AMS President Jo Surpin Announced as a 2014 Woman of Distinction by the Philadelphia Business Journal

I am very proud to announce that that Philadelphia Business Journal selected Applied Medical Software president and my long-time business partner with AMS Jo Surpin as a 2014 Woman of Distinction award recipient.  Jo will be recognized along with the greater Philadelphia region’s most dynamic women on Tuesday, November 18, 2014.

Understanding Jo’s contribution begins with her pivotal role in the development and implementation of ‘payment by the case’, “…arguably the most influential innovation in health care financing”, according to an article published recently in the Annals of Internal Medicine. I had the privilege of meeting Jo when she joined my staff in 1976 – a group charged   with designing a payment system for hospitals based on Diagnosis Related Groups.  One among a collection of 8 Medicare demonstrations all aimed at finding a replacement for cost based reimbursement, the NJ demonstration ultimately provided the model for the Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System.  DRGs have a lengthy history – a kind of “generational” project. – and when I left the project in 1980 after completing the design phase,  Jo continued on, assuming responsibility for its implementation.  Over 30 years later, the DRG system is still in use today.

Both Jo and I went our separate ways – she to consulting and me to law.  But however successful our private sector business lives, our work on the bigger stage was not finished – and we knew it.  Key to virtually all of the current health reform strategies is the application of ‘performance based incentives’ to providers.  This was the concept that we had pioneered together, and that she implemented in 1980. But that first initiative applied only to hospitals; left out were the physicians – the decision makers.  The application of customary “capitalist” type incentives to physicians was considered highly controversial.  But when the success of payment by the case for hospitals gradually began to influence policy thinking, we stepped back in and took the next step:  “gainsharing”, the direct payment of incentives by hospitals to physicians based on performance.  The new project took far longer to design and implement, but we were persistent.   And just like our earlier initiative, this too began to have an impact.

Jo’s pioneering work as co-founder of AMS has led to the company becoming a national leader in gainsharing policy, strategy and practical application. AMS’ patented Performance Based Incentive System^® serves to emphasize physician alignment with hospitals resulting in lower cost of care and improved outcomes.  With long running gainsharing engagements with Continuum Health Partners (now Mount Sinai Health System), the New Jersey Hospital Association and with the Greater New York Hospital Association, Jo has overseen the expansion in 2014 to the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, the Maryland Hospital Association, and the Oklahoma-based Integris system.  AHRQ in its Innovation Profiles reported that the AMS system has saved 12 New Jersey demonstration hospitals $113 million; these results do not include the expansion to a total of 23 hospitals in New Jersey and those in other states.

Jo’s commitment to healthcare is evident as she serves as Chair of the Board of Salus University and as a board member of Philadelphia-based Home Care Associates.

I wanted to share a couple of comments from Jo’s peers.  Richard Cohen, PhD., President of Public Health Management Corp., said, “Jo is among the most respected in her field nationally. She has led the thinking in health care policy since her early days with the state of NJ and has continued with enormous success both in her field and in business.”  Salus University president Mike Mittelman, OD, MPH, stated: “Jo is a powerhouse in healthcare and has been extremely influential and successful in moving many significant healthcare-related issues forward, to include helping to move Salus University from a single purpose optometry college to a multifaceted, complex healthcare sciences university.”

The recognition by the Philadelphia Business Journal affirms what all of us who know Jo already know…that she is committed to making a difference in health care.

Congratulations to my colleague and long-time friend, Jo Surpin!