MedDataCarePro Blog

CMS to report on provider performance

admin — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 13:53:15 +0000

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed rules that will enable consumers and employers to select higher quality, lower cost physicians, hospitals, and other healthcare providers in their area. The new rules will allow organizations that meet with certain qualifications, access to patient – protected Medicare data to produce public reports on physicians, hospitals, and other healthcare providers. The intent is to provide a more accurate snapshot of the performance of physicians and hospitals and make the healthcare system more transparent to promote competition and drive the costs down.

Due to the limited availability of healthcare claims; data employers, consumers, providers, and quality measurement organizations have been frustrated. This has led many health plans to create provider performance reports based solely on the health plan’s own claims, which often represents only a small proportion of a provider’s overall practice. Providers can receive multiple, sometimes contradictory, reports from different insurers. Often, providers are unable to appeal or correct what they perceive to be inaccurate results in these reports. These factors sometimes lead to reports that neither providers nor consumers feel they can use.

The proposed rules seek to change the quality measurement landscape so that it increases transparency for all stakeholders. “Qualified entities” that have the capacity to process data accurately and safely will be required to combine the Medicare claims provided by CMS with private sector claims data, and produce quality reports that are more representative of how providers and suppliers are performing. The reports will help employers and consumers understand more about the relative performance of physicians and other providers in their area. In addition, these rules include strict privacy and security requirements for entities handling Medicare claims data.

This new program will provide for the following activities:

CMS will provide standardized extracts of Medicare claims data from Parts A, B, and D to qualified entities. The data can only be used to evaluate provider and supplier performance and to generate public reports detailing the results.
The data provided to the qualified entity will cover one or more specified geographic area(s).
The qualified entity will pay a fee that covers CMS’ cost of making the data available.
To receive the Medicare claims data, qualified entities will need to have claims data from other sources as well. Combining claims data from multiple sources creates a more complete and accurate picture about provider and supplier performance.
Publicly reporting the results calculated by the qualified entity is important for transparency in healthcare and consumer empowerment. To prevent mistakes, qualified entities must share the reports in confidence with providers and suppliers, prior to their public release. This gives providers and suppliers an opportunity to review the reports and provide necessary corrections.
Publicly released reports will contain aggregated information only, meaning that no individual patient/beneficiary data will be shared or be available.
During the application process, qualified entities will need to demonstrate their capabilities to govern the access, use, and security of Medicare claims data. Qualified entities will be subject to strict security and privacy processes.
CMS will continually monitor qualified entities, and entities that do not follow these procedures risk sanctions, including termination from the program.

Now find Medical Billers and Coders online absolutely free.

admin — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 13:53:43 +0000

There was a time when it was difficult for the physicians to find qualified medical billers and coders in their area. But now with the help of medicalbillersandcoder.com physicians can easily find experienced and qualified billers and coders in their area online, and the added advantage is that this service is absolutely free for physician offices.

“Medical billers and coders” is the largest consortium of medical billers and coders in US. Physicians can find experienced Medical Billers and Coders that are experts in catering to general practices to specialist practices and from Dental to Emergency Billing across U.S. from California to New York and, from Alaska to Hawaii.

Train your front office staff

admin — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 13:49:11 +0000

In the present competitive scenario, marketing your practice is vital to survive. Your front desk executives reflect the persona of your clinic. They interact with patients upfront, hence it is very important that they should be well trained to handle the patients efficiently. To market your practice effectively, your staff needs to be trained in specific skills. Here is what your staff needs to know:

Appointment scheduling: Appointment scheduling is a very crucial step. Your staff should always be updated with your schedule. This can also be done through an EMR system with an appointment management module. Train your staff to use this software for effective scheduling of appointments.

Make sure they are flexible on appointments. For example: when a new patient calls for an appointment, the person who attends the call should ask for their preference; “Would you prefer Monday or Tuesday?” or “Would you prefer morning or afternoon and fix appointments accordingly.

Unique selling point: Your staff should know how your practice is different from other practices – what makes it unique and how this uniqueness attracts and retains new patients.

For example, the emotional connection starts with a real conversation during appointment scheduling the front desk officer can introduce the clinic in the following manner; “Mrs. Jones, let me be the first to welcome you to Dr. Smile`s practice. He is extremely caring and stays updated with all the practices to make your dental treatment comfortable. I promise you that all of us on the team will support his efforts to make your visits as comfortable as possible.”

Customer service: Probably you have often heard this, that any market is not lead by just good products, services or experiences- once. It is by repeated efforts of making the patient feel special that a practice earns its name. And always remember, one happy customer will tell five people, but one unhappy customer will talk to 15 people. Help your staff to focus on patient care.

Always have a dedicated phone line extension for appointment scheduling so that the patient can easily reach your front office. By imparting this simple training to your staff, you can be assured of long-term relationships with your patients that in turn will enhance your brand value.

