Balancing Reimbursements and Practice Costs
Will Impending Fee Schedules Make a Dent?

By Tom Walsh
Massachusetts health plans will be offering new reimbursement fees in the coming months, but the question remains whether these will be sufficient to meet the increases in doctors' costs.

"To be fair, the health plans are not totally unresponsive," said Marvin Berkowitz, an independent consultant from Needham who works with providers on reimbursement issues. "Still, it seems to me that the doctors are mostly in for rough sailing for at least the year to come." more

MMS Index Highlights Deteriorating Practice Environment

By Frank Fortin
A new statistical tool developed by the MMS has confirmed that physician practices have been struggling in a sharply deteriorating operating environment since the mid-1990s.

The semi-annual MMS Index, developed by former Bank of Boston economist James M. Howell, Ph.D., found that the quality of the physician practice environment has declined for seven consecutive years, including a sharp 7.2 percent decline in 2000. From 1992 to 2000, the index declined 20.3 percent. more