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February 10, 2011

Latest from Kareo

How to Hire - and Keep - the Best Biller

By Elizabeth W. Woodcock, MBA, FACMPE, CPC

Getting good results in billing starts with having the right employees. Getting a top-performing crew - and keeping it together - can be a challenge. Smart organizations know that hiring the wrong employee is costly - so costly, in fact, that it is well worth the extra effort to hire the right employee the first time around - every time. Here are important steps both in hiring - and keeping - the best medical biller... Read More

You are invited to join us for a complimentary one-hour webinar:

Best Practices in Medical Billing: How to Incentivize Your Staff for Optimal Performance

Tuesday, February 15, 2011
1:00 PM EST/10:00 AM PST

Speaker: Elizabeth W. Woodcock, MBA, FACMPE, CPC

Are you looking for new ways to supercharge your billing staff's performance? Would you like to offer incentives that will really work but without spending a lot of money or creating a new "entitlement" program for staff? In this complimentary webinar, you'll learn the ins and out of designing creative and affordable staff incentives, putting them into action and - most importantly - assessing how well they work. You'll gain insights on how to:

Identify the areas of staff performance to target with incentives
Determine the means and methods to incentive performance
Execute an effective incentive plan
Effectively measure results
And much more

Register Now

Medical Billing Tips: Adding - and Billing for - a Non-Physician Practitioner in Your Multi-Specialty Practice

By Betsy Nicoletti

The physicians of Fairview Medical Group met to consider hiring a Non-Physician Practitioner (NPP). The internists reported that their same day appointments filled up fifteen minutes after the phone lines opened each day, leaving scarce available appointments for acute visits. The General Surgeons wanted help with post-operative visits. The practice manager was in agreement. The idea seemed promising when someone asked, "What are the rules for billing an NPP?"... Read More

Best Practices

Maximizing the Value of Your Billing Office and Medical Billing Software

By Judy Capko

Are you really maximizing the value of your practice management system to get the best billing performance? Even some top-notch billing staff can get mired in doing things a certain way because they know what they are doing and it has always worked for them. But in today's environment, everyone needs to take a closer look at the processes involved in what they do... Read More

Understanding the RVU in Practice Management: Getting the Most Out of Using It in Your Practice

By Bhagwan Satiani, MD, MBA, FACS, FACHE

Under the Social Security Act, Medicare establishes a national fee schedule for physicians based upon Relative Value Units (RVUs). Do you understand how to use them in your practice for cost benchmarking, assessing practice efficiency and other key measurements? Here's a quick primer on how to use RVUs in your practice... Read More

Case Study

"Software Updates Were Always Frustrating. With Kareo, We've Never Had Any Downtime."

Kim Rangel, Howard LaRoche, MD

Kim Rangel has been handling the billing for Dr. Howard LaRoche, a Texas neurologist, for nearly 16 years. For most of those years, she lived with the shortcomings of a medical billing software that she felt left much to be desired. "I am not a fan of Medisoft," she shares... Read More

Case Study

"When Something Seems Too Good to Be True, It Usually Is. Kareo Is for Real."

Lori Laupola, Advanced Billing Solutions

Lori Laupola of Hawaii never set out to become a medical biller. But when a doctor at the hospital where she works in administration asked to help him get his bills out, she agreed. That was in 1998. "At first, I would process his bills manually," she laughs. Lori began researching the field and became quite efficient by using the latest technological tools available... Read More

Billing Tip of the Month

Use "Tasks" to Flag Items for Follow-Up

By Barbara Schug, Best Billing Service, Las Vegas, NV

We have really started using the "Tasks" in Kareo when we need to renew PA, RX's, etc.--anything that we have to flag. The task can be assigned to whichever employee is working on that patient/doctor, and when the date it's due comes up, that employee is alerted when they sign into Kareo that day... Read More

Top News and Ideas from Industry

EMR Spending Expected to Double in 4 Years

Pamela Lewis Dolan, Amednews, Feb. 1, 2011

Government incentives for using electronic medical records will result in spending on systems doubling by 2015, according to a report by IDC Health Insights. However, the study notes that much of that growth will come closer to end of that projected period, because vendors are having trouble keeping up with the orders... Read More

Jury Still Out on Whether EMRs Improve Patient Care

Pamela Lewis Dolan, Amednews, Feb. 7, 2011

Thirteen years of studies have not proven that health information technology can improve the quality of care - but they also haven't proven that it can't, according to a group of British researchers... Read More

Thinking of Buying Data Breach Insurance? Here Are Some Things to Consider

Pamela Lewis Dolan, Amednews, Jan. 31, 2011

A new type of insurance is designed to protect health care organizations from a crippling financial loss in the event of a data breach. The stand-alone insurance policies would cover the expenses a practice can expect when a data breach occurs. And those expenses are rising each year... Read More

What Part Does a Coder Play in ICD-10 Today?

AAPC News, Feb. 3, 2011

When you're waiting out a storm, a smart idea is to take cover in a basement until the storm has passed. Many physicians think they can follow this approach with ICD-10 implementation in 2013; not so, says AAPC expert Julie Leu, CPC, CPMA, CPC-I. This "wait and see" approach likely will cause a lot of heartache and damage to the practice's bottom line. Leu suggests a few resources that can help physicians prepare and not have to wait out the storm... Read More

RAC Monitor: The Audit is Finished - Now What?

Betty Johnson, CPC, CPC-I, CCS-P, PCS, RMC, CCP, CIC, CPC-H, CPCD, RACMonitor.com, Jan. 19, 2011

In most offices across the country, audits are being performed, have been performed or are slated to be performed. Some are being performed internally, some externally. In every case, there's the lingering question: what do we do when the audit is finished? My suggested answer is to... Read More

New AWV Codes: Here's What the MACs Are Saying

Dchandhok, Coding News, Feb. 3, 2011

Stop worrying if your claims were denied; you still have a chance, as many carriers are reprocessing. Almost a year ago, practices were told that Medicare will cover an annual wellness visit (AWV) for Part B beneficiaries effective Jan. 1 and last month, CMS announced the new codes for the AWVs. Everything seemed to look perfect until came the time for claims submissions and came the denials along with it... Read More

Blue Cross Blue Shield Settlement Agreement Expires May 31; AMA Offers Resources

AMA Practice Management Alert, Feb. 9, 2011

One way organized medicine has addressed unfair payer practices has been settlements with major commercial health insurers. A key settlement still in effect is the Blue Cross Blue Shield settlement; make sure your practice is benefiting from the physician protections this settlement offers before the settlement expires on May 31, 2011. Visit the AMA's Web site to access numerous resources on the Blue Cross Blue Shield settlement, including an archived webinar... Read More