Tag Archives: chronic pain

Attract And Retain Patients Within Your Network In Seven Simple Steps

Did you know? More than 80% of the patients rely on online reviews to evaluate patients. 8 out of 10 Americans internet users have researched topics including diseases, treatments, health insurance, a particular doctor or hospital. They do not go to the specialist just because they were referred to. Indeed patients spend a lot of time researching about the hospital and other options. Hospitals try to seek the attention of the patients through advertisements. But in this world of growing technology, ads through radios and billboards have become old-fashioned. So the hospitals are quite lost with the following questions in mind,

  • How can we reach our ideal patients at the right time with the right message?
  • How can we keep them happy and loyal?
  • If potential patients are no longer reacting to traditional advertising and promotional methods then what are they responding to?

It is through Patient Value Journey.

The way a patient chooses their health care provider shows what consumers want from a product or service. Below is the 7-step Patient Value Journey that can help practices turn patients into appointments and advocates of their practice.

The Patient Value Journey

Millions of Americans are embracing technology. From online search to wearables, they are transforming the patient journey at record-breaking speed. Google receives 63,000 searches per second on any given day and health care is the third most searched topic.

Considering the present reality, how can a practice drive more patient appointments both online and offline? The best marketing strategies begin and end with how a patient finds a practice and the process that flow after their first appointment.

1) Attaining Patient Awareness

A potential patient first becomes aware of the practice and its doctor(s) during the Patient Awareness Stage. Perhaps they have a health problem or concern, are researching a health condition and potential treatment.

In this early phase of the patient journey, the patient has a problem. The practice must present their solution while showing them what differentiates them from other practices. Potential patients can become aware of a practice in the following ways:

  • Seeing an advertisement
  • Finding the practice on social media
  • Receiving a referral from another doctor, friend or family member
  • Viewing the practice website as a search result on Google
  • Meeting at a health fair or community event

All these avenues present significant opportunities for a practice to reach potential patients both online and offline.

2) Patient Engagement

After becoming aware of the practice, a potential patient will take action to learn more of their doctor(s). After grabbing their attention, the practice must trigger them to interact with you or their social circles. Downloading a digital asset (white paper, checklist or eBook) from your practice website

There are numerous ways patients can engage with the practice including:

  • Searching specifically by name for the practice on Google
  • Visiting physician review sites to check their overall score
  • Sharing, commenting or liking one of their social media posts
  • Clicking on an ad or post that drives back to their website
  • Asking peers (online or offline) about their experience with the practice
  • Visiting the practice website

Digital marketing, social media, and website strategies are critical for bringing the patients to the subscription phase. When new visitors arrive at the practice’s website, it must impress the users in a few minutes. The site must have an eye-catching design, have killer content, and be easy to navigate. In addition to being desktop-friendly, the website must also be mobile-friendly.

3) Patient Subscription

In stage 3, potential patients will opt in to view or receive additional content from the practice. Here, a prospective patient likes what they have seen so far, but isn’t ready to commit to an appointment just yet. They are, however, seriously considering that practice for their health care needs.

What patient actions can the practice expect in this phase of the journey?

  • Joining an email list for the practice’s newsletter
  • “Liking” the page(s) on social media to receive updates in their newsfeed
  • RSVPing to attend a talk or seminar
  • Signing up for a webinar discussing a particular pain point or treatment option

There are several tactics a practice can employ to optimize patient subscriptions.

  • Keep blogs updated and post relevant content that readers can share across their social networks
  • Respond (ideally in real-time) to comments on their social media pages
  • Add social sharing buttons to their blog posts, newsletters, and general emails
  • Encourage readers to share their posts on their social media networks

4) Conversion

In the Conversion phase, the potential patient is satisfied with their research and is now ready to become a patient of the practice with a scheduled office visit. Upon entering the conversion stage, a patient will:

  • Book an appointment and schedule an office visit via the website or by phone
  • Set up a time for an in-office consultation about services
  • Not cancel the appointment

To ensure a patient’s smooth flow from subscription to conversion, the practice must make the transition easy for them.

If a potential patient spends precious minutes on the website trying to figure out how to contact or book an appointment, they’ll just give up in frustration. The site must make it easy for patients to schedule a visit on every single page.

