Directfit Looks to Help Companies Meet Portability Law
Study Looks at How Much Hospital Revenue Certain Types of Doctors Generate
HEALTHCARE
by Vita Reed
Irvine-based Directfit Inc., a privately held information technology staffing company, is pitching itself to healthcare companies needing technical personnel to comply with the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
Among other things, one of the law’s main provisions requires healthcare providers and healthcare service plans to use a national standard for electronic data transmissions.
In an e-mail, Directfit spokeswoman Margaret Hagstrom pointed out that the company specializes in staffing positions such as project managers, system architects, database administrators, programmers and network engineers. Such professionals, according to Hagstrom, will be required to bring healthcare companies in compliance with the law.
Directfit uses various methods of matching its client companies with prospective employees, including streaming video, pre-screening and Internet profiling tools. According to Hagstrom, Directfit’s services could help ease hiring decisions for clients since there are heavy fines for companies that are not in compliance with the Act.
Approximately 20% of Directfit’s business comes from healthcare companies, Hagstrom said. A Directfit client list counts names such as Costa Mesa-based Apria Healthcare Corp., Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Kaiser Permanente and Abbott Laboratories Inc. Directfit’s client list also contains several well-known names in non-health fields, such as Boeing Co., Universal Studios Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.
Directfit, which employs 120 people, was established nearly two years ago. Although the company will not reveal its revenue, it has raised some $31 million in financing to date, including a $20 million infusion from Crosspoint Venture Partners in June 2000.
A Doctor’s Worth
A new survey published by Merritt, Hawkins & Associates, a Dallas-based physician search and consulting company with an office in Newport Beach, found that on average, a doctor will generate slightly more than $1.5 million in revenue a year for his or her affiliated hospital. Cardiovascular surgeons were the top revenue generators at $3.1 million. On the other hand, pediatricians generated the least amount of revenue, at $690,104. Data came from more than 150 hospital chief financial officers.
Among others, neurosurgeons generated an average of $2.4 million in revenue; orthopedic surgeons, $1.9 million and OB/GYNs, $1.6 million. Besides pediatrics, the only two medical specialties that generated less than $1 million in annual revenue on average were ophthalmology, at $809,523, and otolaryngology, at $892,361.
The results show that medical staff loyalty “means much more to a hospital than billboards or TV commercials ever could,” contended James Merritt, Merritt, Hawkins & Associates’ president. But Merritt also said that financial factors in and of themselves shouldn’t be the main reason for physician recruitment and that community service need should be key to finding doctors.
Ista Reports Results; Stock Spanked
Ista Pharmaceuticals Inc., Irvine, saw its stock price bottom out last week after its Vitrase compound for treating vitreous hemorrhage, or internal bleeding of the eye, failed to meet its main goal during Phase III clinical testing on patients.
Ista’s shares, which had traded around 3, dipped below 1 after officials said that Vitrase didn’t achieve clearance of vitreous hemorrhage to a sufficient degree to allow further diagnosis or treatment. Ista said, however, that it did find what it called “clinically relevant” improvements in visual acuity in the trials.
The company intends to meet with the Food and Drug Administration as soon as possible to discuss the results said Chief Executive Vicente Anido Jr. in a release. In the meantime, Ista will continue to analyze study data in preparation for the next round of talks with the agency, Anido said.
Bits and Pieces:
Edwards Lifesciences Corp., Irvine, hosted a pair of educational programs late last month, prior to the American College of Cardiology’s annual scientific session in Atlanta, that looked at new methods of treating angina that doesn’t respond to conventional therapy. Topics included CO2 laser revascularization, a surgical system that Edwards holds the U.S. marketing and distribution rights for. PLC Medical Systems Inc., Franklin, Mass., is the CO2 Heart Laser 2 system’s developer Institute for Healthcare Advancement, Whittier, is hosting “Health Literacy: State of the Art 2002” May 9 and 10 at the Hyatt Regency Orange County, 11199 Harbor Blvd., Garden Grove. Robert Friedland, director of the Center on an Aging Society, will be conference keynote speaker. Information: (800) 434-4633 Children’s Hospital of Orange County said Dr. Michael Muhonen, a pediatric neurosurgeon who practices at the facility, recently became the first physician in the western United States to use a hydrocephalus treatment device since it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The device is made by Medtronic Neurosurgery, Goleta, and forms the centerpiece of Medtronic’s hydrocephalic shunt, which drains excess cerebrospinal fluid from the brains of patients with hydrocephalus.
