More than 5,000 attendees gathered in Nashville, Tenn. recently for the Medical Group Management Association’s annual conference to network and gain insight into evolving practice issues, a plethora of regulatory and compliance mandates, and best practices to boost performance.
“What’s really exciting about this conference is we hit the highest level of attendance of any MGMA conference ever,” said Halee Fischer-Wright, MD, MMM, FAAP, CMPE, who became president and chief executive officer of MGMA in March of this year. “We had a 29 percent increase in attendance from last year. Just from a technical standpoint, we’ve done a lot of things with the conference because we recognize healthcare has changed, and because of that we had to change.”
She added the Nashville meeting included revamped educational offerings in a variety of learning formats. Attendees had the opportunity to mix up their conference schedule by choosing from 30- and 60-minute sessions, 105-minute ‘deep dive’ sessions and 150-minute certificate or learning lab sessions. In addition, multiple educational offerings featured an interactive platform to foster the sharing of ideas, best practices and solutions. Other workshops were tagged as ‘experiential’ with hands-on collaboration among attendees.
There was no shortage of hot topics this year. “I would say integrated care is really at the forefront for everyone,” Fischer-Wright noted. “Integrated care is on everyone’s mind … really trying to make that transition from volume-based care to value-based care.”
She continued, “In addition, one of our tracks had to do with the physician-administrative partnership. I think MGMA is the champion of that relationship. And then we have the usual regulatory issues that are such a burden for our practices.” Fischer-Wright said those concerns have been heightened as practices try to navigate myriad regulatory demands at a time when the business of medicine has become increasingly more complex.
Not surprisingly, ICD-10, which went into effect on Oct. 1, was a big topic of interest. Fischer-Wright said by the end of 2015/beginning of 2016, MGMA should have a clearer picture about the economic impact on practices and what the next steps would be to make sure practices and members remain successful. She said other hot button issues included Meaningful Use expectations, fair compensation and insurance contracting, and the continued consolidation of practices.
“I would say the demise of small practices has been greatly exaggerated,” Fischer-Wright stated. “However, we are seeing the consolidation of practices. What I mean by that is I do think the economies of having a one- or two-doc practice make it very disadvantageous to practice in that environment anymore.”
That said, the majority of practices still remain independent. Fischer-Wright said multiple sources point to about 40 percent of the practices in the United States being owned by a hospital or health system, which is a figure that has held relatively stable for the past several years. “What you hear is hospitals are buying practices like crazy, and I agree to that. What you don’t hear about is hospitals divesting practices after two to three years when their financial expectations are not fulfilled.”
Whether independent or part of a larger system, all practices have to look at new ways to operate in order to thrive in the new healthcare landscape. To that end, MGMA partnered with the American Medical Association and issued a joint Practice Innovation Challenge this summer. The top five proposals exemplifying transformational practice solutions were announced during the MGMA meeting. In addition to a $10,000 prize, the winners will have the opportunity to develop an educational module with the AMA and MGMA to be shared with practices across the country through the AMA’s STEPS Forward™ platform.
Similarly, Fischer-Wright said MGMA has to be innovative in its approaches and has recently taken stock of the ways the organization provides value to the membership. “Being an almost 90-year-old organization, I think that the trap is to do the same thing over and over again. Instead, what we’re seeing are people stepping up … younger leaders who are really leading the charge for innovation within medical group practice.”
In some ways, she continued, the recent national meeting was a coming out party for the ‘new’ MGMA. While still providing great internal value to their membership, Fischer-Wright said the organization was moving toward a broader platform within the larger industry to become a key player in the ongoing healthcare conversation.
“We’ve been a quiet organization. I mean we’ve done great work – our surveys, our comp data are second to none … and our advocacy efforts, and that’s really what the industry knows us for,” she said. “What we’re going to be,” she continued, “is a leader in the field of medical group practice. We want to be the unifying voice and the ‘go to’ place.”
Fischer-Wright added, “I think you’re going to be hearing a lot more about us as an organization and a lot more about what we’re doing to lead what medical group practice needs to be successful in the future.”
For more information about meeting highlights, go online to mgma.com or search Twitter for #mgma15. And mark your calendar for next year’s event in San Francisco, Oct. 30-Nov. 2, 2016.
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