Comments on: News 12/28/07

By: Art_Vandelay

Art_Vandelay — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 13:03:52 +0000

I also was a long-time member. In my mind, they target small to mid-sized practices. Although there is value for leaders of large IPAs, PHOs or similar organizations. The conferences are great and offer excellent networking opportunities. They conduct excellent primary research via surveys. Their journal is very relevant for practices with relevant information for all aspects of practice management (for ex: Human Resources, Operations Management, General Policies, Billing and Collections, Information Systems). I believe they also author a “practice management body of knowledge” and offer certifications like HIMSS now does.

By: ITNurse

ITNurse — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 17:23:34 +0000

Re MGMA: I was a long time member when I was working in the HealthPlan and physician office management area. Conferences were far more educational than HIMSS has become and always relevant to current practice in medical groups. Their research library was one of the best for practice management and group model HMOs when I was a member. They had a lot of member involvement through committees and Special Interst groups.

By: Spinster

Spinster — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:02:27 +0000

MGMA is an important organization for those who are selling to/marketing to decision makers in ambulatory care practices of all sizes, but particularly larger practices. If your target is hospitals, I wouldn’t consider them a player.

It’s also a great professional organization for those who work in group practices. Their educational, professional development, and networking programs are excellent.

By: EMR Software Guy

EMR Software Guy — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:37:54 +0000

In my experience and opinion, MGMA is an influential organization that cannot be overlooked, especially if you have a product or service directed at medium to large-sized practices. (Some of their membership falls in the very small physician practice space.)

In many cases, the MGMA member is a primary decision maker in the group practice. Common member profile (my own experience, so please feel free to double check): A 10-doc physician practice with a few nurses, a few medical assistants and a group manager (essentially the C.O.O. of the practice). The group manager has a lot of power in the practice, although s/he does not always make the final decision.

MGMA also produces excellent research on various elements of physician practice (average reimbursement by specialty, average profit per physician per year, average salaries by state, etc.) that are very helpful to the collective membership.

Don’t let the “small” membership number fool you. As I recall, each membership entitles up to three people to enjoy access to member benefits, so there’s little reason for a group practice to purchase multiple memberships. Even if that were not the case, there are only so many group practices in the country.

For the record, I’m a big fan of the MGMA conference. Solid attendance by members who have some say in a final purchase decision (if not a major say in all decisions), and lots of Wall Street attendance, too.

Fellow HISTALKers: Please feel free to add comments if you think I overlooked or mischaracterized anything above. I never pretend to know everything , but I think this was a fair overview??

EMR Software Guy,
http://www.electronic-medical-record.blogspot.com

By: Tim Gee

Tim Gee — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 06:32:34 +0000

Regarding St Joe’s and Medicare fraud – you’d be surprised at the nurses that could collect whistle blower awards for overcharging observation patients.

Re: FDA approval challenges using Linux. There are numerous medical devices running Linux with FDA premarket approval. Getting approval for a device using open source software is just a bit different, but not necessarily harder than “black box” software from a vendor like Microsoft.