MGMA Podcasts

Daniel Williams 0:00
Well, hi everyone. I'm Daniel Williams, senior editor at MGMA and host of the MGMA Podcast Network, along with co host Colleen Luckett and editor and writer at MGMA, and we're back with another MGMA Week in Review podcast, and we're talking to y'all on March 14, 2025 I'm just keeping track of what time it is, because we all spring forward this week, and I'm still adjusting just a little bit. How about you? Do you have any issues with the time changes there? Colleen, yeah, my husband

Colleen Luckett 1:25
and I, the night after had a really hard time sleeping. It was like, what did we do? Just sleep 12 hours. And I know I did it. I was just tossing and turning. It's weird how that happens, and I am one of those who would be happy doing away with it. It's like an old you know what? Farming thing, these

Daniel Williams 1:43
ridiculous cultural thing so well, we'll see. We'll see if we end up doing away with it. But what else besides us springing forward? What else is going on in the world of healthcare? Well,

Colleen Luckett 1:56
let's go ahead and start this week's episode with some mg may stop pulling so physician job satisfaction and engagement is crucial, because let's be honest, a happy doctor is way less likely to fantasize about throwing their pager into the nearest body of water. So measuring physician satisfaction isn't just about warm fuzzies, though it's a strategic necessity. So how often are medical practices actually checking in on their doctors for our latest MGMA stat poll on March 11, we asked healthcare leaders, how often you all survey your physicians about job satisfaction or engagement, and here is what you told us. So 45% of you said you do this annually. 14% conduct surveys at least quarterly. 29% said you never conduct these surveys. And then about 13% responded other with most of those saying you survey every other year, or like, twice a year. And here are some best practices to make sure your physician engagement surveys actually lead to meaningful improvements when you conduct them. Number one, ask the right questions. The best surveys go beyond just Are you happy, and dig into key areas like job satisfaction, burnout, workload, work life, balance and administrative burdens make it easy. Physicians are busy. Keep surveys short under 10 minutes, confidential and accessible on any device, so like email, QR codes, or even through an internal portal, benchmark the results internal surveys are great for spotting trends within your organization, but comparing your results to national benchmarks can provide valuable context use pulse surveys. So while an annual deep dive survey is definitely useful, many organizations are supplementing with quarterly pulse surveys, and those are short, focused check ins to gage real time concerns. And this is really important, guys do something with the results. The big one if you survey your doctors and then do nothing, that's the worst, the worst thing you can do. It's worse than not asking at all. So leadership should analyze results, share key takeaways transparently, and actually implement changes based on physician feedback. Also blend leadership driven and peer led initiatives, so system wide changes, like improving support staff levels need leadership buy in, but smaller peer led efforts like a physician well being task force can also make a big impact and then also just keep the conversation going. Don't just drop survey results in an email and call it a day old. Team meetings discuss the findings and follow up on changes being made at the end of the day. Regularly measuring physician satisfaction is more than just a nice to have. It's a must have for any organization that wants to retain top talent improve patient care and build a workplace where doctors actually want to stay as always, we will drop the link to the article in the show notes, so just check it out for more information. And if you want to weigh in on future MGMA stat polls, please sign up by texting stat, S, T, A, t2, 33550, or visit. Mgma.com/mgma-stat, okay. Daniel, over to you all right.

