Hi there! My name is Manu Vegunta, and I am excited to begin my adventure blogging about my senior research project. Seniors at BASIS Scottsdale spend their last trimester interning a researching a world issue, concluding their journeys with a final presentation in May.
My project will be about the shift of the medical industry from reimbursing hospitals from value based medical care to volume based medical care. This means that doctors are being incentivized to spend more time with individual patients. The nuances of this process lead me to the question: how does the shifting medical finance industry impact the allocation and appropriations of funds in this industry? To answer this question, I will interning with the CFO of Banner Medical Group, Mr. Chad Cornell. We will analyze the impact of the changing medical industry upon doctors. I will explore the specific changes made by the hospital’s management system in order to create profits, assuming I am granted access to this information. The changes that I know of are incentives for longer but fewer hospital visits, so that patients have more speedy recoveries and spend less time being ill. I will also find out how effective these changes are to see if hospital visits are decreasing specifically at Banner hospitals.
Before further discussing my blog, I will talk about my interests. I come from a family of doctors. My mom is a doctor. My dad is a doctor. My sister is a doctor. Everyone in my life assumed I would want to be a doctor; until recently, I did as well. I spent the summers after both my sophomore and junior years partaking in research internships with a radiation oncologist at Banner Desert. I had a lot of fun, but recently, I discovered my interest for finance while shadowing at the Hedge Fund, Northern Trust. I thought that a research project in the field of medical finance would provide a happy marriage between finance and medicine. I have no idea which field I would like to pursue for my career. I am determined to build upon my experiences at both of these internships. I can’t wait to begin my research project and explore the vast world of finance.
Every week I will be blogging here about my adventures at Banner Medical Groups corporate office in Mesa with Chad Cornell. If you are interested in some other projects about similar subjects, check out my groupmates’ blogs on this page.
This sounds like a great project. What are some of the things about the interactions between doctors and patients that you measure to tell if care is efficient and effective?
ReplyDeleteThanks Brian!! I will be accounting the for the length and frequency visits of visits. Hopefully, if physicians spend more time with patients, they will not need to visit as often.
DeleteYour project looks pretty important. Do you plan on staying with medical industry in your future as a prospective major in finance?
ReplyDeleteAlso, could yu please change the font of the comments? I have a really hard time reading them
ReplyDeleteYour project sounds very interesting, and takes a unique approach, exploring a topic that is extremely important but not very obvious. I never realized the many nuances behind medical financing. I hope to be further enlightened on this issue as I continue reading your blog!
ReplyDeleteI have a few comments:
ReplyDeleteThe change in reimbursement for hospitals and providers (physician and non-physician) is from volume based measures to value based measures. It is expected that a substantial portion of the physician compensation will be linked to value while the rest will remain volume based.
Physicians will be incentivized to provide "better quality of care". Specific metrics are currently being developed to measure "quality of care" for spcecialists while many have already been identified for primary care providers. Patient satisfaction is one such measure which can be impacted by the amount of time a physician spends with a patient.
Hospitals are being incentivized to shorten hospital length of stay for patients and they are being penalized for hospital acquired complications and patient readmissions.
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ReplyDeleteI'm curious, going into this project for the first time, do you believe that the changes that hospitals are making beneficial for doctors or patients, or do you believe that they are making sacrifices for the sake of profit?
ReplyDeleteThe greatest benefits are for the patients, for doctors will be spending higher quality time with them. Moreover, these changes will benefit the world as a whole for the medical industry will become more efficient.
DeleteHey Manu, Dalton Meadows here! I'm glad someone is researching the effect of money on the treatment of patients in hospitals, because I've lost family to astronomical costs associated with certain medical treatments. Going forward, do you expect to receive a fair and honest assessment of the financial burden placed on patients at Banner Medical Group coming from the CFO of the Group? And if so, do you have any preconceived notions regarding the existent practices of Banner Medical Group?
ReplyDeleteHi Dalton, I'm sorry for your loss. Banner, however, is a nonprofit organization, so any money they make at the end of the year is mere operation revenue put back into the system. No one pockets it.
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ReplyDeleteThe topic you chose is very interesting! It seems obvious but is not a common topic that is talked about. I am very interested specifically in learning about how longer hospital meeting periods with doctors will speed up recovery or not.
ReplyDeleteHello!
ReplyDeleteI admire the way you were able to combine two completely different interests. What do you predict the financial outcomes of switching to value based medical care? I look forward to following your research as it progresses.
The financial outcomes will simply be the government allocating more funds to hospitals for adapting to their new model of care.
DeleteHi Manu! I really like your idea of a union between medicine and finance. It's a unique idea that I haven't heard before and I'm fascinated about your approach towards the subject. I wish you the best of luck and hope you enjoy your research!
ReplyDeleteHi Manu! I really enjoyed reading about your research and how you are combining two interests of yours. Medical finance is a really unique combination. So how did working with a radiation oncologist help you realize you wanted to go into medical finance?
ReplyDeleteWorking with a radiation oncologist didn't really help me with this transition. It more just exposed me to the medical field.
DeleteHi Manu! Your research project seemed really interesting to me in that you wanted to combine two unrelated careers that impacted you into one solid research assignment. I hope you get to learn and understand the connection between medicine and finance, and succeed in finding something you never would have guessed.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck!
Thank You!!
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