[Bucco]

Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

Several years ago the developer commissioned a thorough study of healthcare here, conducted by a nationally-recognized healthcare consulting firm. After several months of study they arrived at a number of conclusions and recommendations. Fundamental to many was the absence of an adequate number of well-trained, board certified, experienced primary care physicians. Many relocated here prior to the construction of The Villages Hospital. Many had well-documented shortcomings in either training or experience before they relocated here. Many have not improved. The results are measurables which were used to assess the quality of healthcare here.

Several years followed wherein a significant recruiting effort by TVRH, but had only minimal success. The outside consultants concluded and recommended that an essentially new model of primary healthcare be created in TV with the objective of displacing many or most of the less desirable primary care doctors. With the assistance of both the consultants and USF, the structure of Villages Health was created.

Villages Health was launched two years ago with objective of hiring 64 new primary care physicians and the necessary nursing and support staff to man eight new neighborhood doctor's offices. The Developer agreed to finance this new healthcare system.

The model for Villages Health is intended to be patient-centric, with significant measurement and monitoring of the quality of the health of resident-patients. The doctors will be salaried employees and not dependent on the significant, impersonal throughput of Medicare patients to make a living. The vast majority of the doctors employed by Villages Health will be educated in U.S. medical schools, completed their residencies in U.S. hospitals and will all be board certified. Their commitment to the concept of Villages Health will be thoroughly vetted before they are hired. Their performance will be monitored. It is expected that Villages Health be counted among the very best primary care providers, including The Mayo Clinic, The Cleveland Clinic, and others.

The program is proceeding with amazing success. By next spring, six new offices will be opened. Already 25 doctors have been hired. A few have already reached their maximum size patient panel of 1,250 patients. Villages Health appears to be a roaring success so far.

Are less competent, less committed doctors feeling the pinch of the new competition? I'm quite sure they are. But remember, that was the objective from the outset--to improve the overall quality of primary healthcare in TV.

It seems to me that the Developer and United Healthcare, partners in the program, should be roundly complimented for their commitment to improving our healthcare and our health.

Is Villages Health a not-for-profit? No. But it is a well-designed model embracing significant changes for the delivery of primary care here. If the owners of Villages Health can profit from their investment, I say good for them. If our healthcare and health is improved as the result of their investments and commitment, they have every right to enjoy a profit. And if some less qualified, less committed physicians are driven out of business as the result, I guess I struggle seeing how that is bad for The Villages. And I certainly don't understand why those trying to improve healthcare for our benefit should be criticized.

And by the way, the financial incentives available to providers such as Villages Health who are successful in improving a series of metrics measuring both the cost of healthcare and the health if the patients was created as part of The Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare).

If I were allowed VK, I would say I would buy one of those bumper stickers, but since I cannot make that comment, I won't