5) Achieving Diagnosis and Treatment

In the diagnosis and treatment phase of the patient journey, the medical team diagnoses and prescribes treatment to the patient. The patient receives immediate value in the form of a diagnosis or treatment plan following the appointment.

Depending on the condition, the patient is under observation or conservative treatment over multiple visits and monitoring.

6) Ascension

As part of their journey, patients may or may not be prescribed additional treatments. It depends on their condition and their response to initial treatment(s) in the diagnosis and treatment phase.

Some patients will receive continued treatment as needed. Some others may be referred to supplementary services in or outside of the practice. While others may require surgery and rehabilitation.

7) Advocacy

In the Advocacy stage, the patient has completed their treatment protocol and is satisfied with the outcome of their care. They are now in a position to advocate for the practice both online and offline.

Patients can share positive feedback with the world by:

  • Providing an online review or rating on the physician(s) review website(s)
  • Taking part in a video testimonial to share their brilliant outcomes and benefits with other potential patients
  • Become the subject of a case study

Patient advocates are one of the most valuable assets for a practice. Patient success stories create a connection, build trust, credibility, and interest to motivate potential patients to answer a call-to-action.

Making the Patient Value Journey Work For You

The patient-physician relationship is a symbiotic two-way relationship. The patients can provide transparent feedback which can positively impact the start of other patient journeys.

Mapping the medical practice’s goals with Patient Value Journey helps in understanding the audience’s mindset and behavior. It can hone the practice’s short-term, quarterly wins and activities that contribute to reaching their long-term goals.

Using technology to solve patient-related problems

If your practice is facing problems related to managing patient traffic, patient referrals, chronic care management, remote patient monitoring or anything at all, HealthViewX is always there to solve your operational issues and optimize the workflow. To know in detail about our solution, schedule a demo with us.

 

References

http://www.internetlivestats.com/google-search-statistics/

https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/pew-study-health-information-third-most-popular-online-pursuit

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3077086/t/more-people-search-health-online/#.W4zdVc4zbIW

https://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/how-patients-use-online-reviews/

How Can Physicians Benefit From HealthViewX Chronic Care Management Solution

More than half of the U.S population is suffering from various chronic conditions. Such patients need continued care and support from their physicians. Considering the physicians’ busy schedule, they cannot extend special support to every other patient with chronic conditions. This directly affects chronic patients. Both physicians and patients face a lot of challenges in the process of giving care to chronic patients.

Care Management Workflow for Chronic Patients

Let us consider a scenario to explain the care management workflow for chronic patients.

  1. The chronic patient gets sick – Lily is a diabetic patient who also had blood pressure. She fell down and hurt her head so severely that she started bleeding. As she was diabetic, the wound did not heal. She wants to visit Dr. Matthews who is her PCP.
  2. PCP examines the patient – Dr. Matthews is a busy physician who runs a clinic. Lily waits for two hours to get his appointment. The doctor examines Lily along long hours of her waiting. He advises her to stay in the hospital for two days. The nurses there take good care of her by giving her medications on time, attending to her whenever in need, etc.
  3. The patient gets discharged – After two days, Lily feels that she is all right. She is discharged from the hospital. Dr.Matthews prescribes her medications to be followed strictly to get completely well.
  4. Patient falls ill again – Though Lily takes care of herself, the wound starts bleeding again. She tries reaching the doctor but to no avail. It was only after a day did she get his appointment again.
  5. The patient is readmitted – Dr. Matthews examines her again. He finds that she did not take the medications appropriately. He advises her to stay in the hospital for another day.

Challenges faced by physicians

Though Dr.Matthews took good care of Lily, it could not avoid her get readmission. If only he had been more available to Lily virtually, this would not have happened. So what factors stop Matthews from being available to Lily?

