How have Physicians of Cape Cods Web-based referral and point system initiatives panned out so far?
A. Technology is supposed to make things easier, but in healthcare, that hasn’t always been the case. Physicians deal with a lot of payers, and each of them have a different Web site that the staff has to log into and out of. We created an online one-stop shop in which we’ve already loaded eligibility and referrals. That doesn’t just help with outside communication, it helps on the inside as well. There are a lot more discussions about an individual’s quality of care than patients know about, and our system makes it easier for medical directors, PCPs and specialists to communicate about a patient online through notes. Our physicians have received 100% of their withhold return every year without fail. Since instituting the performance guideline point system five years ago, the organization has returned a total of $10.8 million in bonus money to the physicians since 2001. More than two thirds of that amount—about $7.2 million—was returned in the past two years alone, and the trend is exp
