DuxWare Newsletter Medical Practice Software, Inc. 985-646-1665 www.duxware.com December 2012 Published by Medical Practice Software, Inc Cheryl Johnson, Editor Putting Your Dux in a Row... The Importance of a Recall System for Medical Practices Medical practices can run a serious risk if their patients are not recalled for follow-up as required by medical protocols and just as important, also lose revenue. Practices can easily develop a recall system using DuxWare. This will ensure that patients will not fall through the cracks. Recalling patients for follow-up attention is more than just good marketing. It s an essential aspect of good medical care. In fact, a practice could be courting trouble with a potential malpractice issue if it does not bring certain patients back. For instance, a gastroenterologist who has seen a patient with early indications of potentially cancerous polyps: professional protocols call for re-examination on a regular basis. If the patient ends up developing colon cancer, an effective malpractice attorney is going to wonder and ask if the gastroenterologist had recalled the patient as the protocols require. DuxWare s recall system is the logical solution for highly effective patient recall. When the physician marks six months, or one year for the patient to be seen again, the instruction can be entered into the system. Having a set of categories for reason for recall (such as to recheck polyps) allows storing the reason until the patient is actually re-contacted. One feature of the Recall Manager is it can automatically print out recall letters each month (or anytime you desire) before the visits are due. Those letters may include sentences or paragraphs, keyed to your "reason for recall" categories, telling the patient why the visit is important to his or her health. The letter reminds the patients to contact the office in order to schedule a follow-up appointment. DuxWare allows the user to check off the recall patients as they schedule their appointment. This procedure records that a recall resulted in an appointment. It can also generate a list of patients who have not responded to the recall and who should be followed up further. If appropriate, the practice should send a final warning letter, retaining a copy in the chart, to each patient who fails or refuses Recall - continued on page four Inside Patient Education...2 Customer Spotlight...2 Why Doesn't my Patient Pay?...3 New Team Member...3 5010 Claim Manager...4 Patient Inactivity Report...5 Firefox Tip Pin as Tab App A quick way to have more than one tab open in DuxWare every time you open DuxWare. Click on the Duck head on your desktop this will bring you to your DuxWare login screen. Highlight the entire URL in the address bar (example: https://newdemo.duxware.com/user.login.php) and press ctrl C (copy). Click the + next to the open tab this will bring up another tab click ctrl V (paste) this will place the URL in the new tab. Add a 2 behind your database name (example: https://newdemo2.duxware.com/user.login.php) and hit return. This will bring up another database login in screen. Now right click on the tab you just opened. A drop down will appear the 2 nd option says Pin as App Tab click on this option. Now when you choose the Duck head from your desktop the second database will automatically come up along with your first database. The new tab will be much smaller in size than the main DuxWare tab. You can also add a third tab if you like. Just be sure to put a 3 behind the database name. page one
Patient Education: A Win-Win Situation For Physicians who take advantage of patient education as an opportunity to market themselves and their practice, the benefits are boundless. Health fairs, pamphlets and free screenings not only offer patients the tools they need to become more healthy and empowered, but they also give physicians the opportunity to be positioned as approachable medical experts. In the past, marketing a physician practice might have seemed counter-intuitive. All that was needed to drive patients in from the community was a solid reputation and a congenial staff. While both of those attributes are still important in practices today, the truth is that in the modern competitive environment and tough economy it s more critical than ever before to stand out from the listing of physician practices available in the Yellow Pages or on the internet. One creative way for physicians to do this is through a strategic marketing plan that makes the most of patient education opportunities. More Than a Screening Health fairs offer physician practices the opportunity to provide a free service to the public through routine health screenings. These might include blood pressure checks or diabetes and cholesterol screenings. The results of the screening may be used to drive patients to visit a practice for recommended follow-up care because it begins the patient physician relationship in an open-ended, lowpressure manner. Patients don't feel as though they re being sold on the practice. Instead, they feel as though they ve received a valuable service and can schedule appointments feeling confident in the level of care they ll receive from the doctor. Another obvious benefit of offering screenings and information through a local health fair is the ability to target demographics for your practice. If you are a primary care physician and you realize the health fair you re attending is geared toward seniors, you might want to offer literature about medication safety and regular blood pressure checks. If the event is geared toward women, consider offering information about breast cancer and osteoporosis. Take extra steps to be sure the information you are offering is relevant to the population attending the health fair, and you will be able to both educate your public and market your practice in an effective way. A Source for Information Look around the reception area of your practice on a typical afternoon. Many people waiting to be seen by the doctor are probably flipping through the magazines in your lobby. Why not make the most of this opportunity by offering educational literature along with the traditional magazines? Customer Spotlight Pedro Serrant, M.D. Dr. Pedro Serrant s practice of internal medicine is in the spotlight this issue. Dr. Serrant has practiced in Slidell, Louisiana since 1991. Nurse Practitioner, Danielle Tranchina practices with Dr. Serrant and together they serve the North shore area of Lake Ponchartrain including, Mandeville and Covington. If you start healthy on the inside, that vitality will express itself on the outside too, says Dr. Pedro Serrant. He calls it inside out care, and it incorporates his philosophy that medicine should take a powerful preventative approach, helping patients establish a lifetime of healthy habits. Focus on optimal functioning of the body s system rather than symptom relief, he says. A board certified internist, Dr. