NCEB scans our clients’ patient demographics, charge forms, payment documents, patient statement stubs, etc and stores them on site for safe and easy retrieval. We also have back ups on site as well as off site to ensure safety and integrity of the information.

Industry experts estimate that less than 5% of third party billing companies, as well as medical provider offices, uses this level of sophistication to keep their offices running smoothly. We can help you to protect your business.

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Looks like a few House of Representative Leaders have sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius requesting the immediate suspension of MU Incentive payments.
The House Leaders are citing that EHRs lack a clear interoperability plan and the hurdles for Meaningful Use are set too low.

At the end of the linked article, you can access a copy of the actual letter sent to Sebelius.

http://emrdailynews.com/2012/10/04/breaking-house-leaders-express-concern-that-nearly-10-billion-in-health-it-spending-may-have-been-wasted/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EmrDailyNews+%28EMR+Daily+News%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Not sure where this will end up… but we thought it was important to share…

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Molina and Paramount are joining Wellcare, Caresource and Buckeye as the Medicaid HMOs for this are. As these two new carriers are probably going to get blasted with provider credentialing requests; we suggest that you get started sooner, rather than later.

The contact information for Molina is 800.642.4168

For Paramount credentialing, go to the url: http://www.paramounthealthcare.com/body.cfm?id=108.
That will give you the directions of how to apply and the address to send the application to. You can also email them at: paramount.providerrelations@promedica.org.

Both of these companies say credentialing can take 8 – 12 weeks.

We suggest you get started, now!

If you are not using a qualified EMR/EHR by October 3, 2012, you will be losing the chance at the full $44,000. There is a $5,000 decrease in incentive payments for a start after October 3, 2012 and before October 3, 2013. You lose a full $20,000 of total possible incentive payments if you don’t start by October 3, 2014.

Worst of all, you start losing 1% of Medicare reimbursement starting with dates of service Jan 1, 2015 if you haven’t started demonstrating meaningful use by October 3, 2014. That decrease will increase each year until is reaches the maximum of 5% being withheld from your Medicare checks.

If you are a qualified Medicaid provider for this purpose, you could lose $63,750 if you aren’t fulfilling meaningful use criteria. In order to be eligible for the Medicaid incentive you must have 30% of your volume in Medicaid patients or 20% if a pediatrician. The Medicaid Incentive does not decrease with time. It does cease if you don’t meet meaningful use requirements by 2015.

ONLY 58 DAYS TO GO TO GET THE FULL INCENTIVE!

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A new rule proposed by CMS will give two big breaks to EHR providers:

1. Providers that failed to submit the 10 e-prescription transactions by 6/30/2012 will be able to avoid the Medicare payment penalty in 2013 if they achieve Meaningful Use of a certified EHR by the end of this year.

2. Providers that show intent to participate in the EHR program by adopting certified EHR by a date to be set by CMS would also avoid the 2013 Medicare payment penalty for lack of e-prescribing.

The public has 60 days to comment on proposed rules before they are enacted.

Usually, the rules are enacted once proposed, unless there is a huge backlash in comments. We don’t anticipate that. So, if you were one who did not meet the 10 e-prescription transactions by June, 30th, 2012, you have an escape from the penalty…. ONLY IF YOU ADOPT A CERTIFIED EHR, SOON!!!

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Please, AVOID this problem by making sure you have submitted the E&M code and the G8553 at the same time for at least for 10 billable services provided from 1/1/12 through 6/30/12 for traditional Medicare patients. This will help to ensure you are not charged 1.5% of your Medicare reimbursement in 2013. We also suggest that you do it at least 30 times to help to ensure that in 2014 you won’t lose 2% of your Medicare reimbursement. We actually suggest that you just go ahead and e-prescribe for all of your patients. The benefits far outweigh the nuisance factor.

June 30th is creeping up on us and we want you to be sure you don’t lose money.

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We have seen many practices that don’t verify that the patient has a copay, how much it may be, and don’t accept credit card payments. These are habits that will destroy an office’s cash flow. First, figure it costs about $7.00, according to industry standards, to send out a patient statement. This includes the employee time, the postage, the statement, etc. So, if the copay is $15.00 (for example), you’ve lost half of it because you sent out a statement.