  1. Outdated technology – Dr.Matthews’ clinic has a manual appointment scheduling method. Hundreds of patients call the clinic every day and the possibility of one getting an appointment is only 10%. This prevents him from catering to patients who need immediate diagnosis and attention.
  2. Limited resources – The availability of staff is less in number. Even if Dr.Matthews recruited new people, it would increase his operating costs significantly. The use of a new technology to manage the patient traffic is also not a great idea as it is costly.
  3. No remote patient monitoring tool – Patient readmissions can be avoided only when Dr.Matthews gives continuous care to his patients. He does not have a remote patient monitoring tool or the staff availability to handle it. Because of this, he is finding it difficult to be available to his patients.

Chronic Care Management Program

CMS was spending a lot of money on patient’s insurance who were suffering from chronic conditions. In order to cut down the expenses on hospital admissions, the CMS introduced the Chronic Care Management (CCM) program. Through Chronic Care Management program, the physician can give more attention and care to the patient.

What is Chronic Care Management?

Medicare defines Chronic Care Management (CCM) as non-face-to-face services provided to its beneficiaries with multiple (two or more) significant chronic conditions. In addition to office visits and other face-to-face encounters (billed separately), these services include

  • Communication with the patient
  • Health professionals being available both electronically and by phone for care coordination, medication management, and being accessible to patients.

HealthViewX Chronic Care Management solution to simplify the process

Chronic Care Management program is indeed a good idea to track your patients regularly. But when done manually, it becomes another burden for the physician. This is when a Chronic Care Management software comes to play. It reduces the time and manual effort spent in giving the CCM services. Let us consider the same scenario to explain the Chronic Care Management workflow,

  1. The chronic patient gets sick – Lily is a diabetic patient who also had blood pressure. She fell down and hurt her head so severely that she started bleeding. As she was diabetic, the wound did not heal. She wants to visit Dr. Matthews who is her PCP.
  2. PCP examines the patient – Dr. Matthews is a busy physician who runs a clinic. As he is Lily’s PCP, she has HealthViewX application in which she can see the doctor’s availability. She fixes an appointment with the doctor in no time. Dr.Matthews examines her and advises her to stay in the hospital for two days. The nurses there take good care of her by giving her medications on time, attending to her whenever in need, etc.
  3. The patient gets discharged – After two days, Lily feels that she is all right. She is discharged from the hospital. Dr.Matthews prescribes her a care plan with medications and exercises to be followed strictly adhered to.
  4. The patient is continuously monitored – Lily takes care of herself by adhering to the care plan prescribed. She gets monthly calls from the CCM team. If at all she falls sick, the application will help her to reach out to the physician as soon as possible.

HealthViewX Chronic Care Management solution features

HealthViewX Chronic Care Management solution has the following features that make the process simpler for physicians and patients,

  • Inbuilt audio, video calling and messaging features – HealthViewX Chronic Care Management solution has inbuilt video and audio calling features. It helps in giving Chronic Care Management services to their patients. Secure messaging is also available through which the physicians and the patients can communicate.
  • Automated call log feature – After a call, care plan creation or any action related to CCM health services, the system automatically adds call logs. It reduces the physician’s manual effort is logging the call logs.
  • Preventive Care plans – HealthViewX solution supports care plans for the Chronic Care Management service for a patient. The physician can create a care plan depending on the patient’s health report. It helps in monitoring the patient’s vitals.
  • Chronic Care Management Analytics – Dashboards with intuitive charts and tables give complete analytics of the Chronic Care Management services. It provides a clear picture of the revenue perspective.
  • Consolidated Report – The physician can generate a consolidated report of the Chronic Care Management services given for a particular period. This makes it easy for the billing practitioner for getting the Medicare reimbursements.
  • HIPAA compliance – HealthViewX Chronic Care Management is HIPAA compliant. It facilitates secure data exchange. The solution manages all patient-related documents securely.

HealthViewX Chronic Care Management solution has features that suit the physicians best. To know more about our Chronic Care Management solution, schedule a demo with us.

Physicians Complete Guide to Chronic Care Management

        Senior citizens with one or more chronic conditions have a hard time managing their health. CMS was spending a lot of money on patient’s insurance who were suffering from chronic conditions. In order to cut down the expenses on hospital admissions, the CMS introduced the Chronic Care Management program. Patients usually visit their physicians for chronic care once or twice a year. With a Chronic Care Management program, a patient’s health improves due to increased attention and care. They can also spend less time on health issues and more on what they like to do.

