Dear Readers: Here’s an email I got today asking me to publicize this poll to my readers. I thought it was interesting, so here it is. I look forward to the results.
Hi Mary Pat,
Here at Software Advice, we’ve been getting a lot of questions about the HITECH Act and how practices can get a piece of the Stimulus pie. This got us thinking about EMR adoption rates. Has the stimulus influenced practices to buy? Or has it just reinvigorated research?
We may get some insight this Friday. Recovery.gov is supposed to post their report on stimulus spending. This will include information on any grants awarded between February 17th (the signing of the bill) and September 30th.
In the meantime, we’d like to know your anecdotes. Are more doctors buying because of Stimulus incentives? Take our survey at: Obama’s EMR/EHR Stimulus of 2009 – Creating Buyers or Tire Kickers? Be sure to come back Friday to see the results!
Thanks again for your help.
Best,
Houston
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Houston Neal
Software Advice
www.softwareadvice.com
Office: (512) 364-0117
Fax: (360) 838-7866
Skype: hjneal
Email: houston@softwareadvice.com
I heard something this morning on National Public Radio (NPR) that really got me excited – a very short snippet from Tim Brown about a project he’d like to work on – his vision of the electronic medical record of the future. I think it’s worth 3 minutes of your time to listen to how his team has been working on health care problems, the key to the creative answers, how to get buy-in and what he would really love to to get his hands around.
So you’ve been trying to become employed in healthcare, or you’ve tried to enter healthcare management, or you’re trying to move from one job in healthcare to another. You’ve read my post about my search for a job in healthcare and have been soldiering on, but you’re just not getting anywhere. You might have education, but no experience or you might have experience but no formal education.
Healthcare is no different from any other field. It’s a hodgepodge of what you know and who you know. What everyone is looking for is expertise and authority and that can’t always be demonstrated by a degree or years of experience. A new buzz phrase is “What is your value proposition?” or “How will you pay for your salary and make me (doctor, practice, hospital, health plan) money besides?”
If you want to enter the field or climb the ladder in healthcare management, you need to demonstrate that you have something of value that someone wants. Try some non-traditional ways of gaining expertise and demonstrating value, like the ones I list here. Yes, each of these will take time in addition to your current job, but it has the potential to give you a hand up to your next job. If you don’t currently have a job, you have lots of time to work on the list below, and when potential employers ask what you’ve been doing while unemployed, you have a great answer!
- Blog about the field you want to enter – learn about the field and write about it.
- Write about being in the middle of a transitional field and your experiences along the way – if you’re a compelling writer, I’ll publish it as a series on my blog!
- Create a site of resources for others that already do what you want to do.
- Interview others in the field you want to enter and publish the interviews.
- Ask people if you can shadow them for one day or a half day to understand what they do to see if you’re on the right track (who would say “no”? I wouldn’t.)
- If you haven’t used voice recognition, invest in a basic copy of Dragon and learn it inside and out.
- Learn how electronic health records (EHRs) work. If you’ve never used one, gain experience by finding someone who has one and volunteer your time to write a user’s guide for them, or to use their user’s guide and critique it for them. Do that for as many different EHRs as you can find.
- Think creatively about jobs in a department you want to be in, just not in the job you want to be in – call temp agencies, computer schools, software companies, any healthcare entity going through a conversion, etc.
- Tell everyone (if you’re free to talk about it) what you’re looking for – you never know who might help you find it.
- Volunteer to do an informal project for someone in the field – some topic they need information about but never have the time to do.
- Join the American College of Medical Practice Executives (ACMPE) and pursue board certification and become a Fellow in the college. These credentials are quickly becoming the standard in the field.
- Get a Google Health account and learn how to use it inside and out.
- Get a Microsoft Health Vault account and learn how to use it inside and out.
- Get accounts on any other personal health record (PHR) platform you can find.
- Publish case studies on common problems in other fields and how they were solved, and apply those solutions to healthcare problems.
- Put a chart on your resume showing each skill you have and how it transfers to healthcare and brings added value to your potential employer.
- If you don’t yet, get a Twitter account (free) and start conversations with others in the field.
- If you don’t yet, get a LinkedIn account (free) and join groups that are talking about the things you want to learn about (Twitter will give you more info and friends, LinkedIn will make you more business connections)
- If you aren’t already, sign up for websites that focus on what you are interested in, read them religiously and comment on their posts.
- If you don’t already, get your resume on visualcv.com (still free I think) Add any goodies you can to your visualcv that demonstrate you know your stuff – recommendations, videos, charts, white papers, etc.
- Find someone to mentor you who is well-positioned (locally, regionally and nationally.)
- Volunteer to do some pro bono work for your local professional group – your state MGMA, your state medical society, etc.
- Join Toastmasters and polish your “elevator speech” so you can effortlessly let others know who you are and where you’re heading.
- Let me know what you plan to do, and how I can help.
Best wishes,
Mary Pat
I invited readers of MMP, colleagues on LinkedIn, and Tweeps (friends on Twitter) to comment on my post “101 ideas for Increasing Revenue and Decreasing Expenses.” I’ve listed their ideas below and hope you’ll chime in on the comments with even more ideas! Thanks to everyone for contributing.
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Partner at B2B CFO® – Experienced CFO for Rent. Fast, Effective, Affordable.
Consider adding a part-time CFO to the mix. Many medical offices have very weak financial capability or understanding. Assistance can range from better financial reports, capital expenditure analysis, budgeting and exit plans.
