Mary Pat: Where does the name of your company, Lutrum, come from?
Ed Garay: When I was developing a name for this company, I didn’t want to be like every other healthcare IT services company with health, md, medical, etc. as part of their name. I wanted it to represent something deeper about what we do and who we are as an IT organization. Although we are IT specialists, I realized that one of the things that I am always working with my team on is to listen and understand our clients needs. Which lead me to creating the name, Lutrum. Lutrum is a slight variant of the Latin word Lutra. Lutra means otter in English. And the otter symbolizes empathy.
Mary Pat: What led up to you starting your own business?
Ed Garay: In late 2000, I worked as an IT Director for an organization that continued to downsize. I came to a career crossroad. With starting to support under 100 systems, and the network running in tip-top shape, there was really no need for me to be there full-time in the long run. So, do I look for another job that cant possibly be as fulfilling as where I was, or do I take a leap of faith and start up my own business and share my knowledge with the masses? Through the feedback of mentors and other resources that knew me personally and professionally, I was highly motivated to take the leap of faith and have never looked back. My business career has evolved over the years and has naturally lead me to Lutrum.
Mary Pat: What are Managed IT Services?
In between polishing off leftover turkey and stuffing, we’re looking back over some of our most popular posts from the month in case you might’ve missed them the first go round. Thankfully Presenting, The Best of Manage My Practice, November 2011!
- Compliance: a critical issue for all practices, but a subject so expansive, where do you even begin? Learn the “Big Three” with Stark, False Claims and Anti-Kickback Laws: Easy Ways to Stay Compliant with the Big Three in Healthcare
- Are your record retention policies up to date? Can you say with confidence that you have hard copies of everything you should? Find out with Record Retention Simplified – The Ultimate Guideline
- Are you or someone you know thinking about Medical Coding as a a possible career? Follow along with Coder Bob in Tales of a Coder Part III: School Begins
- Are you the kind of leader that can see your group through the toughest of times? Bob Cooper asks practice managers in Are You a Resilient Leader?
We’ve started this monthly wrap-up to make sure you don’t miss any of the great stuff we post throughout the month on Manage My Practice, but we also want to hear from you! What were your favorite posts and discussions this month? Did we skip over your favorite from November? Let us know in the comments!
In health care, we are “blessed” with an abundance of rules, policies, standards and laws. In Health Care Regulation in America: Complexity, Confrontation, and Compromise, Robert I. Field, professor of health management and policy at Drexel University School of Public Health, observes the following:
”Regulation shapes all aspects of America’s fragmented health care industry, from the flow of dollars to the communication between physicians and patients. It is the engine that translates public policy into action. While the health and lives of patients, as well as almost one-sixth of the national economy depend on its effectiveness, health care regulation in America is bewilderingly complex.”
Here are some of the most important regulations in health care that you should not only know about, but should be actively managing with a robust compliance plan.
As we finish off another month here at MMP, we wanted to go back over some of our most popular posts from the month and get ready for another busy, productive, and meaningful month. Presenting, The Best of Manage My Practice, October 2011!
- Are you ready for the holidays? How about the New Year? Even though it’s still a few months off, make sure you don’t see an interruption in your practice’s cashflow by getting ready for the January 1st 5010 deadline!
- CMS has released the Premiums and Deductibles for Medicare patients for 2012, so you can start informing staff and patients now. More importantly, will 2012 be the year that you get serious about collecting deductibles at the time of service?
- Mary Pat’s “Collection Basics”series about the fundamentals of Revenue Cycle Management in Physician offices is now at part three! Check out Patient Collections Basics: Developing a Financial Assistance Program.
- One of Healthcare’s most misunderstood and underutilized documents- the Medicare Advance Beneficiary Notice- is changing for 2012. Make sure you’re ready.
- And finally, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of he department of Health and Human services has released its 2012 Work Plan for areas it will concentrate on investigating. Better safe than sorry! Mary Pat goes over the highlights here.
We’ve started this monthly wrap-up to make sure you don’t miss any of the great stuff we post throughout the month on Manage My Practice, but we also want to hear from you! What were your favorite posts and discussions this month? Did we skip over your favorite from October? Let us know in the comments!
After Mary Pat’s “Coding for the Rest of Us” post this July, she sat down with Lyndsey Coates from Nuesoft as part of their monthly Healthcare IT Podcast to discuss more about how even a basic understanding of coding among patient contacting and administrative staff can improve patient experiences as well as the group’s bottom line. Check it out!
Dr. Peter Polack has a new 8 minute podcast on “Scanning Paper Records Into Your EMR System: Setting Up An Action Plan” with yours truly. We discuss some tips and best practices including:
- The importance of storyboarding your strategy for paper chart conversion
- How to decide if you need more employees for your conversion process
- Scanning vs. indexing
- When to know if you need to outsource the scanning process
- How much of the old paper record do you need to convert?
Click here to listen.
As Manage My Practice just passed the two-year mark, it seems like an excellent time to hear what’s on your mind. Please take 2 minutes or so and answer my 5-question survey.
