Becker's ASC Review

23 ORTHOPEDICS Why Rothman Institute Partnered with Northwell Health, and Where They Will Expand in the Future By Laura Dyrda L ast week, Philadelphia-based Rothman Institute announced a stra- tegic affiliation with New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health, which will expand their geographic footprint. "Our market base is Philadelphia and South Jersey historically, however, with the market changes we felt it was necessary to expand our geographic footprint into Central North Jersey and New York," says Rothman Insti- tute CEO Michael West. Alex Vaccaro, MD, PhD, (President) and Mr. West began conversations with Northwell CEO Michael Dowling at health con- ferences and the two found their organizational philosophies were very similar. "eir vision as far as quality service and providing value-based care are consistent with what we are trying to do," says Mr. West. e New York market is admittedly very complex, but Mr. West and Rothman are up to the challenge. "Working with a large system like Northwell where they un- derstand the market very well makes it easier for us to come in and be suc- cessful because we are working closely with them." e partners expect to develop orthopedic center of excellence locations in Manhattan, Westchester and Greenwich Village, where Northwell already has an ASC and medical office building. e group will likely add 20 to 30 surgeons and 10 to 15 nonoperative physicians to fill the new practice loca- tions. Rothman Institute already has an established precedent for strategic partnerships with health systems; the practice has an academic and teach- ing relationship with Jefferson Health System in Philadelphia, and plans to bring a similar model to its new partnership in the New York area. In addition to developing orthopedic centers of excellence, the practice looks to partner in surgery center syndications as the current inpatient orthopedic volume shis to the outpatient setting. Over the next three to five years, anywhere from 25 percent to 35 percent of the current inpatient orthopedic surgeries could be shied to outpatient setting. Rothman Institute currently has ownership interest in two surgical spe- cialty hospitals in Pennsylvania and surgeons perform both inpatient and outpatient cases. ey also have six patient ASCs and are currently devel- oping four more in the Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey markets. As value-based care takes a more prominent role in the medical field, Roth- man is trying to stay ahead through episode of care/bundled payment models with both CMS and commercial insurance carriers. Rothman cur- rently has approximately 20 EOCs in place and will continue to expand its EOC's, including outpatient cases. "We utilize patient navigation (Locus Health), quality-of-life and functional outcomes (OBERD), home physical therapy (Force erapeutics), analytics (Cross Current Business Analytics) and activity based costing (Avant-garde) technology platforms to manage the EOCs. ese are all technologies that we have helped develop and have an ownership interest in." Rothman Institute will continue to grow within the Philadelphia and South New Jersey areas through the development of additional offices and affilia- tions with several orthopedic practices in these markets. n 5 Key Points on Orthopedic Physician Assistant Raises By Laura Dyrda T he Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery's Jour- nal of Orthopaedics for Physician Assis- tants released an executive study on physi- cian assistant salary. The study included responses from 320 orthope- dic PAs to paint a picture of orthopedic PA work- load and compensation. The average salary for orthopedic PAs was $113,000, with the range ex- tending from $70,000 to $190,000 per year. Here are key statistics on pay raises for orthopedic PAs: 1. The average pay raise for orthopedic PAs in 2015 was 2.2 percent 2. Thirty-seven percent of orthopedic PAs reported they didn't get a raise in 2015. 3. The breakdown of pay raises for orthopedic PAs was: • One percent to 3 percent pay raise: 44 percent • Four percent to 5 percent pay raise: 11 percent • Six percent to 10 percent pay raise: 5 percent • Eleven percent pay raise: 4 percent The remaining PAs didn't receive a pay raise. 4. The top reasons for the pay raises were: • Merit: 24 percent • Cost of living: 29 percent • Increase in patients: 8 percent • Practice expansion: 5 percent • Promotion: 5 percent One-quarter of the PAs that received pay raises didn't know why, indicating opportunity for im- provement in assessing PA performance and rais- es. 5. Nineteen percent of PAs cited "other" as the rea- son for their pay raises, which could include nego- tiating increases, taking on supervisory roles, job changes, increased productivity or more adminis- trative duties. The raise could also have come from more autonomy, additional surgical assistance or practice productivity. n

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