Modification in e-prescription penalty By CMS

admin — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 13:45:47 +0000

The Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed more exemptions to electronic prescribing requirement that could penalize physicians who do not adopt the technology. The penalty is just one aspect of a Medicare program; created in 2008 this program gives clinicians a bonus if they prescribe electronically to pharmacies, using approved software. The bonus is 1% in 2011 and 2012 and 0.5% in 2013. In the meantime, physicians who do not report a minimum of 10 electronic prescriptions on Medicare claims during the first 6 months of 2011 will experience a 1% pay cut in 2012 that grows to 1.5% in2013 and 2% in 2014 with continued noncompliance.

In the proposed set of regulations released on 26^th May, CMS estimates that roughly 209,000 clinicians could be subjected to the 2012 penalty if they do not become successful e-prescribers. Currently, there are only 2 kinds of exemptions: if a physicians practices in a rural area without sufficient high-speed internet access, and if local pharmacies do not receive electronic prescriptions. However, with the new set of exemptions the following cases would be exempted:

The physician is registered to participate in the Medicare or Medicaid Electronic Health Records (EHR) Incentive Program and has adopted certified EHR technology.
The physician is unable to electronically prescribe because of local, state, or federal law or regulation (such as prescribing controlled substances).
The physician prescribes only occasionally (prescribing fewer than 10 prescriptions from January 1 to June 30).
There are insufficient opportunities to report e-prescribing measures because of program limitations.

Physicians still are required to e-prescribe using a qualifying e-prescribing system and report at least 10 Medicare Part B claims from January 1 through June 30 in 2011 to avoid the 2012 penalty. Physicians interested in applying for an exemption from the 2012 penalty must do so by October 1.

Looking at the large number of physicians who are yet to adopt e-prescribing system it is suggested that physicians should start looking for EHR systems that provide integrated e-prescription facility. This will help them to gain their incentives easily and also save them from the 2012 penalty

Organize Seminars

admin — Tue, 10 May 2011 07:08:05 +0000

One of the smarter ways of marketing a specialty clinic, amongst fellow general physician groups in your area is, to host health seminars. Inviting general physicians in your area and sharing with them the latest trends in your specialty would help increase bonding with them and would position you perfectly as a leader for health and wellness in your community simultaneously you can also attract new patients by word of mouth by these same physicians .

Popular ideas for seminars could cover your specialty developments, most Internal Medicine physicians would like to know the niche areas of healthcare you deal with. Sometimes it is this news that helps them diagnose and recommend a better solution to the patients they have been catering to for years together. A trusted network of healthcare professionals is something every community prefers.

Organizing such event can be a tedious affair, but involving a pharmaceutical company in these events can help your rapport with these pharma giants to improve too. Ultimately it would indirectly help you multiply patient volumes.

AMA starts online tutorial for physicians for Health IT adoption

admin — Tue, 10 May 2011 06:47:18 +0000

AMA (American Medical Association) has introduced a series online tutorial in order to help physicians to adopt health information technology. These series of tutorials include six short narrated modules to provide step-by-step instructions to help physicians choose purchase and implement the best technology systems for their practice.

This online series can specially help single physician’s office to make their process easy for adopting health technology.

The CME-accredited series enables physicians and their staff to align health IT with their patient and practice needs. The tutorials last about eight minutes each and cover all aspects of health IT adoption, including adoption strategy and needs assessment, workflow analysis, technology selection, training and implementation.

The use of health IT can help physicians make better decisions about appropriate treatment plans, provide timely access to patients’ complete medical histories and enable them to determine the best treatment plan for their patients. Physicians who meet meaningful use requirements for health IT can also begin receiving federal incentives this year.

High demand for Femtosecond Lasers for Cataract Surgery

admin — Tue, 10 May 2011 06:45:45 +0000

Cataract extraction surgery is the most common surgical process performed in United States, and new technology has made it much more profitable than it was earlier. The Femtosecond laser can perform a large amount of components from the surgery with excellent accuracy. Femtosecond laser is going to revolutionize cataract surgery. It differs from the traditional method of refractive surgery in a number of ways.

In 2010, ophthalmologists became aware of this new procedure cataract surgery. The potential for laser cataract surgery to dominate the marketplace is unquestionable. As more and more patients are becoming aware of this new procedure the demand for this procedure is increasing.

On the contrary only a few surgeons have experience in using femtosecond lasers for cataract surgery. The biggest challenge standing between the technology’s adoptions and surgeons is the ability of ophthalmic surgeons to add these lasers to their practices cost effectively. Few of the early adopters admitted that the up- front cost is substantially high but long term profits are also good. So, it is advisable for ophthalmologist to adopt this new technology as soon as possible in order to gain long term benefits

Shortage of Physicians in U.S.

admin — Tue, 10 May 2011 06:42:17 +0000

The U.S. healthcare Reform Plan will provide insurance to 32 million Americans who are currently uninsured, as these new patients acquire insurance the demand for physicians and quality healthcare would increase. On the contrary, according to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there would be an acute shortage of physicians.

