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Dr. Krongrad on Service Optimization

Arnon Krongrad, MD — Sun, 22 May 2011 21:13:45 +0000

On May 5, the Galen Institute held a forum on the value of innovation in health reform. Among the speakers were US Senator John Barrasso, MD, health care consultant William Winkenwerder, JD MD MBA, Mary Grealy, JD, of the Healthcare Leadership Council, and Nathan McLemore of Microsoft Health Solutions. Dr. Krongrad, the chief executive of Mobile Surgery International, was invited to speak about the optimization of surgical quality and cost, bundled service, and bundled payment. Click below to watch his presentation.

JNMC added to BCBSF bundle network

Arnon Krongrad, MD — Wed, 11 May 2011 16:01:30 +0000

In an ongoing effort to expand choice and convenience, Mobile Surgery International™ (MSI) has partnered with Jackson North Medical Center (JNMC) to deliver the bundled prostatectomy service that MSI is developing for patients insured through Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida (BCBSF). This partnership means that eligible BCBSF members will have expanded access to MSI’s value-generating services — based upon personal preference and convenience.

Dr. Krongrad, the chief executive of MSI, told me that JNMC has served as one of MSI’s carefully selected treatment centers for a number of domestic and foreign payers. MSI’s surgical teams get top notch support from JNMC’s anesthesia and pathology staff. The operating room is well organized and the concierge service cannot be better. He is delighted with the new agreement.

JNMC is one of several hospitals operated by Miami-Dade County’s Jackson Health System, recently rated by US News & World Report as the best hospital system in South Florida.

MSI’s first surgical cases for BCBSF insured members at JNMC are scheduled for this month. The bundled services will include quality-focused, patient-centric, no-wait support, education, and service, appropriate supplies, and everything necessary for conduct of the radical prostatectomy and related procedures: surgeon, surgeon’s assistant, operative technical team, anesthesia, pathology, nursing care, operating room, recovery room, medications, and room and board. The arrangement brings quality, efficiency, and value to all eligible members. It brings administrative simplicity and value to the payer.

To read an article about the agreement with BCBSF, please click here.

To read a joint statement with BCBSF, please click here.

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Mobile Surgery International: MSI offers patients and payers surgical choice and quality with cost containment through its Centers of Excellence with Global Convenience™ in Kansas, Florida, Mexico, Panama, and Trinidad. MSI cuts overhead, recruits outstanding surgical talent, and identifies host surgical facilities, providing differentiating surgical programs and custom solutions with minimal regard to geography. Whether the patient comes to the surgeon, the surgeon goes to the patient, or patient and surgeon meet at a mutually convenient location, MSI coordinates all arrangements at a cost agreeable to the patient and/or the payer.

Bundled Service Agreement with BCBSF

Arnon Krongrad, MD — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 03:01:02 +0000

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida (BCBSF) and Mobile Surgery International (MSI) have reached an agreement for MSI to deliver its transparently priced, bundled, minimally invasive, laparoscopic radical prostatectomy surgery service packages to BCBSF members.

To read the media release about this agreement, please click here.

Service Agreement With GLOC

Arnon Krongrad, MD — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 02:33:04 +0000

Mobile Surgery International (MSI) and Guardian Life of the Caribbean (GLOC) have reached an agreement for MSI to deliver transparently priced, comprehensive urological and orthopedic joint replacement bundled surgical services packages to GLOC members with prostate cancer, benign prostate enlargement, and osteoarthritis.

To read the media release about this agreement please click here.

Bundled Service Agreement with QHM

Arnon Krongrad, MD — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 20:58:31 +0000

Mobile Surgery International (MSI) and the Quality Health Management (QHM) have reached an agreement for MSI to deliver transparently priced, comprehensive laparoscopic prostate cancer surgery and total knee replacement service packages to QHM clients. The agreement will focus initially on bundled services packages to be rendered in Florida. MSI and QHM will also begin to explore provision of bundled services to QHM clients in the Caribbean and Latin America.

To read the media release about this agreement please click here.