Secondly, not checking on their cards if there is a copay or not checking in your practice management system that their insurance charges a copay means you lose the chance to collect up to $40.00 per visit per each patient that comes in to your office. Say that one third of your patients have copays that average to $15.00 per patient and you see 25 patients per day. That means you are not collecting a possible $120.00 when you can do it essentially for free. If you then have to send patient statements out AND the patient actually pays it after receiving the first statement you’ve only lost $56.00 of the possible $120.00. Then, if you have to send more than one statement you can see how that $120.00 can be eaten up entirely within 2 months.

There are many ways a patient can pay: cash, check or credit card/debit card/HSA card (aka “plastic”). If your practice does not have the ability to accept the different forms of plastic, you are doing yourself AND the patient a disservice. There are many avenues to collect “plastic” payments and some are much more cost effective than others. Due to many of the new bank laws, it can sometimes be a bit of a bother setting it up, but it is well worth any initial hassle. If you are only collecting $300.00 per month via “plastic”, and your average patient statement or copay is $15.00, you are collecting from 20 patients which means you are saving $140.00. The dollars add up and if your average bills are higher to your patients, the dollars add up more quickly.

Please don’t handcuff your practice by not collecting copays up front and by not accepting credit/debit/HSA cards for payment of any balance.

If you want ideas of where to look for good credit card accepting options, how to look for copay amounts owed or any other practice management issues, please call us at our toll free number of 800-795-1794 or you can email me at sairwin@nceb.net

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Can Affect You” will be posted at the online e-zine of Physician’s Practice. In our industry, it appears that more and more billing companies are merging and you should know what to look for to keep your practice in the “pink”.

That link is www.physicianspractice.com

If you would like a pre-publication copy of the blog, let me know. I’ll be happy to send it out to you.

Our toll free number is 800-795-1794 or you can email me at sairwin@nceb.net

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Employees, just like physicians, can be disgruntled, unhappy, having issues at home. All of these attributes, and more, can make for a dent in your income. If they are disgruntled or unhappy, “It’s not fair the doctor makes that much” (even though they don’t understand the concept of overhead) I should have a raise! If they are having financial issues at home, the same possible problem.

That is why lately more and more employers are checking Facebook and other social media as well as doing criminal checks on their current and future employees.

Another way to avoid cash flow hits is to outsource to a reputable billing service. The service acts as a check and balance to the cash flow from the front desk as well as has the staff to have its own checks and balances on billing, payment posting and fighting the insurance companies. In fact, if only one person handles your billing, whether in your office or at a billing service; be very afraid!

Not all people are bad and not all good people are good all the time. You never know what is happening. People can be distracted by outside influences you know nothing about and as a result are no longer doing good or excellent work. Those people also need vacation time and without cross-training and knowledge, the cash flow takes a hit.

The best way to ensure accuracy and good cash flow is to have more than one person involved. If you only have one biller, cash flow is tight or are looking for more efficiency with more accuracy, look for a good billing service. It will save you money as well as make you money!

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The first area of importance, and I believe the most important, is teaching the front desk staff how to act. Be polite, smile, don’t be distracted when dealing with patients… three very important traits. The front desk staff is a medical practices first impression to a patient. The waiting room can be old fashioned and not comfortable, but if the people at the front desk are friendly, polite and professional; the impression of your practice is that you care about people. The best marketing you could ask for!!

The second area of importance, and I believe many would argue is even more important than attitude, is teaching the front staff how to ask for money. The front desk staff must collect copays prior to service. They must also collect any balances that are outstanding on the patient’s accounts and they need to do that with empathy and professionalism. Smacking gum and saying you owe $XXX is not the way to make your patients happy.

It is always good to have the procedures of the front desk staff (and any other position) written down. Ongoing training on different types of coverages that people may have as well as ongoing training for customer service are both vital to a practices fiscal health.

We would love to hear your comments on these deadly sins. Please email them to info@nceb.net and we will collect them and publish them at a later date! We all can learn more if we all contribute to the knowledge.

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