Daniel Williams 5:09
The next article we're going to do is not a ton of fun, but it is one that came across my search today, and I wanted to share it with everybody. So it comes from fierce healthcare. It was written by Noah Tong, and it was published on March 10 of this week. However, there was a note there that said, this is an ongoing story, and so they are making updates to it. I won't bury the lead any longer. The article titled HHS directed to fire more employees, submit agency reorganization plans. So let's look at the situation here. HHS has been directed to cut more employees and submit plans for a broader agency reorganization as part of an ongoing effort to streamline government operations. I think anybody who's been awake the last 50 days or whatever, we are well aware that there has been major cutbacks in government jobs. So this is part of that. The goal, according to officials, is to improve efficiency and reduce federal spending. But as you might imagine, there's a lot of debate about how these changes will affect public health programs. One of the big things that the author highlights is how this push for workforce reductions is targeting probationary employees, those who were hired within the past year and are still in the trial period. We're talking about 1000s of jobs being cut across HHS, which includes major agencies like the CDC, NIH and CMS, the Office of Personal Management, or OPM, has been advising agencies to make these cuts as part of a broader government efficiency effort. Now, as you'd expect, this isn't sitting well with just about everyone who would be questioned about this. Public health experts and lawmakers are raising concerns about whether cutting this many workers, especially in critical areas like public health preparedness, research and disease prevention, could leave the country vulnerable. We've seen how crucial agencies like the CDC are in responding to pandemics and other health crises, and if they're losing significant workforce numbers, it's fair to wonder what the long term impact could be. Of course, the administration is defending the move, saying that it's not about gutting public health services, but rather about making the government leaner and more efficient. They argue that these cuts are being done strategically to maintain essential services while eliminating redundancies, but at the end of the day, this is something healthcare leaders need to be paying attention to if these layoffs and restructurings affect funding, operations or policies within healthcare practices, hospitals or federal healthcare programs. It could really have a ripple effect across the industry. So this one is definitely worth keeping an eye on to see how this plays out in the coming months. Sorry, I had to bring this news to our show, Colleen, but it was one that did need to be reported on. Well,

Colleen Luckett 8:26
this next article I wanted to cover is from health leaders. It's written by Marie de Freitas, and it was published on March 12. It breaks down yet again just how unaffordable health care has become, but what CFOs can actually do about it? So a recent study found that one in three Americans, about 72 million people, skip needed health care because of cost. Meanwhile, Americans borrowed $74 billion last year just to cover medical bills. Older adults are struggling the most with affordability dropping six percentage points since 2022 and with Medicare and Medicaid cuts looming, things could get even worse. So with patients drowning in medical debt, hospitals are definitely feeling the squeeze. Some health systems have even wiped out debt entirely rather than spend more trying to collect as Elena Barba, West, VP of Finance for Trinity health, puts it, margins are thinner, costs are rising, and inflation isn't helping. So what's the playbook for CFOs? So here's some tips, push back on payers and demand better. Contracts control. The narrative healthcare should be about patient care, not just profits, track payers tactics. Some CFOs are even considering a national payer scorecard advocate for reform. If Medicare and Medicaid cuts happen, hospitals will be in even deeper trouble. Bottom line, the US healthcare system is financially unsustainable. Cf. Those cannot fix it overnight, but they can fight for smarter contracts, better policies and real reform. Okay, Daniel, back to you.

Daniel Williams 10:09
All right, y'all I just every once a while, I run across a story that I really want to share with you all. So I came across this really powerful article in Becker's hospital review. It was written by Maria Taylor. It's titled How a terminal diagnosis reshaped this physician's view of medicine. It tells the story of Dr Bryant Lynn, a Professor of Medicine at Stanford, and a primary care physician who completely out of the blue, was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, and it's not just localized, this had spread to his liver, bones and brain. In an instant, he went from being the doctor in the white coat to the patient in the hospital bed. Now, every week, he stands in front of medical students, sharing first hand what it's like to be on the receiving end of a terminal diagnosis. He talks about the emotions, the uncertainty in what it feels like to hear the hear those tough conversations from the other side, and his big message, yes, statistics matter, but so does hope. Patients need doctors who can hold both truths at once, acknowledging the reality of the illness while still giving people something to hold on to. One of the things that really stood out to me is how Dr Lin is rethinking medical education. He believes patient centered care should be baked into training, but not just in the traditional ways. One of his ideas is to get medical students out of the hospital setting and into patients homes, seeing what their day to day lives actually look like. It's about making medicine feel human again, reminding doctors why they got into this field in the first place. And then there's this other huge insight, how broken our healthcare system can be when it comes to access. Dr Lin was diagnosed in six days. Why? Because he had the right connections, the right privileges. He knows that that's not how it works for most patients, and he's calling for some serious changes, less bureaucracy, better patient navigation, more focus on the things that actually make a difference, like giving doctors time to really talk to their patients. And one of the most important takeaways from his perspective, as medicine becomes more advanced with AI digital health tools, all these incredible innovations, there's a risk of losing sight of the patient at the end of the day. Medicine isn't just about treating a disease, it's about caring for a person. I highly recommend checking out the full article in Becker's hospital review, as we always do, I will put a direct link to this article, and hopefully it will impact you and the way that it did me. And I barely got through reading that. So Colleen, I'm gonna turn it over to you.

