large healthcare purchaser members focused on healthcare quality and af- fordability, with participating employers includ- ing Lowe's, Walmart and JetBlue. Other health- care provider members include Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Mo., and Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle. Here are six things to know about the program: 1. ECEN selects hospitals and surgeons based on quality and outcomes data at the surgeon-level, and assessments include more than 30 public data metrics. e centers must demonstrate excep- tional clinical outcomes, patient experience and shared decision-making. 2. e spine care specialists at member hospitals include spine surgeons, physiatrist, behavioral health providers and internal medicine physi- cians. Other specialists are also available to meet individual needs and make care recommendations that may or may not include surgery. 3. e member hospitals provide bundled rates, lumping all costs into a single sum. is offers predictability and price transparency. Employers pay for travel costs for employees and waive their standard patient contributions, such as deductible and copays. 4. Geisinger is recognized for its improved patient outcomes at reduced cost through bundled care models. 5. e PBGH spine initiative launched on April 1 and Geisinger physicians have already seen several patients since the launch. 6. Co-directors of the ProvenCare Lumbar Spine Program are Jonathan Slotkin, MD, director of spinal surgery, Geisinger Neurosciences Institute; Michael Haak, MD, an orthopedic spine surgeon; and Sam Wu, MD, a physical medicine and reha- bilitation physician. n CMS Unable to Verify $2.8B in Payments to Insurers By Emily Rappleye C MS put $2.8 billion at risk between January and April 2014 by not ef- fectively tracking subsidies paid to insurers under the Patient Protec- tion and Affordable Care Act, according to a report from the HHS Of- fice of Inspector General. e OIG report revealed CMS used an interim process during the first four months of the PPACA that relied on payers to attest that deductible subsidies were accurate, did not ensure confirmed enrollees received payments for the correct amounts and le state-based marketplaces with no way to submit en- rollee eligibility data. CMS "does not plan to perform a timely reconciliation of these payments," ac- cording to the report. CMS issued a statement in February that it will delay the reconciliation of deductible subsidy payments until 2016. CMS officials said a permanent process to track and verify PPACA subsidies is still not in place, however it expects to implement an authorization process on an enrollee-by-enrollee basis later this year, according to the report. n 5 Statistics on Orthopedic Surgeon Net Worth By Laura Dyrda Medscape's "Physician Debt and Net Worth Report 2015" includes statistics about physician net worth by specialty. Here are five statistics on orthopedic surgeon net worth (all percent- ages are approximations): 1. Under $500,000: 21 percent 2. $500,000 to $999,999: 16 percent 3. $1 million to $1.9 million: 26 percent 4. $2 million to $5 million: 27 percent 5. Over $5 million: 10 percent n SAVE THE DATE October 22 - 24, 2015 • Swissôtel - Chicago, Illinois learn more & register at https://www.regonline.com/22ndAnnualASC Becker's ASC 22nd Annual Meeting The Business and Operations of ASCs

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