Healthsouth

[lejeunesage]

What is it like to work for them?
I keep seeing offers with this line: "The Physiatrist will set up a relationship with an independent billing company and retain 100% of his/her own billing and collections."

How can that be? What's the catch? How do they make their money?

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[Fiveoboy11]

What is it like to work for them?
I keep seeing offers with this line: "The Physiatrist will set up a relationship with an independent billing company and retain 100% of his/her own billing and collections."

How can that be? What's the catch? How do they make their money?

They make their money on the backs of and by abusing physical therapists.

 

[lejeunesage]

They make their money on the backs of and by abusing physical therapists.

What do you mean?

 

[RM38]

I do not work for healthsouth, but had at least 1-2 attendings in residency that did for awhile and had an a few of my co-residents interview for spots there. How it seems to work is that you (physician) bills the patient directly for your fees such as admitting, daily visits, etc and healthsouth keeps the daily facility fees which is where they make their profit. Docs whom work there are basically independent contractors from what I understand and you don't have any kind of guaranteed income or benefits coming to you from them. You may be able to make a little extra money if you become the acting medical director as well. From what I have heard many people wind up burning out as they are technically always on call and typically take on a pretty heavy patient burden with a quick turn around leading to a pretty poor lifestyle. The plus side is that you can make a lot of money working here if you are able to tolerate the pace and lifestyle. From what I heard there can be a lot of pressure to take a lot of soft admits and just get them in and then get them out in a couple of days which are things that you don't see as much of in residency. My guess is that this kind off pressure to get people in and out quickly also gets thrown on to the therapy staff as well as they are likely being pressured to clear patients to be ready for DC ASAP.

 

[Tromner]

This is a little off topic but can someone clarity why it would be financially beneficial to have short admissions rather than long ones? I imagine it really depends on the payer, but from the doc's perspective, if we charge a daily fee is there much difference? Or is it really only matter for the facility? Thanks

 

[lejeunesage]

This is a little off topic but can someone clarity why it would be financially beneficial to have short admissions rather than long ones? I imagine it really depends on the payer, but from the doc's perspective, if we charge a daily fee is there much difference? Or is it really only matter for the facility? Thanks

You get paid more for H&Ps and discharge summaries than you do for progress notes.
So, assuming you keep your units full, it's more lucrative to have high turnover, short stays.

 

[RM38]

The turnover is a bigger deal for the facility. CMS tracks average length of stay for various diagnoses and compares to the national average. If you are longer than average I think it may put you up for a decrease in payment. Also some insurances pay a flat fee to the facility for an admission depending on diagnosis, so the shorter the stay the more of that fee the facility gets to keep in profit. I don't think it really affects the physicians too much unless your average stays are too long compared with your peers.

 

[lejeunesage]

The turnover is a bigger deal for the facility. CMS tracks average length of stay for various diagnoses and compares to the national average. If you are longer than average I think it may put you up for a decrease in payment. Also some insurances pay a flat fee to the facility for an admission depending on diagnosis, so the shorter the stay the more of that fee the facility gets to keep in profit. I don't think it really affects the physicians too much unless your average stays are too long compared with your peers.

It affects physicians because if you're writing 3 H&Ps per day, you'll make a lot more than if you only write 3 H&Ps a week.
In other words, the higher the proportion of H&Ps, discharge summaries, and new consults you write, the higher your pay will be.