Mobile Prostatectomy Service in Trinidad

Arnon Krongrad, MD — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 00:50:31 +0000

Last month, Mobile Surgery International™ (MSI) sent a highly experienced surgical team and its equipment to Trinidad to deliver laparoscopic prostatectomy to 3 men with prostate cancer. In so doing, MSI filled a gap in treatment options and allowed 3 men to conveniently have their treatment choice, done well — at home.

There were no complications, no transfusions, and no conversions to open surgery. None of the patients took so much as a single Tylenol for post-operative pain. All 3 patients were ready for hospital discharge the following morning.

In order to deliver remote, mobile, major surgical service, MSI worked with a local host hospital to which it brought the patients, surgeons, and equipment. Sharing equipment reduces redundancy and eliminates capital risk for the hospitals to which MSI sends its surgical teams, which lowers cost; this is one of the ways by which MSI generates savings for patients and payers.

Along with sharing equipment, sending a highly experienced team eliminates learning curve, allows bringing service to market instantly, and reduces the chance of complications and cost outliers. MSI believes the surgical quality is principally determined by surgeons and only works with highly experienced, senior surgical specialists.

By relying upon surgical subject expertise applied inside operating rooms and upon a willingness to serve, MSI turns potential capacity into actual capacity but with no risk to the host institution. Everybody benefits.

MSI’s working model optimizes choice, quality, and cost domestically and abroad. In the past, MSI has mobilized patients to its Centers of Excellence with Global Convenience™ in Florida. It has also mobilized patients, surgeons, and surgical equipment to its Centers of Excellence with Global Convenience™ in Florida and in Kansas. MSI mobilizes patients, surgeons, and pairs of patients and surgeons to overcome economic, geographic, and cultural barriers to treatment choice and treatment quality.

Last month’s mobile prostatectomy trip to Trinidad reflects recognition by patients, doctors, and third-party payers in geographies remote from MSI’s Florida headquarters that quality can be affordably imported on an ad hoc basis. And that MSI will handle all the logistical and clinical details to make sure things go well.

Below are some photographs from the trip to Trinidad:

MSI’s equipment is packed and ready.

Great staff and convenient location.

Anesthesia gets to work.

She’s part of the surgical team.

All is well and it’s time to go home.

Krongrad On Health Care Reform

Arnon Krongrad, MD — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:05:38 +0000

Medical Travel Today, an online publication, has begun a series of guest commentaries on the recent health care reform. To read the first two, including one by Mobile Surgery International‘s CEO, Arnon Krongrad MD, click here.

Transparent, Fixed Cost Surgery Packages

Arnon Krongrad, MD — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:52:28 +0000

Two core premises underlie Mobile Surgery International‘s (MSI) mission to broaden access to surgical choice and quality. The first is that patients (and payers) should be able to make decisions about surgical options based upon access to complete information up front about all of the necessary services associated with their surgical procedure, the skill and expertise of the surgeon carrying out the procedure, and the total costs involved. The second is that waste should be eliminated and savings passed on to patients (and payers).

MSI has now posted detailed descriptions for two specific surgical service packages on the Company web site at www.emeseye.com/services. These “all-in” packages are designed to simplify patient and payer negotiation of the costs of specific surgical episodes by encompassing every predictable element of quality surgery, by openly defining and communicating these elements, and by fixing the specific cost for such surgical episodes.

To see the media release, please click here.

MSI and CINICO Reach Agreement

Arnon Krongrad, MD — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:08:43 +0000

Mobile Surgery International (MSI) and the Cayman Islands National Insurance Company (CINICO) have reached an agreement for MSI to deliver transparently priced, comprehensive laparoscopic prostate cancer surgery and total knee replacement service packages to CINICO members. To read the media release about this agreement please click here.

An Interview With Dr. Krongrad

Arnon Krongrad, MD — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:53:19 +0000

On the occasion of Mobile Surgery International‘s first domestic case, Medical Travel Today sat down with our CEO to discuss how mobile surgery optimizes choice, quality and cost.

Click here to read what they discussed.