Dr. Saurin Patel began his studies at the Kelley School of Business Physician MBA Program as a pulmonary disease specialist. He’s graduating the program an entrepreneur.
It all began with an idea.
Since joining the Kelley Physician MBA Program, Dr. Patel, MBA’17, openly talks about the changes in healthcare: From how physicians and hospitals are reimbursed, to the increasing business roles physicians need to fulfill to improve patient quality while reducing costs. Change moves quickly in the highly regulated healthcare industry.
“Healthcare is moving towards reimbursing physicians, as well as hospitals, based on the value of care they provide,” said Dr. Patel, former chief medical officer at North Memorial Health Care in Minnesota.
“To curb rising medical costs, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) introduced Chronic Care Management (CCM) in 2015. The idea is CMS will begin rewarding physicians to do CCM, as it comprises about 91% of CMS’ budget,” Dr. Patel added.
This change incentivizes healthcare providers to begin providing quality CCM services.
The American College of Physicians defines CCM as the non-face-to-face services provided to Medicare beneficiaries who have multiple chronic conditions. CCM clinicians are expected to establish an electronic care plan that addresses the medical needs of a patient, while being accessible 24 hours a day to patents and any care provider they may see.
To put it lightly, CCM can be tiresome work for a physician; however, its ultimate purpose is to better manage a patient’s chronic condition while cutting costs.
That’s when the idea came to Dr. Patel.