Projections have shown a baseline shortage of 39,600 physicians by 2015, 63,000 physicians by 2020 and approximately 91,500 physicians by 2025. Foremost in the shortage are physicians in specialties such as cardiology, oncology and emergency medicine. This clearly shows that demand for physicians continues to outstrip supply, and the problem is likely to get worse.

Shortage Of Physician’s in numbers in U.S.
Source: Bureau of labor statistics United States

Reason for this shortage are many but most prominent is that most graduating residents want to stay within 50 miles of home or where they graduated which is adding to the existing strain to maintain quality patient care in mid-sized and smaller cities.

The long-term solution may be in the acceleration of Physician Assistant programs and a reliance on technology to help a new generation of physicians who has accepted technology as a way of life. Electronic health record systems is one of them, as it will improve the workflow of modern health care facilities and help physicians to evolve their approach to patient care. With more and more physicians adopting EHR’s, efficiency of physicians would increase as they would be able to access the patient information from anywhere, which would help them to reach more number of patients and treating them.

Another solution could be, physicians can look for experts to handle their administrative work so that they can concentrate more on treating patients and physicians would not have to worry about their revenue. These steps would definitely help both physicians and patients to overcome this problem of physician’s shortage in U.S.

Can Online Appointment Scheduling be a Better Alternate?

admin — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 09:26:00 +0000

Patient appointments can be considered to be the fundamental factor for a medical establishment’s source of revenue. For better medical practices, streamlining of appointment scheduling is vital for the owner. Online appointment scheduler can reduce the amount of scheduling mistakes as well as time which is wasted from manual operations. Appointment scheduling of the patients can be quite taxing. If prospective patients face problems while trying to arrange for appointments, it can compel them to change their minds and go for a different medical service provider.

Sometimes the staff of a medical provider may fail to pick up phone calls which are one of the major issues faced by patients. Also the medical staff sometimes may not answer voicemails and as a result of which excessively reaching voicemails may pile up. This may happen due to an overwhelming number of incoming patients or simply due to bad work ethics. Also in many cases factors like time constraints and the appearance of unscheduled patients makes appointment scheduling in medical offices a cumbersome task. By the simplification of the appointment scheduling process, more time can be devoted towards patient relationship management. Because of all these reasons online appointment scheduling is considered to be one of the most preferred options of patient registration. The following are some of the features which make online appointment scheduling a preferred alternative:

Cater to Multiple Doctors and Physicians: An online appointment scheduler can be shared amongst a number of doctors and physicians. Providers often have more than one doctor in their medical practice so they are not required to get a separate system to handle the appointment scheduling since the appointment scheduler can be set up to take appointments for numerous doctors in the medical office. Appoints can also be shifted from one doctor to another or one location to the other without hassles

Customizable Form: Creating a customizable form enables the doctors to provide better and a lot more accurate medical service and advice. This can be simply achieved by taking the patients’ insurance details or any other details in relation to the nature of their visit. Different forms can be created by different doctors which makes the system so flexible.

Boosting Efficiency: Online appointment scheduling helps improve overall time management. By helping doctors and medical receptionists, an online appointment scheduler can help upgrade medical practice management. This helps them manage patient appoint rather effectively and quickly and the medical staff deal more with the patients.

Providing Options: With its fast and reliable 24/7 service, an online appointment scheduler can increase the level of care that the provider can deliver to its patients. As a result patient satisfaction also increases. Since most of us have access to internet and use it on a daily basis. Given the option to register a doctor’s appointment online it will be a welcome offering to many of the patients. It has been observed that when the doctor’s schedule is shared online a lot more patients would confirm online and walk in according to their convenience. Cancelled appointments can easily be filled by patients waiting for an earlier appointment.

Maintenance free: If the provider’s appointment scheduling system is a professional one, no maintenance is required on the provider’s part. There is hardly any need to have equipment or software onsite if the online appointment scheduler is a web-based one. The provider can simply choose the level of service required and pay a monthly fee for the package.

These features are what that makes online appointment scheduling a better alternative than paper scheduling. The provider is definitely going to be benefited from this system. Since the patients are satisfied, the provider will also reap the benefits and thus revenue is also increased.

Marketing tip of the month

admin — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 15:55:09 +0000

Being available on the web: “60 % Patients prefer to know their physician up front”

The medium of search for specialists by tech savvy patients is enforcing Physicians to be present on the web. Doctors are using free online directories to provide a short description of their services and contact details. Doctors absent from the web are definitely missing from the patient’s eye.

According to research about 60% of the patients prefer to first interact with their doctors online. More over they prefer to know the profile of the doctors prior to their visit. Patients also opt to search clinics or doctors on the web in case referred by other patients, and simultaneously schedule appointments. This, coupled with viral marketing and social media marketing such as a Facebook fan page, regular tweets on twitter, and blogs on useful health information will prove to be beneficial. A quick browse through the net will help you identify sites where you can advertise your practice.

Over and above this, making yourself visible at social gatherings, networking events such as seminars, health affairs, along with other doctors and physicians in the vicinity will increase your prospects for referral marketing.

Some free online directories: