RPA conference to share lessons of value-based care, tackling staffing issues
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Editor’s note: Healio/Nephrology News & Issues interviewed Brendan Bowman, MD, chair of the Renal Physicians Association Annual Meeting, which is taking place March 30-April 2 in New Orleans. For more information and to register for the meeting, visit www.renalmd.org.
Healio/Nephrology News & Issues: What is the focus of the 2023 program?
Brendan Bowman, MD: We want to contemplate what the hot button issues are in this time of dynamic change. Of course, value-based care (VBC) must be a large component because it is such a practice-changing way nephrology is being reimbursed.
For the program, we wanted to move away from “How does this program work?” and have more of “How do I succeed in these programs?” We wanted to bring in folks who have had success [with VBC] but we also want to know what the programs look like. Some of those include existing primary care programs. Who succeeded in ACOs? How did they succeed? We are bringing the perspective of physician executives and leaders in those programs to the meeting.
Healio/Nephrology News & Issues: This is a physicians meeting, yet you are introducing the patient component in some of these sessions.
Bowman: Kimberly D. Manning, MD, selected by my co-chair Katie Kwon, is an inspired choice to talk on this topic. Manning is passionate about teaching us how to connect with patients, rediscovering those relationships that were the reason a lot of us went into medicine.
What do my patients think about this issue? What are they experiencing with this therapy that I am prescribing to them?
Attendees will also have an opportunity to hear from the patient groups directly about what their hopes and dreams are for VBC. Is it the paradigm shift that it has been sold as? If it doesn’t serve the patient, what’s the point? We need to make sure that we have that voice at the center of what we’re doing here.
Healio/Nephrology News & Issues: Are we doing more crisis planning in kidney care?
Bowman: There is a lot of pragmatic material here coming from someone like Susan Compton, MD, who is going to talk about how to hire staff in a crisis. We have Charlotte Thomas-Hawkins, PhD, PN, FAAN, to speak about the nursing shortage, and we will look at how our colleagues in other health professions are thinking about workforce shortages.
Jennifer Honeycutt, CPA, CMPE of Metrolina Associates, will present results from our bi-annual benchmarking survey, including compensation; the audience will hear details on how nephrology practices are dealing with staffing issues.
The topic of the Forum of ESRD Networks, presented by Don Molony, MD, Dave Henner, DO, and Dawn Edwards and their team, will cover tough cases for the modern medical director. Five years ago, it would be hard to imagine the issues medical directors face today and I am looking forward to that workshop.
We also have financial management workshops for young physicians, including navigating contractual issues. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention speaker Nwamaka Eneanya, MD, and her talk on health equity. We wanted to make sure we hit gaps in transplant, and particularly in home dialysis.
Pauline Lapin, MHS, from CMS’s Innovation Center (CMMI), will talk about CMMI’s vision for value-based care going forward beyond just kidney care models. We expect to hear about health equity, social determinants of health and people need to know how they can close those gaps and take responsibility for that in their practice and professional life.
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