2010 Mid Year Medicare Fee Schedule Released

As you know, CMS updated the 2010 Medicare Fee schedule to provide for a 2.2% increase, effective June 1, 2010. DataPlus has worked hard to adjust our system to allow for two Medicare Fee Schedules in the same year. This change is now available to all of our clients.

Please follow the instructions below to take advantage of this change and to update your DataPlus system correctly.

If your DataPlus system has a customized RVU table, please disregard this notice, and DO NOT run any update. If you are unsure, please contact our Support Team.

This process can be performed on any computer that has DataPlus on it by following the steps below. This does not have to be done from the server.

1. Open DataPlus and navigate to the "Utilities Menu."
2. Select "Check for CMS Updates" and select "Continue." DataPlus will compare your system with the master database and determine if your system is up-to-date.
3. Once updates are found, select "Continue" again to update your database.

After the updates are completed, it is time to maintain your Medicare contracts, as follows:

1. All of your current 2010 Medicare contacts must have the contract end dates modified. Open each 2010 Medicare contract and change the contract end date to 05/31/2010. Remember that you probably have at least two Medicare Contracts (Facility and Non-Facility), and perhaps even a third (ASC). Each one of these must have the contract end date changed.
2. Next you must create new Medicare 2010 Contracts / Fee Schedules. Set these contracts up just as you have before (remember the name must be unique), but make the contract start date 06/01/2010 and the end date 12/31/2010.
3. Create the fee schedule as you have done in the past.
4. Remember that you will need a separate contract for Facility, Non-Facility, and ASC (if you provide services in an Ambulatory Surgical Center).

After you have completed the updates on your contracts and fee schedules, HealthPort users should run Step 5. Once this process runs, Payment Audit will take the changes in the Medicare Fee schedule and remove any items that are no longer appropriate due to the changes. It will also add to any new underpaid items. For Centricity users, this will occur during your nightly update.

Not a current user of our Revenue Recovery system? Interested in finding additional revenue? Using the DataPlus Revenue Recovery Module, including Contracts, Fee Schedules, and Payment Audit, can bring an additional 6% to your practice's bottom line! Call us today for a demonstration!

The Affordable Care Act Leaps Into Social Media With Its Own Facebook Fan Page!

by Mary Pat Whaley http://www.managemypractice.com/

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced the launch of HealthCare.gov on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Healthcare.gov.

“HealthCare.gov on Facebook offers Facebook users a new tool to understand and stay informed about the Affordable Care Act,” said Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “This new page is another resource that people can use to learn about and discuss health care issues that are important to them, their family, or their small business.”

HealthCare.gov on Facebook provides additional resources that allow consumers to take health care into their own hands.

HealthCare.gov on Facebook allows people to:

• Search for insurance coverage using our “Insurance Finder” tool. The tool asks users to fill out two fields with basic information about themselves and the state they live in. Users are then redirected to a page on HealthCare.gov that continues with the insurance finder process based on the information provided.
  
• Share thoughts and ideas with other members of the HealthCare.gov network.
  
• Learn more about what the Affordable Care Act means for individuals, families, or small businesses.
  
• Stay informed with new blog posts and webchats.

To join HealthCare.gov on Facebook visit http://www.facebook.com/Healthcare.gov, and click the “Like” button at the top of the page.

*Text from today’s press release


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How My Practice Knew We Were Ready for EMR

by Mary Pat Whaley http://www.managemypractice.com/

My current practice is getting ready to go live on Electronic Medical Records (EMR) in just two short months, but it’s taken us over a year to get here. When I first started this job, we were supposed to go live with EMR in two months. After I’d had a chance to speak with everyone, I just knew the timing wasn’t right for the EMR. We would need to be able to run, and at that moment we were just starting to crawl.

What were the signs we weren’t ready?

• communication problems with the vendor, who provided the existing practice management system and the new EMR
• issues with the practice management system which had been mis-identified as being support-related
• basic decisions had not been made: one shared medical record for all clinics or individual records for each clinic?
• no single point person who was keeping everything together
  lots of frustrated and worried faces – did we know what we were doing?

A sigh of relief…

Although we knew we wanted the EMR and we had already made the investment, we also knew it might be a train wreck if we didn’t get some other questions answered first. When I announced we were going to delay the go-live until we had some other issues resolved, there was a sigh of relief from all involved.

What did we do to get ready for EMR?

1. We attacked the support problems by rerouting all support issues through one person – me. I kept a detailed log of all support issues and the resolution of each. I found the vendor to be surprisingly helpful and issues relatively easy to resolve. As I asked questions and we fixed issues, we found that much of our problem was training-related.

2. We held a major training event where all non-clinical staff were retrained to use the practice management system and everyone was given new cheat sheets for the correct way to use the system.

3. We realized that staff were worried about the impact of the EMR because the providers were overwhelmed with the current workload. They didn’t know how we would get through the pre-live work, the huge challenge that is the go-live and first few months of adjustment. After some intense evaluation, we changed our scheduling strategy and moved established visits from 15 minutes to 20 minutes, adding four work-in appointments and setting rules for adding more than four work-ins.

