UT Health San Antonio has officially established an Accountable Care Organization (ACO), the UT Health San Antonio Regional Physician Network, and will soon submit an application to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). The UT Health San Antonio Regional Physician Network will officially begin operating on Jan. 1, 2019.

An ACO is a group of physicians and other health care providers who partner together to create a healthier community through value-based care. UT Health San Antonio’s leadership has recognized that it has an opportunity and obligation to lead the transformation of health care delivery directed towards improving health outcomes in South Texas’ diverse community. We have a tradition of a physician-led organization that offers excellence in providing outstanding health care that transforms medicine. The organization also has a history of innovation that meets increasing health care challenges to include payer and patient demands.

The new demand of health care to move from a fee-for-service model to a value-based model requires organizations to rethink the system of providing health care to a population of patients. Innovation is essential, and in order to continue to improve our delivery model, UT Health San Antonio has chosen the Accountable Care Organization (ACO) path similar to that of our fellow institution, UT Southwestern.

UT Health’s forward thinking health care strategies revolve around truly delivering positive results for the patient by driving excellent clinical outcomes while also containing costs. This is a tremendous opportunity to collaborate with community physicians to practice 21st century medicine and move from volume to value-based care, while serving our community.

We are currently meeting with community physicians and physician groups that are considering joining our ACO. In collaboration with the community physicians who choose to participate in our ACO, UT Health San Antonio will work to improve health care in a meaningful way, improve patient experience, reduce costs for our patients and their families, and provide support for community clinicians for mastery of their practice.

We are extremely excited about the next steps in serving our community through innovative approaches to health care. To learn more about the UT Health Regional Physician Network, download the brochure.

If you have any questions about the UT Health San Antonio Regional Physician Network, please contact Brandon Hartman, senior director, Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Operations & Business Development.

All practices will be closed for Memorial Day, May 28. Normal hours will resume on Tuesday, May 29.  The Access Center will be available to answer phone calls at 210-450-9000.

Practice-to-Practice Scheduling (P2P) is now available for most specialty practices. Now, when a patient needs specialty care, all of our primary care locations are to able schedule them with a specialty provider before they leave their appointment. Work will soon begin to make it possible for specialty practices to schedule their patients with any of our primary care providers and locations.

The specialty practices currently participating in P2P scheduling include: bariatric surgery, cardiology, dermatology, diabetes, gastroenterology, general surgery, infectious disease, nephrology, Ob/gyn, ophthalmology, pediatric allergy, plastic surgery, urology and vascular surgery. More of our specialty practices will be adopting P2P scheduling in this summer.

There are now five members of the practice operations team. Because of your dedication and the exceptional care you provide, UT Health Physicians has continued to grow. We have hired more staff and providers, created new practices, opened new locations, and are helping more patients than ever before.

The practice operations team has also grown to help support all of you in your pursuit to provide exceptional care to the patients of UT Health Physicians.

If you have any questions or need any operational assistance, do not hesitate to reach out to your practice operations team. Here is a list of the team members, their contact information and a list of the practices they oversee.

Casey Peterson, Senior Director of Practice Operations
petersoncd@uthscsa.edu

210-450-9002

Jeanette Hernandez, HernandezJ9@uthscsa.edu

210-450-9004
Ms. Hernandez oversees the following practices:

• Neurology
• Alzheimer’s
• Dermatology
• Infectious Disease
• Pulmonary
• Nephrology
• Gastroenterology
• Rheumatology
• Endocrinology
• Diabetes
• Cardiology
• Ob/Gyn & REI
• Psychiatry
• Pediatric Cardiology
• Pediatric Allergy
• Pediatric Neurology

Mary Lou Jew, jewm@uthscsa.edu

210-450-9009
Ms. Jew oversees the radiology practices at the Medical Arts & Research Center and at UT Health Hill Country.

Johnna Nerios, nerios@uthscsa.edu

210-450-9003
Ms. Nerios oversees UT Health Physicians primary care practices at all locations, including:

• Geriatrics and Palliative Care
• Medical Arts & Research Center
• Medical Drive
• UT Health Hill Country
• UT Health Shavano
• UT Health Verde Hills
• UT Health Westover Hills

Dina Wright, wrightd4@uthscsa.edu

210-450-9032
Ms. Wright oversees the following practices:

• Anesthesia and pain management
• Bariatric surgery
• Colorectal surgery
• CT surgery
• ENT
• General surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Ophthalmology
• Orthopedics and podiatry
• Orthotics and prosthetics
• Physical therapy
• Plastic surgery
• Vascular surgery and lab
• Urology

UT Health Physicians is made of up of primary care and specialist physicians. Most of the physicians are specialists, covering every branch of medicine and every system in the body. This includes things like neurosurgery, ophthalmology, OB/GYN, cardiology, pulmonology, orthopedics and more.

