One of NJ’s largest medical practices taking cautious approach on Obamacare – The Star-Ledger – NJ.com

TRENTON — The medical director of one of the largest medical practices in the state said today his group wants to first review the Affordable Care Act’s new insurance and rates — due to be released Tuesday — before deciding how to participate in what is known as Obamacare.

“This is all new territory and we have to see how this all rolls out,” Robert W. Brenner, medical director of the Summit Medical Group, told the Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee, which was discussing strategies hospitals and doctors are using to contain costs and improve care.

The health exchange — the online marketplace that will provide the public with information about available policies and financial assistance that will help low- and middle-income people pay for them — is “important,” Brenner said. But he likened it to a “black box” because no one is sure whether there will be enough young healthy people to offset the sick, uninsured patients who are expected to enroll.

“Our sentiment is we want to provide care for people that need it,” Brenner said in a subsequent interview this evening clarifying his testimony. “The position we are taking right now is the insurance companies need to present the product to us. At this point, we need to evaluate all aspects of it. … A lot of details remain to be seen.”

Brenner said he has spoken nationally about the need to improve patient access to care, and believes the exchanges will “close the gap.” But a lot of physicians are approaching the Affordable Care Act cautiously until reimbursement rates are explained. Until then, he said, “a lot of organizations will end up sitting back to see how things unfold.”

Open enrollment for the act, also known as Obamacare, begins Tuesday at www.healthcare.gov. Coverage begins in 2014. There are an estimated 1.2 million uninsured people in the state.

The Summit group, a physician-run practice based in Berkeley Heights, includes 382 medical professionals who practice in five counties and treat 180,000 patients a year, according to the practice’s website.

Brenner said that even before passage of the law, Summit had adopted many changes that control expenses and improve patient health, such as doctors, nurse practitioners and “care managers” practicing as a team. He said the medical professionals earn performance bonuses each year if they can demonstrate that they have helped improve patient health and performed community service.

“We don’t duplicate diagnostic tests” because electronic medical records link all the practices, Brenner said. “We are able to communicate … and you can see a note in the chart” minutes after it is added.”

After the hearing, he said the Summit accepted nearly every commercial health plan as well as Medicare, although he added that it did not take Medicaid because the reimbursement rates were too low.

He said the group would re-evaluate accepting Medicaid, the government health program for the poor, “once the rates are more reasonable.”

New Jersey has the lowest percentage of primary doctors and specialists participating in the Medicaid program because the state’s payment rate is among the lowest in the nation, according to a July report in Health Affairs, a monthly publication that deals with health policy issues.

Gov. Chris Christie has decided to expand the eligibility for Medicaid under Obamacare, which could provide medical coverage for an additional 300,000 residents.

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