Colleen Luckett 13:10
What I really liked about that article, Daniel is what he said about spending more time with patients. And it's funny. I was just talking about that with my husband, actually, and he was saying his primary care physician. He's like, I see her for like five minutes, and it's like, in and out, and then I have my primary care physician is amazing and spends lots of time with me. And so it's so important if we can figure out a way to help doctors help patients. Great, great advice. Yeah, okay, well, we're gonna turn to healthcare it now. So if you ever feel like keeping up with cybersecurity and healthcare is like trying to catch a greased up raccoon, well, you're not wrong. The threats keep evolving, and the defenses have to evolve even faster. This next segment actually comes from my boss, Chris harup, who attended last week's hims 2025 conference, and sat down with Lance Reed, He's CEO of telcyon, to talk about the latest in cybersecurity and put it all in and he put it all into an article titled MFA AI and beyond. What are your next steps in securing your practices, systems? And side note, Chris has been working really hard the last week to report on what he learned at HIMS, so be sure to check out more of his coverage in our MGM, MGMA insights articles at mgma.com/articles Okay, so during their conversation, Reed highlighted the role of AI in cyber Security, particularly how automation can help healthcare organizations combat human power shortages and scale their defenses so as cyber attack threats become more sophisticated, leveraging AI for threat detection and responses becoming a must have strategy. Reid outlined five critical steps every healthcare practice should take. Take this year to strengthen security so number one, multi layered security organizations should assess their security stack and fill any gaps with MFA, endpoint security and network monitoring. Two, regular audits and monitoring. Even the best IT teams need a second set of eyes to catch vulnerabilities they might miss. Number three, stronger third party integrations, weak authentication in connected systems can be a major attack vector. Every integration needs a security check. Number four, employee security training, phishing simulations and awareness training should be standard for all staff, from leadership to frontline workers. And number five, AI powered threat detection. Since attackers are already using AI to scale their attacks, organizations should invest in AI driven security tools to stay ahead of these breaches. So yeah, cybersecurity is a never ending battle, but layering these defenses and staying proactive can make all the difference in protecting patient data and keeping operations running smoothly. And again, we will add that link to the show notes. So for more insights from HIMS, check out Chris Harris full article, also at mgma.com/articles, and then all the other coverage he's been doing like I mentioned. And hey, since we're talking about healthcare, technology is staying ahead of cybersecurity threats and Tech Trends is on your priority list, then you will not want to miss our conference coming up. It's called the MGMA focus Tech Impact conference. It's brand new. It's happening may 18 through 20th in Houston, Texas. So it's an intimate, executive level event, and it will help you all make smarter tech decisions, and it'll be covering topics like revenue cycle management, clinical documentation and AI patient communications and data analytics. And it's not just for IT leaders, if you're responsible for making technology decisions in your practice, this event is really for you. You can find more information and registration on our website at mgma.com/conferences and that does it for me today. Daniel,

Daniel Williams 17:05
all right, so everyone that is going to do it for this episode of mgmas Weekend Review podcast, but I also wanted to echo what Colleen was talking about that MGMA focus, Tech Impact conference, we're so excited about that. I'm actually going to be there. I cool. We haven't like divvied up our exact duties while we're there, but I believe myself, Chris Craig Wiberg and perhaps Jeff tacus, we're all on the content team. I think we're going to be moderating panels there. It's going to be really hands on, and we're going to take some deep dives into health, healthcare, it, and really get a good handle on that Fantastic

Colleen Luckett 17:47
Four

Daniel Williams 17:50
exactly, cool. So with that said, we will put direct links to that event and all of these sources that we referenced today, and just want to wish all of y'all a happy and healthy weekend. Thanks so much. Thanks

Colleen Luckett 18:05
everyone see you next time bye.

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