AHPAS and GP Clarity are launching services to help GPs mitigate their risk and to protect them when the worst happens.
For the past four months, I have spent some time in solitude. I learnt this art of survival after multiple traumas in my life. When things turn tough, I get silent, regroup, and innovate.
And I found I was not the only one to have had my life turned inside out this year.
During this low time I had a conversation with one of my colleagues, let’s call him “John”, about his experience with “Sarah”, a call centre operator of a well-known life insurance provider.
This surreally, blackly comic exchange goes to show the necessity of what we have been developing at AHPAS so that you never need to be in John’s position.
One day, John realised that he no longer wanted to live. He was going through a regulatory process, he was at the brink of bankruptcy, and he was deep in what you might call an existential crisis.
He decided that ending his life would be the best outcome, but before he executed the plan, he called his insurance provider to make sure that his family would be covered in that eventuality.
“Sarah”, a friendly customer service operator, answered the phone, and they had the following conversation:
John: I am thinking of ending my life. I just wanted to make sure my life insurance will cover me if I do.
Sarah: Sure, Doctor. Please hold the line.
(Instrumental music on hold)
Sarah: Thank you for holding, Doctor. I have just reviewed your policy and you can go right ahead. Your policy will cover for death resulting from suicide. Is there anything else I can help you with?
John: … thanks …
John told me he felt a “snap” in his head and his suicidality flipped to a mix of uncontrollable laughter, tears and anger.
He described this experience as one of the most humiliating and yet eye-opening experience of his life. John is alive and well today.
What have we learnt from this?
Notwithstanding the obvious problem with “Sarah”, I think we can all agree, NOBODY should have to go through that. No human should have to get to this level, and just by happenstance be deterred from taking their lives. Why do John and so many others face these levels of desperation? What can we, I, do to change this?
Having been through similar ordeals and emotional turmoil, my attention was drawn to two themes: risk mitigation and protection.
Risk mitigation
Let me introduce our newest AHPAS board member, Dr David Szekely, our director of data science and risk mitigation.
David is a master of data and automation. With a degree in pure maths and a PhD in biochemistry, he was Australian Young Biophysicist of the Year in 2011 for his ground-breaking cardiac research. He then shifted focus to financial risk management at Macquarie Bank and the Australian Stock Exchange.
Drawn to health, David worked as COO of Trans-Ax Health Care, where he headed research and development of systems to improve the working lives of their GPs. He now collaborates with AHPAS to offer his innovative research to all doctors.
His subscription data service, GP Clarity, launches next month. Here he explains how it can keep GPs from falling foul of secret rules:
“As head of operations at a small medical corporate, GPs would ask me ‘Am I billing too much of MBS item X?’ The subtext is ‘Even though I’m entitled to it, should I shortchange myself to avoid unwanted attention from the PSR?’
“The only time GPs get a real answer to this question is when they HAVE been deemed to have billed too much of MBS item X, and receive a costly reprimand. It’s like driving on a road with no speed limits posted, and being pulled over and fined for speeding.
“In many cases, GPs don’t even have an accurate speedometer. One of the recent focuses of compliance is GPs with the highest percentiles of antibiotic prescriptions. If your operations manager asked you where you sat with antibiotics prescriptions for the last 12 months, expressed as a percentile of your peers nationally, how would you answer? And if you couldn’t answer, would you think twice about prescribing amoxycillin to a patient who clearly needs it, because you would put yourself at a higher risk of audit?
“The solution is GP Clarity – the speedo to tell you exactly how fast you’re going (using your own stats), and the speed limits to tell you how fast you can go (the stats of your peers). We will send you tailored PSR compliance reports to your email, giving recommendations based on your own data compared to your peers’. It’s a secret weapon that will give you visibility over the indicators that the PSR keep for you (and from you), in real time.”
AHPAS will work closely with GP Clarity to expand the analyses for not only GPs but for other specialists in the field.
Protection
One of the biggest regrets I have going through the litigations and subsequent conviction was the fact that I had very limited financial and legal resource to call upon when I got into trouble.
My medical defence organisations did try and help, but many of the legal expenses and domains were, in my opinion, not covered efficiently.
For that reason I have spent the past 10 months creating AHPAS PROTECT.
AHPAS PROTECT is a new insurance premium as an optional addition to the membership package offered by AHPAS. It will cover nine main domains of potential legal expense for healthcare professionals:?
- Statutory licences issues
- Contract disputes
- Criminal prosecution defence
- Employment issues
- Employee protection (unlawful discrimination)
- Employment restrictive covenants
- Identity theft
- Tax protection
- Property and goods
- Compliance and regulation
- Tenancy disputes
Although this does not replace your compulsory professional indemnity, members will have access to a legal information helpline. We wanted to make sure that this product will be practical, affordable and fair, and we are close to realising that goal.
This is all due to launch in June. David and I are hoping to hit the road to meet you all in your various cities to explain why it is so important for us all to have these two three-fold risk mitigation and protection schemes.
Nobody should have to go through what my friend John experienced. It is our commitment to the profession to ensure we deliver the ultimate defence to ensure we are protected and supported to deliver the great work we all do.
Any questions, please email us at info@ahpas.com.au.
In the meantime, please take care of yourselves and call one of these organisations for help instead of Sarah:
Australasian Doctors Health Network
Dr Anchita Karmakar is the founder and CEO of AHPAS (Australian Health Professionals Advisory Service); a medicolegal liaison officer at Work Legal; and an ACRRM rural generalist independent pathway registrar with a special interest in population health.