Most patients come to our specialists through a referral from another physician – whether inside our practice (UT Health) or outside, from a private practice.  If you have ever been to a specialist, it was probably because you saw a primary care doctor first, or an urgent care or an emergency room doctor – and then they decided you needed to see a specialist.  Orthopedics is one of the most common referrals we see.  If you hurt your arm, hands, legs, back or feet, you are usually referred to an orthopedic specialist.

Jose Gamez      

Making sure that other physicians know about all our practice physicians is the job of our newly-formed Physician Relations team.  The team is led by Jose Gamez, who has 15 years’ experience in physician relations, including medical devices and practice/market development.  He is a San Antonio native who recently moved back home from Denver.

Lisa King

Working with Jose is Lisa King, our newest addition to the team, who brings five years of practice marketing experience and was most recently with University Health System pediatrics – which is made up of UT Health physicians.  This experience gives Lisa a great head start for working with our other specialists who focus on adult health care.  Lisa covers our Hill Country service lines, providing direct support to orthopedics, urology, imaging, and primary care growth initiatives.

Valerie Rendon

The other member of the team is Valerie Rendon, who comes to us with more than 15 years of pharmaceutical sales experience and most recently worked with PVA Associates, a local vascular surgery group. Valerie covers our vascular surgery, surgical oncology and general surgery service lines.

The physician relations team is a part of the marketing group, with its focus directed by UT Health Physicians executive director, Dr. Carlos Rosende. The physician relations team provides referral development support to all areas of the practice, with a current emphasis on growth on the Hill Country service lines (ortho, urology, imaging and primary care) as well as vascular Surgery. The team is also working with our Accountable Care Organization efforts, known as the UT Health San Antonio Regional Physicians Network.

Jose, Lisa and Valerie often remark that the most important players on the team are the providers and staff in the clinics. The service, access and quality they provide is the key to our success. 

The team is happy to meet with any physician or clinical group to help them learn how to build their practice. If you have any questions about Physician Relations or referral development, please contact Jose Gamez (210-450-8347, GamezJ4@uthscsa.edu).

Look for our next article on Best Practices in Optimizing your Referral Development Efforts.

We are recruiting people who are passionate about making lives better through exceptional health care. Meet the newest providers and staff joining UT Health Physicians. Know someone who is passionate about making lives better? Let them know we are hiring at UTHealthSA.org/hr.

April Anaya (orthotics/prosethetics), Frank Buttacavoli (orthopaedics), Matthew Crist (Epic Care team), Christine Fragoso (primary care), Christy Garza (primary care), Bernice Govea (primary care), Gregory Holt (respiratory care), Rachael Lake (primary care), Irene Maldonado (insurance followup), Elvia Martinez (answering service), Sandra Martinez (Mays Cancer Center), Alice Molina (vascular surgery), Noemi Munoz (urology), Eric Ornealas (coding support), Daniel Perez (otolaryngology), Belinda Ramirez (answering service), Delinda Soto (cardiology), Amy Summerlin (neurology)

The quarterly WOW Awards were created to recognize practices, providers and employees who go above and beyond to ensure every patient has the best experience possible at UT Health Physicians. Every day, more than 1,000 patients come to UT Health Physicians to feel better. When our patients have a great experience with us, they feel better, they trust us more and they are more compliant.

They also tell their family and friends to come to UT Health Physicians for excellent care. Every positive patient experience we provide propels our mission to make lives better and sets us apart as the leaders in health care.

WOW Award Winners 

A committee formally recognizes WOW Award winners using the comments and kudos collected from patients and UT Health colleagues. Congratulate this quarter's WOW Award winners when you see them, and thank them for living out our promise to provide exceptional care to our patients.

Patient Experience Practice Champion

At the WOW Award ceremony, the committee also names the quarter's Patient Experience Practice Champion. This champion is determined by the practice that receives the highest scores on the National Research Corporation (NRC) survey question, "Would you recommend this office to a family or friend?" The goal is for every UT Health Physician practice to have their patients answer, "YES" to this question 95.2 percent of the time.

Congratulations to the 

Pulmonary Practice

at the Medical Arts & Research Center

96.4% of their patients said they would recommend their practice to a family or friend.