What is Chronic Care Management?

Medicare defines Chronic Care Management program as non-face-to-face service provided to its beneficiaries with multiple (two or more) significant chronic conditions. In addition to office visits and other face-to-face encounters (billed separately), these services include

  • Communication with the patient
  • Health professionals being available both electronically and by phone for care coordination, medication management, and being accessible to patients.

Time-consuming process

Despite the increased Medicare reimbursement rates, patients do not get CCM services due to the physician’s time constraints. Chronic Care Management program requires a lot of time and effort from the physician. Unfortunately, providers must meet a number of requirements to qualify for a CCM Medicare reimbursement. These include:  

  • Twenty minutes of non-face-to-face conversation per month with the patient
  • Use of a certified EHR
  • Create a patient care plan based on the assessments and available resources
  • Provide the patient with a copy of the monthly updated care plan and document the same in the EHR
  • Ensure that the care plan is available electronically to anyone within the practice providing CCM services
  • Share the care plan electronically outside the practice as appropriate  
  • Ensure 24/7 access to care management services
  • Ensure continuity of care with a designated practitioner or member of the care team who will take care of successive routine appointments

The list goes on at considerable length defining the care practice must give. The fact sheet offered by the CMS goes up to eleven pages with multiple requirements to bill for CPT code 99490. This can become quite cumbersome for any practice, considering that the Medicare reimbursements are only $42.60/patient/month.

Steps to improve the Chronic Care Management program

1.Building a strong team

If a practice chooses to offer CCM services, it will be an investment. The demands include

  • Additional staffing with additional salaries,
  • Benefits and increased workload for management.
  • Additional office space depending on your current facility
  • It is important for the practice to set up a plan of action to calculate the required additional staff members required and the exact cost of this service. The practice must,
  • Start by assessing how many patients in the practice will be eligible to receive CCM services. 
  • Identify how many people are needed to give quality CCM services to their patients and also additional salaries and benefits, added office space, etc.
  • It is important to analyze the merits and demerits from a financial perspective. Even if a practice is not profiting from CCM in the first stages, it is always possible to derive profit later.

2.Outsourcing Chronic Care Management services

Many private practices and hospitals who want to offer CCM services but cannot the implementation process can opt for outsourcing their CCM. There are vendors who provide this service and understand the new requirements better for reimbursement eligibility. In essence, they become an extension of the practice and require minimal financial investment from the provider. By this, the practice can manage the risk factors, patient experience, and profit better. A study on outsourcing chronic care management for diabetes patients found that those who participated in the outsourced care,

  • Rated the experience more positively
  • Demonstrated better clinical outcomes than those who received clinic-based care

3.Using a Chronic Care Management software

Chronic Care Management software can reduce the time and the manual effort spent in giving the CCM services. HealthViewX Chronic Care Management solution has the following features that make the process simpler,

  • Inbuilt audio, video calling and messaging features – HealthViewX Chronic Care Management solution has inbuilt video and audio calling features. It helps in giving Chronic Care Management services to their patients. Secure messaging is also available through which the physicians and the patients can communicate.
  • Automated call log feature – After a call, care plan creation or any action related to CCM health services, the system automatically adds call logs. It reduces the physician’s manual effort is logging the call logs.
  • Preventive Care plans – HealthViewX solution supports care plans for the Chronic Care Management service for a patient. The physician can create a care plan depending on the patient’s health report. It helps in monitoring the patient’s vitals.
  • Chronic Care Management Analytics – Dashboards with intuitive charts and tables give complete analytics of the Chronic Care Management services. It provides a clear picture of the revenue perspective.
  • Consolidated Report – The physician can generate a consolidated report of the Chronic Care Management services given for a particular period. This makes it easy for the billing practitioner for getting the Medicare reimbursements.
  • HIPAA compliance – HealthViewX Chronic Care Management is HIPAA-compliant. It facilitates secure data exchange. The solution manages all patient-related documents securely.

A healthcare practice following the above steps will find significant improvement in their Chronic Care Management program. HealthViewX Chronic Care Management software has features that suit practices as well as CCM vendors. To know more about our Chronic Care Management solution, schedule a demo with us.

