This is a guest post from Joe Hage, CEO of medical device marketing consultancy Medical Marcom.
HIMMS fellow Michael Paquin advises how to set up an appropriate EMR selection meeting in this short video.
When do you think about customer service in your practice?
When things start heading downhill? You overhear something that surprises you, complaints seem to be on the rise and you think, “time for another customer service seminar.”
The problem with this, of course, is that customer service is a day-to-day relationship. If you wait until you recognize the signs of things heading in the wrong direction, it could be too late. Just like other relationships, customer service in your practice needs consistent attention and creativity to keep things fresh and in the forefront of everyone’s mind. Just like other relationships, customer service is a living thing that needs care and feeding.
Here is what Customer Service isn’t:
Grand Rounds is a weekly summary of the best healthcare writing online, featuring stories, opinion and analysis from doctors, nurses, patients, researchers and administrators, as well as journalists. Each Tuesday, a different blogger takes the helm, publishing a new edition of Grand Rounds on their site. Each edition features the hosts picks for the ten best healthcare links of the week.
This week, one of my very favorite bloggers hosts Grand Rounds, Dr. Bryan Vartabedian of the famed blog 33charts.com. Dr. V. is a pediatric gastroenterologist at Texas Children’s Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine. If you’ve never read Dr. V’s blog, try it – his writing is excellent.
Here’s his intro:
Welcome to this edition of Medical Grand Rounds. I scoured the web and pulled together what I think are some of the more interesting posts and news items of the past couple of weeks. Ive tried to explore some voices that perhaps havent crossed your radar. Weve got sociologists, medical students, IT gurus, medical futurists and even a couple of doctors. Some of the discussions have related posts that you might find interesting. Posts are not listed in any particular order.
Give yourself a little gift and click here to read Grand Rounds.
Here is a collection of the latest Medicare updates to get your New Year off to a good informed start:
Pay Cut: Physicians continue to receive 2011 pay rates for an additional two months while lawmakers seek a compromise on a package that could last through the remainder of 2012 (jump to story)
PQRS - National Provider Call on Physician Quality Reporting System & Electronic Prescribing Incentive Program (jump to story)
ICD-10: Did you miss the November 17th National Provider Call on ICD-10? YouTube Slideshow, Podcasts here (jump to story)
5010: New FAQs for 90 Day Discretionary Enforcement Period of ASC X12 Version 5010 (jump to story
Medicare Enrollment: Having trouble committing to Medicare this year? You have five more weeks to think about it. (jump to story)
eRx: The 2012 Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Program payment adjustment feedback report ain’t gonna happen due to the huge volume of exemptions filed.(jump to story)
IDTF: Did you get your accreditation to be able to perform the technical component of MRIs, CTs and Nuclear Medicine tests for Medicare patients? (jump to story)
PQRS: CMS announces the posting of 2012 Physician Quality Reporting System educational products (jump to story)
EFT & RA: Interim Final Rule Standards for the Health Care Electronic Funds Transfers (EFT) and Remittance Advice transaction (RA) (jump to story)
There are two things I’ve found over the years that medical offices have a hard time giving up.
One is the appointment book.
The other is patient statements.
My first experience with creating patient statements was placing patient ledger cards on the copier. The copies were folded and slid into envelopes and mailed to patients. Despite a bad photocopy of handwriting of several different people squashed onto skinny lines, patients routinely understood what the bill said and paid the total. That was 25 years ago.
Today the process of sending statements to patients is largely outsourced along with electronic claims, but it’s not very electronic. If we can get paid by insurance companies electronically, why not get paid by patients electronically?
Happy New Year!
What will your practice achieve in the coming year? Many people make resolutions to improve themselves when the new year rolls around, but what about your practice? With all the changes in the industry, it can be tempting to just “hang on tight” through all the speculation and uncertainty, but technology and strong leadership will allow the highest performing practices and groups to get ahead and cement their market position in trying times.
To help your practice be a leader in the market, Manage My Practice is presenting a series of 12 articles outlining strategies, (or “Resolutions”, if you will) to take your practice to the next level in the coming year. Look for the next article on Thursday, and share your practice’s resolutions, and ideas for 2012 below! Don’t want to miss a single article? Type your email address in the upper right-hand corner box and get the articles fresh off the presses into your inbox.
What is a Practice Dashboard?
You’ve probably heard the adage ‘You can’t manage what you can’t measure!” The Dashboard is a way to capture key pieces of data in your practice and demonstrate your management skills to your stakeholders.
January is a tough time for independent medical practices for several reasons:
- In private practices, the physicians typically don’t carry over any cash from year to year, so the practice starts in January from a cash position of zero.
- Most deductibles begin in January – if practices don’t collect deductibles at time of service, they find themselves hurting because their revenue goes way down.
- The Medicare debacle every year creates improper (lower) reimbursement as Congress struggles to the last possible minute over physician payments. (Here’s a simple yet helpful exercise for Congress. Congress, close your eyes and think of your favorite Medicare-age person. Is it you, your wife, your mother, your father, your neighbor or best friend? Now think of that person not being able to see a doctor when they need to because all doctors have opted out of Medicare and the only place they can get care is the local Emergency Room. It is a very ugly picture. What other profession is MADE to accept payment that is less than it costs to provide? Who do you love, Congress, who won’t be able to get care?)
- Many annual maintenance contracts come due in January
- Deals on large purchases are good (think EMRs) as vendors try to book revenue in the current year. Practices tend to make commitments to purchases now that will have to be paid for in the new year
What’s a practice to do?
Everyone knows what a mess we’ve had in the past when CMS has had to pay according to the SGR, then it was reversed at the last minute and CMS had to pay additional amounts on services they had considered paid in full – a headache no matter how good your software is.
To avoid that, CMS will hold any claims for 10 business days before re-evaluating based on any change in the Medicare fee schedule for 2012. This will not actually hold anyone’s payments, as Medicare pays their claims in 14 days.
CMS made the following announcement today:
Like other medical conditions, behavioral health issues span the spectrum from mild to significant mental illness (SMI). There are many national studies, such as the Impact Model, showing the benefits of identification and treatment of depression in the primary care setting. Many practices have added a mental health clinician or social worker to their staff to expand on-site care for those needing lower level behavioral health services and to reduce the stigma for patients accessing mental health services. It is care for those with more significant mental illness that becomes challenging to the primary care practice.
What is the relationship of SMI to physical health?
The National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare reports that 3 out of 5 individuals with a SMI die from a preventable health condition. In general, the life expectancy of a person with SMI is 25 years less than the average population. They have a higher incidence of chronic medical conditions for individuals exacerbated by smoking, obesity, homelessness, and sometimes by the very drugs used to treat their psychiatric condition. There are many reasons for the lack of medical care for these individuals including social isolation, cost, transportation, and inability to fit in to a primary care practice culture of focused discussions. Many use the emergency department for routine care rather than establishing and maintaining a relationship with a primary care practice.
Barriers to behavioral health services and to primary care for behavioral health patients
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?