Following right behind the pulmonary practice are this quarter’s High 5 Practice Winners – the five practices with the next highest percentage of patients who would recommend the practice to family and friends:

This quarter's High 5 Practice Winners are:

otolaryngology/ENT at the Medical Arts & Research Center – 75%

primary care at the Medical Arts & Research Center -70%

medical hemetology/oncology – 67%

urology at the Medical Arts & Research Center – 63%

geriatric medicine at the Medical Arts & Research Center – 63%

Dear colleagues:

There are a number of administrative changes in the Long School of Medicine that we need to announce:

• Effective March 1, 2018, Stephanie Shelton, M.B.A., accepted the administrator position in the Mays Cancer Center. Ms. Shelton had been serving as the interim administrator for the previous nine months.  During this time she has been instrumental in implementing and supporting the strategic initiatives that have evolved from the MD Anderson affiliation. Stephanie will continue to function as interim administrator for the Department of Radiation Oncology and will work closely with Dr. Chul S. Ha until that position is filled on a permanent basis.  

• Effective April 1, 2018, Kristen Hansmann, M.A., CMPE, CHFP, CPC, has accepted the position of director, Patient Financial Services within UT Health Physicians, Revenue Cycle.  As director, Ms. Hansmann will have oversight of coding education and production functions across UT Health Physicians, in addition to providing guidance and direction in support of other aspects of the Revenue Cycle.  Kristen will continue to function as interim administrator for the Department of Anesthesiology and will work closely with Dr. Jeff Andrews until that position is filled on a permanent basis.  

• Effective April 1, 2018, Brandon Hartman, M.B.A., has graciously accepted the senior director, Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Operations & Business Development within UT Health Physicians. As we realign current administrative and operational talent to ensure proper oversight of coordinated quality care initiatives,  Brandon will continue to provide oversight and function as interim administrator for the Primary Care Center and will work closely with Dr. Ramon Cancino until that position is filled on a permanent basis.

• Effective June 1, 2018, Travis Pederson, M.B.A., has accepted the position of manager, Finance & Administration, Department of Otolaryngology.  Travis will continue to function as interim administrator for Graduate Medical Education and will work closely with the new vice dean for GME, Dr. Woodson Scott Jones, until that position is filled on a permanent basis.  

Please join me in congratulating Stephanie, Kristen, Brandon, and Travis in their new roles. The search has been initiated for the anesthesiology, radiation oncology, primary care center and Graduate Medical Education administrator positions.

Thank you,

Gabe Hernandez, MBA, CPA

Vice Dean for Finance

Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine

UT Health providers make a difference in our community every day. Recently, providers were featured in the media for helping to improve the maternal mortality rate, investigating new ways to cure pancreatic cancer and epilepsy, improving health outcomes for people with diabetes and much more.

Dr. Sylvia Botros-Brey - Q & A on Female Pelvic Health – KLUP “The Answer” 

Dr. Robin Brey - Professionalism: Women Neurology Chairs: On Gender Disparity and What They Are Doing About It – Neurology Today 

Dr. Fred Campbell - San Antonio On-Demand Healthcare Company Revives the House Call – The Rivard Report 

Dr. Jose Cavazos - New cannabis drug could help more patients treat seizures if approved by FDA – KENS 5 

Dr. Francisco Cigarroa - Life as transplant surgeon a joy for former UT Chancellor Cigarroa - Austin American-Statesman 

Drs. Bruno Doiron and Sukeshi Arora - Researchers develop new model to test pancreatic cancer drugs, find cure – KENS 5 

Dr. Georges Haidar - Ignoring diabetes symptoms only makes it worse – MySA.com 

Dr. Jennifer Knudtson -  New study links fast food and infertility – KENS 5 

Dr. Michael Liss - Rapamycin Holdings Plans Tests of Old Immune Drug in Prostate Cancer - Xconomy Texas 

Dr. Luci Leykum - 6 Characteristics of an Effective Hospitalist Mentoring Program – Medscape

Drs. James Lukefahr and Ryan Van Ramshorst - Fostering change:  Can recent change to Texas’ child welfare system help make a broken system

better? - Texas Medical Association 

Dr. Ahmed Mansour - Real Men Wear Gowns: A specialized way to remove an enlarged prostate – KENS 5

Drs. Sarah Page-Ramsey and Patrick Ramsey - Plastic Mom. Fake Blood. Real Medicine. – UT System Population Health 

Brenda Powers - Brenda Powers recognized as a Nurse of the Year in Salute to Nurses – San Antonio Express-News 

Dr. Carlos Rosende - Study finds severe shortage of doctors in Texas – KENS 5 

Dr. Sudha Seshadri - Dementia Trend Shows Later Onset with Fewer Years of the Disease – Science Newsline 

Drs. Ronald Stewart and Lillian Liao - Unfiltered: ‘I have never seen that many injured patients by high-velocity weapons all at once.’- Yahoo! 

Drs. Patrick Sung, Robert Hromas and Ruben Mesa  -  UT Health SA gets millions from state to bring talent back home – San Antonio Business Journal

Drs. Thomas Zgonis, Georges Haidar and S. Hinan Ahmed - Losing limbs to a terrible disease - San Antonio Express-News 

Read more news about UT Health San Antonio at the Newsroom.