Health Care Innovation Forum: Cartoon Videos As Vehicles for Transmitting Information on Innovation

A visual culture is taking over the world.

John Naisbitt of Megatrends fame in Mindset! (Harper Collins, 2006)

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. In the digital world, a 2 -3 minute video is worth a thousand word blog post.

If you doubt me, I invite you to go to You Tube and view:

· “Doctors, Dollars and Health Reform” by Merritt Hawkins, An AMN Company, the nation’s largest physician recruiting and medical staffing company

· “CheckMedic,” a physician credentialing  tool, an online product of Verisys, a 20 year old Richmond, Virginia company.

Doctors, Dollars and Health Reform

In a 2 minute video, “Doctors, Dollars and Health Reform describes the impact of health reform on physicians.

According to data gathered during Merritt Hawkins’physician recruiting incentives review, reform is:

1) Changing the rules of physician compensation. No longer are physicians paid strictly for FFS billings, but on the basis of a combination of FFS and “quality” performance.

2) Hospital employment is the name of the recruiting game and solo practice is dead. By 2015, Merritt Hawkins predicts 75% of newly recruited physicians will be paid by salaries plus quuality performance based on data.

3) It's not just primary care being paid in this manner, but other specialists as well, including psychiatrists, surgeons, and high end specialists and subspecialists.

CheckMedic,MedPass as Aids for Physician Credentialing

This cartoon video is directed toward hospitals and physicians. Hospitals seek ways to reduce costs, reduce revenues, and manage risks. But this is tough, as older physicians are retiring faster, leaving holes in medical staff, and it takes up to 3 months to credential newly recruited physicians. Faster older physician goings and slow credenitaly of new physicians  lessens hospital revenues,. Furthermore, costs of maintaining hospital credentialing department are significant and processing new doctors’ credentials may take three months. Non -credentialed physicians cannot bill, and hospitals lose revenue while waiting for credentials to be confirmed.

In the case of physicians, they too have hassles collecting and completing credentialing paperwork. And they are concerned because, with the new health law, CMS is monitoring their credentials monthly. With MedPass, physicians can be assured their credentials are being updated continuously, and they can go to MedPass at any time to confirm their credentials. Verisys, the company that developed CheckMedic and MedPass has the nation’s largest aggregation of physician data verifies and authenticates physicians credentials in weeks rather than months with complete transparency for the hospital and the physician.

Tweet:You Tube cartoon videos effectively & efficiently transmit information on physician payment trends and speeding the credentialing process.