Medical practice pattern tool
First Claim
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1. A method of managing medical care performed by a group of medical practitioners, comprising the steps of:
- compiling a plurality of episodes of care, each episode including services performed for that episode by medical practitioners;
selecting for analysis the episodes of care from the plurality of the episodes of care that correspond to a given condition;
preserving, with a computer, those services having a service value above a service value threshold defined such that only services that have a predetermined level of impact on the selected episodes of care are preserved;
sorting, with the computer, the medical practitioners into the two or more cost strata according to a predefined cost criterion, the sorting occurring such that each stratum includes at least one medical practitioner who provided at least one service performed in the selected episodes of care, the strata including a lower-cost practitioner stratum and higher-cost practitioner stratum;
listing the services associated with the medical practitioners for the selected episodes of care in each stratum with a service value being included with each of the services;
comparing the service values of the preserved services within the lower-cost practitioner stratum to the service values of corresponding preserved services within the higher-cost practitioner stratum; and
identifying the services which are cost drivers associated with the selected episodes of care that are at least partially responsible for differences in cost of the selected episodes of care between the lower-cost and higher-cost practitioner strata, the identification being performed by the computer and based on the step of comparing the preserved selected service values.
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Abstract
The invention is a business process embodied in a software algorithm that determines difference in practice patterns among physicians for the main cost components of given conditions.
55 Citations
31 Claims
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1. A method of managing medical care performed by a group of medical practitioners, comprising the steps of:
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compiling a plurality of episodes of care, each episode including services performed for that episode by medical practitioners; selecting for analysis the episodes of care from the plurality of the episodes of care that correspond to a given condition; preserving, with a computer, those services having a service value above a service value threshold defined such that only services that have a predetermined level of impact on the selected episodes of care are preserved; sorting, with the computer, the medical practitioners into the two or more cost strata according to a predefined cost criterion, the sorting occurring such that each stratum includes at least one medical practitioner who provided at least one service performed in the selected episodes of care, the strata including a lower-cost practitioner stratum and higher-cost practitioner stratum; listing the services associated with the medical practitioners for the selected episodes of care in each stratum with a service value being included with each of the services; comparing the service values of the preserved services within the lower-cost practitioner stratum to the service values of corresponding preserved services within the higher-cost practitioner stratum; and identifying the services which are cost drivers associated with the selected episodes of care that are at least partially responsible for differences in cost of the selected episodes of care between the lower-cost and higher-cost practitioner strata, the identification being performed by the computer and based on the step of comparing the preserved selected service values. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A method of managing medical care performed by a group of medical practitioners, comprising the steps of:
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compiling a plurality of episodes of care, each episode including a plurality of services performed for that episode by medical practitioners; selecting for analysis the episodes of care from the plurality of episodes of care that correspond to a given condition; sorting, with a computer, the medical practitioners into two or more cost strata according to a predefined cost criterion, the sorting occurring such that each stratum includes at least one medical practitioner who provided at least one service performed in the selected episodes of care, the strata including a lower-cost practitioner stratum and a higher-cost practitioner stratum; listing the services associated with the medical practitioners for the selected episodes of care in each stratum; and comparing, with the computer, an actual service value for the each service within the lower-cost and higher-cost practitioner strata to an expected service value for the service; identifying the services which are cost drivers associated with the selected episode of care that are at least partially responsible for differences in cost of the selected episodes of care between the lower-cost and higher-cost practitioner strata, the identification being performed by the computer and based on the step of comparing the actual service values within the lower-cost and higher-cost practitioner strata to the expected service value.
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31. A method of managing medical care performed by a group of medical practitioners, comprising the steps of:
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compiling a plurality of episodes of care, each episode including services performed for that episode by medical practitioners; selecting for analysis the episodes of care from the plurality of episodes of care that correspond to a given condition; sorting, with a computer, the medical practitioners into the two or more cost strata according to a predefined cost criterion, the sorting occurring such that each stratum includes multiple medical practitioners who provided at least one service performed in the selected episode of care, the strata including a lower-cost practitioner stratum and a higher-cost practitioner stratum; associating, with the computer, each of the medical practitioners with all the services in the episodes that the medical practitioner had a role; and listing the services associated with the medical practitioners in each stratum; comparing the service values of the selected services within the lower-cost practitioner stratum to the service values of corresponding services within the higher-cost practitioner stratum; identifying the services which are cost drivers associated with the selected episodes of care that are at least partially responsible for differences in cost of the selected episodes of care between the lower-cost and higher-cost practitioner strata, the identification being performed by the computer and based on the step of comparing the service values.
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Specification