Genesis Healthcare Partners Archives

Private Equity and Value-Based Care: Is There a Future?

Edward S. Cohen, MD | Apr 2022

Edward S. Cohen, MD, CEO of Genesis Healthcare Partners in San Diego, California, looks at how private equity can help independent urology practices provide value-based care and remain financially viable. He begins by emphasizing the importance of value-based care, noting that the United States currently spends more on healthcare than any other country, and does not get the best value for the money spent. Dr. Cohen also observes that Medicare’s value-based payment model trajectory is supposed to get to capitation, meaning that practices will not be paid for how many procedures they perform but for how many patients they manage. He then considers the various difficulties facing independent practice, such as increasing difficulty in remaining viable, increasing cost of doing business, the need to have other income streams to maintain viability, and the need to be competitive with the employed physician market. Dr. Cohen argues that independent practitioners need a “seat at the table,” and he suggests that private equity is a good, viable way to do so. He claims that private equity can provide capital, improve management, help with expansion of ancillary revenue streams, allow for consolidation, and provide leverage in the community, all while allowing independent private practice to maintain its identity. Dr. Cohen stipulates that practices need to find the right partner with an aligned vision, but argues that when practices and private equity form good partnerships, they can help independent practice thrive and form a counterbalance to large hospitals.

Pay for Performance Model to Improve Quality of Active Surveillance in Low-Risk Prostate Cancer

Franklin Gaylis, MD, FACS | Jun 2021

In the final installment of a 3-part series, Franklin Gaylis, MD, FACS, Chief Scientific Officer of Genesis Healthcare Partners and Voluntary Professor of Urology at the University of California, San Diego, reviews measures derived from a project looking at the value of a pay for performance model in improving the quality of active surveillance in low-risk prostate cancer. He also considers the utility, simplicity, and economy of using an electronic medical record-embedded template. Dr. Gaylis concludes by suggesting that government entities and physicians should collaborate to create the best medical standards and practices possible as the US healthcare system makes the transition from volume to value.

Leveraging the EMR to Improve Quality in Clinical Practice

Franklin Gaylis, MD, FACS | Jun 2021

In part 2 of a 3-part series, Franklin Gaylis, MD, FACS, Chief Scientific Officer of Genesis Healthcare Partners and Voluntary Professor of Urology at the University of California, San Diego, shows how quality reporting improves adherence to best practices in use of active surveillance for low-risk prostate cancer. He reviews the results of a study he and his team began conducting in 2011 which showed that adoption of active surveillance for low-risk prostate cancer increased from 32% to 58% over the course of 3 years as a result of the adoption of reporting standards and reporting transparency whereby doctors could see others’ data. Since widespread adoption of active surveillance is considered a best practice, these data demonstrate how quality reporting can improve care.

Leveraging the EMR to Improve Quality in Risk Stratification for Prostate Cancer

Franklin Gaylis, MD, FACS | Jun 2021

In part 1 of a 3-part series, Franklin Gaylis, MD, FACS, Chief Scientific Officer of Genesis Healthcare Partners and Voluntary Professor of Urology at the University of California, San Diego, looks at how improved quality reporting can improve risk stratification for prostate cancer. He explains that quality reporting is expensive and time-consuming, but also necessary, and looks at how it can be improved. As an example, he considers a study by Genesis Healthcare intended to improve documentation and staging templates for digital rectal examinations (DREs) for prostate cancer staging and risk stratification. They found that by leveraging the electronic medical record (EMR) with explicit templates, they were able to increase physician confidence in DRE findings. Dr. Gaylis concludes that by encouraging urology practices to record more accurate and precise DRE information, better templates for reporting can improve patient care.

In My Opinion: The Future of Independent Practice

Edward S. Cohen, MD | Jan 2021

Edward S. Cohen, MD, CEO of Genesis Healthcare Partners in San Diego, California, discusses the future of independent private physician practices. He defines the three main types of private practices: solo, small group, and large group. Private practices face mounting pressures, including increasing expenses, decreased reimbursement, and an aging MD population. For these reasons, Dr. Cohen believes solo practices and small group practices are dying out. He suggests that independent private practice physicians provide a necessary counter-balance to foundation-based doctors, making large group practices the best way to move forward.