News Profile

May Board Meeting Summary
May 14, 2008

The MAMA Board held the regularly schedule May meeting Monday evening, and the following are the key points of discussion:

Centralized Billing Office (CBO):  As discussed in a previous communication, the MAMA Board decided to pursue development of a CBO for any MAMA practice interested in outsourcing this function.  Monday evening the board began to form a committee for the purpose of researching, and selecting the best practice management solution.  The committee will be comprised of board, and non-board shareholders, as well as office staff.  Practices not planning to outsource this function are being included in the committee.  EMR solutions will also be researched, as this component is an integral part of the selection process.

Clinical Integration:  Several MAMA physicians attended a meeting last week regarding clinical integration.  The three guest speakers were all independent physicians representing different IPAs.  Each detailed the advantages of their IPA aligning financially, and clinically to control the clinical data, and the managed care contracting process.  For MAMA, in the absence of capitated agreements, clinical integration is thrust into forefront.  As the board looks for more opportunities to integrate the forty-three practices that now represent MAMA, it is our intent to identify four to five quality measures to study as an initial step towards clinically integrating.  The board will work closely to identify which measures are most appropriate to study, and for those specialties identified for this initial phase, participation is voluntary.  However, participation will be very important as we look to the future integration of our organization. 

OSF/Humana:  I will be meeting with OSF HealthPlans in the coming weeks to discuss amending the MAMA contract in order for Humana to assume ownership from the payer side.  Not completely knowing what the OSFHP/Humana plan is, I will carefully review the changes, if any, and communicate them to you.  At this time I do not know what Humana’s presence is in our market, or what St. Joseph’s plans will be for insuring their employees with a Humana product for the coming year.  All of this needs to be addressed as Humana looks to inherit OSFHP’s business in our market.  I will keep you posted as I learn more.

Shareholder Meeting:  With the pursuit of a billing company, the desire to begin studying clinical outcomes, and possible changes to managed care agreements, the Board felt compelled to call a special meeting this summer.  A date has yet to be determined, but I will follow up in the near future with a date some time late June, or early July, in order to detail the various initiatives in greater detail.