Ask the expert: What is an intended practice plan?

Under an intended practice plan model, part of the application process involves asking physicians what they plan to do in their practices during the next two years. This can be accomplished using a form in the application package. The form should consist of a series of questions including:

• Where will you practice?
• To which hospital(s) will you admit and refer your patients who require hospitalization?
• Will you admit your own patients to our hospital?
• Will you refer patients to our hospitalist program?
• Will you perform consultations for hospitalized patients, if requested?
• Will you participate in our ED call program?
• Of the insurance programs the hospital participates in, which will you accept?
• The following communities have been designated as areas of physician need. In which of these areas, if any, will you be practicing?
• Will you participate in meetings and activities of the organized medical staff?
• Are you willing, if requested, to serve in a leadership position on the organized medical staff?
• Will you be attending social activities offered to members of the medical staff, such as the holiday gala, golf tournament, pool parties, and dinners at your colleagues' homes?
• Are you willing, if asked, to serve on the hospital's performance improvement teams?
   

When crafting these questions, it is important to focus on how physicians will help the hospital fulfill its mission. However, avoid linking physicians' medical staff membership or privileges to admission or referral volumes. Doing so could violate Stark and anti-kickback requirements.

This week's question and answer are excerpted from The Greeley Guide to New Medical Staff Models: Solutions for Changing Physician-Hospital Relations by Richard A. Sheff, MD, CMSL and William K. Cors, MD, MMM, FACPE, CMSL.