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Eastern Region Sales Manager – Billing Tree
1) Build a relationship with the patient before he/she leaves the practice.
2) Make sure they know you are expecting payment on the portion they owe, and when you are expecting that payment.
3) Let them know what your process is for collecting, and when they will go to an outside agency.
4) Enable a web site to take payments 24 hours a day.
5) Set up an IVR system to take phone payments after hours.
6) Communicate your available payment acceptance methods in writing, on the phone and every time you speak with your patients.
7) Send the invoice or statement when you intend to send it.
Re-inforce the payment acceptance methods on the first and any subsequent invoices.
9) Adopt a plan for following up with any patients that don’t pay after 10 days.
10) Get email addresses from all of your patients and their permission to contact them in that manner.
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Sr. Product/Process Trainer and EDI Implementation Consultant
One suggestion would be to integrate the revenue cycle mangement function with your clearinghouse {for electronic billing} with integrated solutions like Coding database and Updates, Industry Broadcast, Performance and Audit reports for Claim Edits, Transmission and Rejects. Also, better training resources for billing staff actively into the practice management system.
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Consultant at Pacific Women’s Medical Group
I would add effective cash management (even if interest rates are so low).
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Medical and Business Consultant at Transworld Systems
Utilize a Flat Fee Collections Agency for Non-responsive Patient Pay concerns.
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Principal Consultant – Culbert Healthcare Solutions
- Do you collect co-payments on the way in rather than on the way out?
- Does your PM/Scheduling system show the patient co-payment and outstanding patient balance in the appointment screen? If not, then can you download a listing for your front desk staff?
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DPT Healthcare Consulting & Training
I’d like to add “acknowledge the patient with eye contact” and offer “polished customer service” and they will WANT to return = return on your $ $
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Managing Partner, Dynamic Grape Companies
One other thought… don’t be afraid to try new technology. For example, one of my clients has developed a kiosk that allows patients to take their own weight and bp and electronically feeds the data into their EMR. The whole set up costs about $3500 and can save a ton of staff time. Tele-health in general should also be considered.
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VP at Operations
If you select a reasonably priced EMR and you implement enhancements then you more than save on staff cost. Keep in mind that my practice rolled out the EMR five years ago, so we have had time to get it right. Here are some of the savings/revenue opportunities:1. We utilize our electronic technology to send text messages and emails to our patients to remind them of their appointments. This function alone saves my practice one FTE. Not only do we save with staff time we improve patient satisfaction, as our Blackberry users loves the email or text that they can directly add to their calendars. The revenue enhancement to this function, we decrease no shows and lag time in our physician’s schedules.
2. The robust reporting within the EMR allows the organization to assemble important quality measures that we use in contract negotiations. Without the EMR this would be a labor intensive task.
3. We are able to push a secure message to our patients regarding their pathology results saving staff time on the telephone and increasing patient satisfaction by eliminating a visit just to obtain a normal result.
4. No more chasing charts for a phone message. My call center takes ALL clinical messages. This is attached to the patient’s electronic chart and routed to either a nurse to respond or a physician. This process greatly reduces staff time, decreases the time it takes to respond to the patient’s issue and provides a legal record of the telephone call which is often missed in a paper environment.
5. We receive a discount on our mal-practice insurance because in an electronic environment it is guarantee that your notes are legible.
6. The formulary function built into most EMR’s provides the physician will a real time snapshot if a prescription that he/she is about to write is covered by the patient’s health plan and provides alternatives if available.
I have just highlighted only a couple examples of the administrative benefits. There are many more. It is tough to imagine going back to a paper chart.
I have done the math and we could cover our current EMR with the incentives offered through the government initiative.
I will comment that physicians need to be trained on how to use the EMR. You can lose site of the patient and focus the entire visit on the computer versus the patient, however, we teach our physicians that the patient first and then chart completion. We conduct patient satisfaction surveys and I rarely receive a complaint regarding the physician’s time at the computer. I do however, receive praises from patients regarding the ePrescribe as it decreases their wait times when the arrive at the pharmacy, the prescription is ready.
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Okay Readers, it’s your turn – what’s your secret weapon for increasing revenue or decreasing expenses?
Mary Pat
UPDATE: The poll is now closed and the webinar has passed, but you can still listen to the webinar here until April 2010:
You might have noticed that I’m a big fan of FREE. I believe sharing information and experience builds relationships. Giving information and experience away for free is my ideal. My blog is free, although I must hint that my first eBook is about to be published and will be available here at Manage My Practice. It will not be free. But it will be a great deal and it will pay for itself in 31 days.
What do I get out of blogging? You! You freely share your information and your experience with me, and we both learn and become better. We also get to know each other. Through my blog I’ve met the most wonderful bloggers and authors and managers and vendors and people who have enriched my life.
I have a favor to ask of you. I am participating in a webinar on October 14th – the details are at the bottom of this post. The webinar, of course, is FREE. I am exploring the future of traditional medical transcription and it would help me so much if you would answer one question. I really, really want to know what you think.
Please click here to answer one question.
Thank you very much!
Mary Pat
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Evolving Medical Transcription: Technology’s Impact on Traditional Transcription’s Processes
What will happen to dictation and transcription in the coming age of electronic medical records? With the help of computers, doctors and nurses do more of the documentation themselves, and transcriptionists may find themselves becoming editors rather than typists.
When: October 14, 2009
Time: 2 pm ET/ 11 am PT
Duration: 1 hour
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