Physician Integration: Refocusing the Lens

Today, with physician and hospital reimbursement being cut and tied to quality incentives, physicians and health plans are revisiting the concept of integration. Payers are demanding that the industry do more with less without sacrificing quality of care. As a result, physicians again find themselves integrating and aligning with hospitals that have the resources they lack or must develop together.

Written by an acknowledged expert in the field of physician integration and managed care contracting, Physician Integration & Alignment: IPA, PHO, ACOs, and Beyond examines physician integration and alignment in the current healthcare market. It outlines the common characteristics of integrated groups and various organizational structures, and also explains how you can avoid making the same mistakes of the past. Filled with suggestions and ideas from successfully integrated practices, the book:

• Identifies industry drivers for the resurgence of integrated models and the need for aligned models
• Provides a look at the common characteristics of integrated and aligned groups and how the components can work together
• Discusses antitrust and other regulatory concerns present when considering the right organizational and management structure
• Offers time- and money-saving checklists, lessons learned, models, and templates—saving you thousands of dollars in consulting fees

Maria K. Todd provides readers with the vision and practical tools needed to organize their business entities in a manner that will maximize economic clout and provide quality of care for both the hospital and physician group. This much-needed resource includes helpful insights on topics such as declining physician reimbursement, declining margins, physician shortages, physician-hospital competition, rising practice investment requirements, the return to capitation as a payment mechanism, and recent changes in the relationships between physicians and health systems.

Maria currently is the principle of the largest globally integrated health delivery system in the world with over 6,000 hospitals and 85,000 physicians spanning 95 countries. She has developed more than 200 integrated and aligned IPAs, PHOs, ACOs, MSOs and healthcare clusters in her career.

Maria K. Todd has been involved in the healthcare industry for most of her working life. She has maintained an independent consulting practice since 1986 and has offered guidance to thousands of clients worldwide in the domains of managed care, healthcare revenue cycle, hospital and medical group administration, physician employment contracting, organizational development, medical tourism, healthcare benefits management, and value-based purchasing.

With her multifocal background and education as a healthcare business administrator, health law paralegal, surgical nurse, HMO provider relations coordinator and certified mediator, and a licensed insurance producer, she has expertise in niche areas such as full-risk capitation, managed-care contracting, and negotiating on behalf of payers, providers, and employers. She brings a wealth of specialized knowledge to the development, implementation, and operation of IPAs, PHOs, MSOs, and other integrated health delivery systems. She draws upon this extensive experience to bring value to physician groups, boards of directors, and ministries of health in more than thirty countries as a teacher, author, speaker, and consultant.

In 2009, she filed for and, after four denials and appeals, successfully prevailed in registering a trademark for a new term of art in the industry for the Globally Integrated Health Delivery SystemR. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office accepted her application in August 2010, granting trademark registration to define the term to describe a game-changing organizational structure and function that converges integrated health delivery, key principles of managed care, patient access, care continuity, electronic health information technology for global electronic exchange of health information to improve quality of healthcare, and health travel/medical tourism. The model is now in operation as Mercury Healthcare International, and is positioned to accommodate the healthcare needs of a flatter, more mobile, global society. Todd’s previous consulting projects have resulted in the launch and implementation of more than 150 successful IPAs, PHOs, and MSOs in medical, surgical, behavioral health, complementary and alternative medicine, and ancillary service providers. She has provided expert testimony and supported forensic economists in litigation on failed IPAs, PHOs, and MSOs projects; provided support to private equity investors and market analysts; collaborated with other business consultants and attorneys to help develop private placement memoranda for IPAs, PHOs, and MSOs; provided expert testimony for antitrust litigation brought by "locked-out" IPA and PHO providers; and mediated disputes between payers and provider organizations, and between hospitals and physicians developing PHOs. A frequent speaker in the United States and abroad, and a former member of the McGraw-Hill Healthcare Education Group’s seminar leaders, Todd speaks before numerous state, national, and local organizations; government agencies; hospitals; and provider groups. She is available for in-house training sessions on a variety of topics related to managed healthcare, capitation, provider and network contracting, and integrated delivery system development and management. You may reach her at her office in Denver, Colorado, at (800) 727-4160, or via email at maria@mariatodd.com.