NORA and Care Integration: The Value-Added of Anesthesiology in the Emerging Healthcare Marketplace
Monday, 1:10-3:10 p.m.
Mezzanine 15A-B

Advances in technology have moved an increasing number of interventional procedures from the O.R. to other venues, affecting the way anesthesiologists practice and their business plans. Strategies to cope with these changes will be discussed during a session today.

“NORA and Care Integration: The Value-Added of Anesthesiology in the Emerging Healthcare Marketplace,” presented from 1:10 to 3:10 p.m. today in Mezzanine 15A-B, will feature five speakers discussing changes from several different perspectives, from financial impact to quality to working with other specialties.

“Our marketplace has changed in the sense that we have a whole new group of consumers now who are interventional-medical people rather than surgeons. So, not only have the venues changed and the procedures changed, but our customers have really changed as well,” said Wendy L. Gross, M.D., M.H.C.M., the session moderator.

Dr. Gross, Vice Chair of Anesthesia for Interventional Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, said more procedures now take place outside the O.R. than in the O.R. at her institution, which is not uncommon across the U.S.

“This has pushed us to examine our priorities and define ourselves a little more clearly. It is kind of a defining moment for anesthesia, this whole dynamic situation,” she said. “Everybody recognizes it, but nobody really knows how to deal with it. It is a financial and a medical inflection point for us.

“People are starting to realize we need to look at this carefully. This is a time we have to devise a medical and financial strategy to fit the needs of the marketplace, which is different than it used to be.”

During the session, speakers will discuss changes in finances as well as the profiles of cases. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has changed reimbursement guidelines, and anesthesiologists need to stay up to date with those changes, Dr. Gross said.

Among the subjects speakers will discuss are:

• What interventional medical providers expect from anesthesia providers.
• The logistics and financial implications of sedation moving into the area of anesthesia.
• Improvements in quality metrics that are consistent with standards of practice for anesthesiologists.
• The strategic and financial implications of the increase in interventional procedures.
• The basics of joint venture finance, including the need to have collaborative financials for all specialties involved in procedures.