 

References

Wolf, M. S., Seligman, H., Davis, T. C., Fleming, D. A., Curtis, L. M., Pandit, A. U., … & DeWalt, D. A. (2014). Clinic-Based Versus Outsourced Implementation of a Diabetes Health Literacy Intervention. Journal of general internal medicine, 29(1), 59-67.

Improving Patient Referral Management Workflow Between Federally Qualified Health Centers & Specialists Clinics/Imaging Centers

Federally Qualified Health Centers and what do they do

A Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) is a community-based organization that provides comprehensive primary care and preventive care, including health, oral, and mental health/substance abuse services to persons of all ages, regardless of their ability to pay or health insurance status. Thus, they are a critical component of the health care safety net. FQHCs are called Community/Migrant Health Centers (C/MHC), Community Health Centers (CHC), and 330 Funded Clinics. FQHCs are automatically designated as health professional shortage facilities. a non-profitable, consumer-directed healthcare organization. FQHC serves the underserved, underinsured and uninsured people, and provides them with access to high quality and preventive medical health care. FQHCs were originally meant to provide comprehensive health services to the medically underserved to reduce the patient load on hospital emergency rooms.

FQHCs include community health centers, migrant health centers, health care for the homeless health centers, public housing primary care centers, and health center program “look-alikes.” They also include outpatient health programs or facilities operated by a tribe or tribal organization or by an urban Indian organization. FQHCs are paid based on the FQHC Prospective Payment System (PPS) for medically-necessary primary health services and qualified preventive health services furnished by an FQHC practitioner.

Their mission has changed since their founding. Their mission now is to enhance primary care services in underserved urban and rural communities

Patient Referral Management in Federally Qualified Health Centers

Federally Qualified Health Centers comprises of PCPs who offer primary health care services and related services to residents of a defined geographic area that is medically underserved. Many patients visit a PCP in a day. Federally Qualified Health Centers do not have the facilities for giving specialized treatments or for taking advanced tests. So, when a patient requires any specialist medical attention, the PCP refers him/her to the most suitable imaging center or specialty practice.

Federally Qualified Health Centers mostly refer their patients out of the network. The referral workflow from the perspective of a referring provider is as follows.

  • The PCP sends the referral through the EHR/EMR to the referral coordination team.
  • The referral coördinator will study the patient demographics and understand the required diagnosis.
  • The team coordinates for insurance preauthorization to cover the medical expenses for the required treatment/services.
  • Based on these, the referral coordinator will find the right specialist or imaging center for further diagnosis.
  • After finding the right specialist or imaging center, the patient details are sent out as a referral.
  • Community Health Systems sends referrals through various sources like phone, fax, email, etc.
  • The referral coordinator chooses the source depending on the receiving provider’s convenience.

The gap between the Federally Qualified Health Center and specialty care

A referral process may become inefficient and ineffective if the Federally Qualified Health Centers and the specialty clinics/imaging centers fail to communicate. When there is no proper communication from the specialty centers/imaging centers the community healthcare network finds it difficult to understand the progress of the referral. Let us see it from different perspectives to understand why there is a communication gap.      

  • From a referring provider’s perspective, the referral coordinator receives and processes many referrals every day. After sending out a referral, it is very difficult to follow-up with it manually. There are no effective and secure means of communication between the referring and the receiving providers. If the receiving provider or the patient fails to update the progress of a referral to the referring provider, he/she will never get to know what happened with the referral. Closing the referral loop becomes nearly impossible in this case.
  • From a receiving provider’s perspective, the referral he/she receives may contain incomplete information. Without vital details, processing the referral will be difficult. The source of referral are many but there is no single interface to manage it all. Missing out on referrals is common. There is no way of getting a consolidated data on the number of referrals missed and the number processed. Patient referral leakage becomes imminent if the referrals remain unprocessed for a long time.
  • From a patient’s perspective, the physician refers him/her to take tests in an imaging center and then meet a specialist to continue with the treatment. If the patient has to communicate back and forth between the referring and the receiving providers for incomplete information, history of illness, etc, it annoys the patient. It is frustrating for the patient to communicate between the two ends.