4. We took the vitals out of the halls and into the exam rooms, making the office quieter and the patient interactions private.

5. We also got control of most of our paper processes that weren’t working. We color-coded messages, re-educated patients about new ways of communicating with us and we managed to bring our fax and phone call volumes down to a manageable number.

6. We assigned nurses to the providers and asked the provider-nurse duos to put their arms around their patient panels as a team. The patients love it. We moved a float nurse to a triage nurse position to start taking all requests for same day sick visits and scheduling them appropriately.

7. We are soon to add an answering service (I prefer the term “virtual receptionist”) to our phones. The virtual receptionists (1000 miles away!) will take calls for the nurses and providers, typing them directly into our EMR.

8. We also started a front-end collection system, bringing our accounts receivable under control by adding automated eligibility, a new financial policy, collecting co-pays at check-in, calling patients with old balances before they arrived for their visit, and instituting a discount for non-insured patients.

How will you know when your practice is ready for EMR?

• You are not overwhelmed on a day-to-day basis. If your practice isn’t running well without an EMR, it is not going to run better with an EMR. If you are having operational issues, consider having a consultant help you set up new processes to handle the hurdles you’re facing now. The EMR does not fix operational issues, with the possible exception of lost paper charts.
• Your staffing is stable. There will always be some employees coming and going, but if you are experiencing one of those cyclical shifts when you have several new staff at once (especially nurses), you might want to give them a little more time to get a handle on their jobs before introducing EMR.
• You have your practice management act together – your PM works well and is up-to-date.
• Your finances are in order. If it takes several months of lower productivity, followed by less collections, you can weather the storm because you are on top of the dollars.

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22 Ways You Will Use QR (Quick Response) Codes in Healthcare in the Future (if You’re Smart!)

by Mary Pat Whaley http://www.managemypractice.com/

A QR (Quick Response or Quick Read) Code is a two-dimensional matrix/bar code. Users hold their phone up to the code displayed on a sign, in a book, on a computer screen, tv, or almost anywhere. The phone camera snaps the code and takes the user to a website or video with more information – no typing needed – just point and click.

QR Codes are most common in Japan where they are currently the most popular type of two dimensional codes. (definition courtesy of Mashapedia = wikipedia and Mashable)

- Billboards advertising hospitals and medical groups will have QR codes so travelers can get more information about facilities or get directions to the closest Emergency Department, Urgent Care or family practice.

- Television advertising for pharmaceuticals will have QR codes so viewers can get more information on the spot.

- Healthcare facilities will have QR codes for all types of information and videos that providers and nurses will instruct patients to scan based on their health problems.

- Magazines and newspapers will have QR codes that readers can scan to get health information and health product coupons.

- Scanning QR codes when exercising or purchasing healthy foods will get you reward points with your health plan, your doctor or your employer.

- Comparison of foods that you should or should not buy in grocery stores based on your individual health problems will be easy when you scan the food’s QR codes.

- Caregivers will scan QR codes to receive information and videos for caring for their loved one at home.

- When purchasing over the counter medications, vitamins and supplements, you will scan the QR to make sure the medication isn’t contraindicated for any prescription medication you are taking.

- Scanning the QR code on food or cleaning products will let you know if they contain anything that you are allergic to.

- At health fairs, attendees will scan QR codes for more information on health topics and your facility and services.

- Disposable diapers will each come with a unique QR code that Moms (and babies) can scan to get childcare tips, games, songs and medical advice.

- Urgent Care facilities and Emergency Rooms will have QR codes for instant access to wait times.

- QR codes in healthcare facilities will let users download helpful mobile healthcare applications like those that help you control your chronic illness or lose weight.

- In print advertising for physicians, potential patients will scan the QR code to view the physicians talking about their background, their specialties and their desire to have you as a new patient!

- Referring patients to facilities or specialty practices will be much easier when patients scan the QR code for the referral and receive information, instructions and directions to the appointment.

- Healthcare facilities will give out t-shirts and carrying bags promoting their services and the QR codes on them will spread the word to others. (Yes, people will scan each others’ t-shirt codes!)

- Patients taking home holter monitors and CPAPs will be able to scan the QR code on the machine to get a “how-to” video on using it.

- Patients taking home sample medications from physician offices will have QR codes on the bag to scan to remember how they are to take the samples.

- Temporary tatoo QR codes will identify those patients who won’t wear identifying bracelets, have dementia, or tend to wander away.

- Hospital patients will scan the menu broadcast on their TV to order their daily meals.

- If you are going to be late to your doctor’s appointment, you will scan a QR code to email an alert to the office that you are on the way. (Wait, maybe that’s too easy!)

- Pharmacies will have QRs loaded with prescription prices by insurance company plan on their website so providers can compare different drugs and chose the best drug for the patient at the best price.


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:::Holiday Hours Reminder:::

DataPlus corporate and support offices will be closed Monday, September 6th in honor of Labor Day. Normal office hours will resume Tuesday, September 7th. We wish you a safe and enjoyable holiday.