Referrals become incomplete, inefficient and ineffective when the participants fail to communicate and share timely information.

Guidelines to bridge the gap between Federally Qualified Health Centers and Specialist Clinics/ Imaging Centers

  1. The referring provider must understand the reason for the referral. The referring provider should also make the patient understand why a referral is necessary and what the patient can expect from the referral visit. Give time for questions and encourage the patient to clarify their doubts during the referral appointment.
  2. When the referral coordinator does the insurance pre-authorization, he/she must make sure that the receiving provider covers the insurance policy of the patient. This will keep the patient better informed of how much the service will cost.
  3. It is better for the referral coordinator to contact the specialist directly. He/She can give information about the patient’s current situation, as well as other medical records, test results, and documents to avoid duplication of effort.
  4. Both the sides have to agree on the urgency of the referral and discuss the duration of the process, frequency of referral updates and the mode of communication.
  5. Any tool that can give prompt reminders on the appointments, follow-ups to both the patient and the receiving providers can help.
  6. After the referral reports arrive, the provider must check the results and recommendations. If the referring provider cannot understand the specialist’s evaluation, he should contact the specialist to understand the diagnosis better.
  7. Referral is an important part of patient care but the patients are not obligated to follow-up with the specialist. If the referral isn’t completed, the referring provider must talk to the patient during the next visit to find out why. Documenting this can help in directing future referrals to the right specialist or imaging center.

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution communicates effectively between the referring and the receiving ends. The timeline view and referral status help in tracking the referral. Prompt reminders will never let you miss an appointment or follow-up. To know our solution better, schedule a demo with us.

What is Complex Chronic Care Management – All you need to know

Chronic Care  Management

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) considers Chronic Care Management (CCM) as a crucial part of primary care. Chronic Care Management is non-face-to-face care provided to Medicare patients with two or more chronic conditions. It contributes to better health services to people. In 2015, Medicare started to reimburse a certain amount for the Chronic Care Management services under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS).

Service Codes

  • CPT 99487 – Complex chronic care management services with the following required elements:
    • Multiple (two or more) chronic conditions expected to last at least 12 months, or until the death of the patient
    • Chronic conditions place the patient at significant risk of death, acute exacerbation, or functional decline
    • Establishment or substantial revision of a comprehensive care plan
    • Moderate or high complexity medical decision-making
    • 60 minutes of clinical staff time directed by a physician or other qualified care provider, per calendar month
  • CPT 99489 – Each additional 30 minutes of clinical staff time directed by a physician or other qualified      care provider, per calendar month (List separately in addition to code for primary procedure)

Difference Between CCM and Complex CCM

CCM (“non-complex” CCM) and complex CCM services have similar health service elements. They differ in the following aspects,

  • Amount of clinical staff service time provided
  • Involvement and work of the billing practitioner
  • The extent of care planning performed

According to Medicare, “Complex Chronic Care Management services of less than 60 minutes in duration, in a calendar month, are not reported separately. Practitioners must report CPT 99489 in conjunction with CPT 99487. They must not report CPT 99489 for care management services of less than 30 minutes along with the first 60 minutes of Complex Chronic Care Management services during a calendar month.”

Eligibility Criteria for Care Providers

Physicians and the following non-physician practitioners may bill CCM services:

  • Certified Nurse Midwives
  • Clinical Nurse Specialists
  • Nurse Practitioners
  • Physician Assistants

Patient Eligibility

Medicare provides Chronic Care Management services for patients with multiple (two or more) chronic conditions

  • Expected to last at least 12 months or until the death of the patient
  • Places the patient at significant risk of death, acute exacerbation/ decompensation, or functional decline

As Chronic Care Management services have reimbursements, physicians must consider administering CCM to the eligible Medicare patients. The billing practitioner cannot report both complex and regular (non-complex) CCM for a given patient for a given calendar month. In other words, a given patient receives either complex or non-complex Chronic Care Management services during a given service period, not both.

Supervision

The Complex CCM codes (CPT 99487, 99489) come under the general supervision according to Medicare PFS. A billing practitioner need not give the health service personally. Any qualified care provider can give the service under the billing practitioner’s overall direction and control. The billing practitioner’s physical presence is not required.

CCM Service Summary

Care providers give a non-complex or complex Chronic Care Management service through the following steps,

  1. Initiating Visit – Medicare requires initiation of CCM services for new patients or patients not seen within one year of commencement of CCM. It is a face-to-face visit with the billing practitioner. It includes an Annual Wellness Visit [AWV] or Initial Preventive Physical Exam [IPPE], or other face-to-face visits. This initiating visit is not part of the CCM service and is separately billed.           
  2. Structured Recording of Patient Information Using Certified EHR Technology –  Structured recording of patient’s demographics, problems, medications, and medication allergies using certified Electronic Health Record (EHR) technology.
  3. Comprehensive Care Plan – A person-centered, electronic care plan based on a physical, mental, cognitive, psychosocial, functional, and environmental (re)assessment. The care provider must,
  • Provide the patient and/or caregiver with a copy of the care plan
  • Ensure the electronic care plan is available and shared timely within and outside the billing practice to people involved in the patient’s care
  1. 24/7 Access & Continuity of Care – Provide 24/7 access to physicians or other qualified care providers or clinical staff and continuity of care with a designated member of the care team.
  2. Enhanced Communication Opportunities – Enhanced opportunities for the patient to communicate with the physician through not only telephone access, but also the use of secure messaging, Internet, or other non-face-to-face consultation methods.

HealthViewX Chronic Care Management solution features

HealthViewX Chronic Care Management solution has the following features that make the process simpler,

  • Inbuilt audio, video calling and messaging features – HealthViewX Chronic Care Management solution has inbuilt video and audio calling features. It helps in giving Chronic Care Management services to their patients. Secure messaging is also available through which the physicians and the patients can communicate.
  • Automated call log feature – After a call, care plan creation or any action related to CCM health services, the system automatically adds call logs. It reduces the physician’s manual effort is logging the call logs.
  • Preventive Care plans – HealthViewX solution supports care plans for the Chronic Care Management service for a patient. The physician can create a care plan depending on the patient’s health report. It helps in monitoring the patient’s vitals.
  • Chronic Care Management Analytics – Dashboards with intuitive charts and tables give complete analytics of the Chronic Care Management services. It provides a clear picture of the revenue perspective.
  • Consolidated Report – The physician can generate a consolidated report of the Chronic Care Management services given for a particular period. This makes it easy for the billing practitioner for getting the reimbursements.
  • HIPAA compliance – HealthViewX Chronic Care Management is HIPAA-compliant. It facilitates secure data exchange. The solution manages all patient-related documents securely.

HealthViewX Chronic Care Management solution has features that satisfy non-complex and complex CCM services. Medicare reimbursements for Chronic Care Management services increase the profits for community health centers. It also benefits patients with multiple chronic health conditions. To know more about our Chronic Care Management solution, schedule a demo with us.

 

Top 7 Measures That Can Help In Boosting A Hospital’s Revenue

Hospitals in the USA play a vital role in the healthcare industry. But in today’s economy hospitals in USA are facing a serious financial crisis despite the various revenue sources. This is due to the increase in the number of uninsured people seeking medical services, lower reimbursement rates from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), staff shortage, etc. Many hospitals are facing bankruptcy and some are eventually shutting down.

Why are hospitals in the USA facing economic recession?

The following are the few reasons why hospitals are facing financial difficulties

  1. Lower reimbursement rates – Financial burden on the hospitals have increased due to the falling reimbursement rates from the CMS. According to the study done by the American Health Association, there is a steady decrease in the reimbursement rates for Medicare and Medicaid services. When the cost incurred on the service is more than the reimbursement received, the hospital suffers a huge loss. Hospitals in the USA received only 87 cents for every dollar spent on Medicare patients in 2016.  Hospitals in the USA received only 88 cents for every dollar spent on Medicaid patients in 2016. In 2016, 66% of hospitals received less Medicare payments, while 61% of hospitals received less Medicaid payments. With the increase in the aging population, Medicare and Medicaid services will become a financial burden for the hospitals.
  2. Increasing the number of uninsured and older peopleThe increasing number of uninsured and older people implies that many hospital services will go unpaid affecting their medical billing cycle. This increases the hospitals’ debt, as the state and federal laws insist on providing care for all regardless of their financial ability affecting the overall healthcare revenue cycle. In addition to the increasing number of the uninsured population, people are living longer. Therefore, they need more care and longer hospital stays.
  3. Rising cost of hospital equipment – Hospitals must have updated equipment to retain their patients. When hospitals change to new technology they incur significant cost on the equipment and on training their staff in operating the new device. There is no more long hospital stay because of the technological advancements. This affects the medical billing revenue cycle. Also, there is an increase in labor costs due to the acute shortage of registered nurses.

Top seven approaches to maximize profitability

Industry experts say that the key to maximizing a hospital’s profit is to cut down the costs and increase the reimbursements. Following are the top seven practices that a hospital can take up amid the poor economic conditions.

  • Cut down staffing costs by data-driven decisions
  • Cut down costs by managing vendors
  • Involve physicians in cost-cutting efforts
  • Partnering with other organizations
  • Partnering with local physicians
  • Attracting new physicians
  • Changing the quality of service

Let us look into each of them in detail.

  1. Cut down staffing costs by data-driven decisionsLabor is the biggest cost for hospitals. It is important for the hospitals to have the right headcount in their facilities. Hospitals can employ staff on a part-time or hourly basis. This is called “flexible staffing”. The hospitals can adjust the staff strength based on the patient census data. The hospital management must also monitor the efficiency of the staff. They can review the average hours spent on a case and compare it with the benchmark value. The hospital must communicate about the efficient staffing benchmark throughout the organization. The hospital management must collaborate with the physicians, nurse practitioners, etc to meet the expectations. Hospitals must not have a blanket approach to layoffs. The hospital management must take a close look at their business before laying off employees.
  2. Cut down costs by managing vendors – Hospitals can cut down supply costs by working with vendors. This will improve contracts and encourage physicians to take fiscally responsible supply decisions. The hospital management should not shy away from approaching vendors for discounts. Hospitals must have only the required number of vendors. The hospitals can also ask the vendors to submit purchase orders for equipment or implants that were not included in the written agreement with the facility.
  3. Involve physicians in cost-cutting efforts Hospitals should encourage physicians to keep a watch over the supply costs and other activities, such as unnecessary tests and inefficient treatments that may drive up the hospital costs. The hospital must support the use of products from vendors that are cost-effective but still of high quality, especially in areas such as orthopedic implants, which can be considerably costly for hospitals. In addition, experts say the use of protocol-based care can cut down costs associated with unnecessary tests or treatments.
  4. Partnering with other organizations – During tough economic times, some hospitals can outsource or partner with other organizations for certain services, such as food and laundry services, clinical services, etc. By outsourcing certain services to more efficient providers, hospitals can share the savings with the service provider. However, hospitals must be sure to select truly efficient providers. Often, hospitals outsource services such as laundry, food and nutrition, information technology or human resources as they do not have the capital to invest in these. Some hospitals have also begun to outsource clinical services such as emergency room staffing, anesthesiology, etc to become more efficient.
  5. Partnering with local physicians  Hospitals can join hands with local physicians and surgery center management companies to offer outpatient services. This reduces competition and also improves the hospital’s revenue cycle management.
  6. Attracting new physicians  – Identifying and attracting new physicians to bring cases to the hospital is another way to increase profits. Physician-owned hospitals can bring in more physicians as partners, while other types of facilities can recruit new physicians who are willing to visit patients at their hospitals.
  7. Changing the quality of service – Hospitals can change or increase the quality of services they offer to be able to compete in the market.  For instance, a hospital can invest money to develop their cardiac or cancer treatment centers which will attract more patients from different areas.  New programs and treatment centers will also influence more doctors and nurses to join their hospitals. This may cost a lot but it has the potential to bring in higher profits because specialized care cost more money and attracts more patients who otherwise cannot receive this care in other hospitals.

Hospitals that focus on enacting these best practices are likely to see improvements in their profitability. Hospitals can also benefit from using today’s economic conditions as an opportunity to improve their overarching approach to business, creating a more sustainable organization in the future. Schedule a demo with us to know more!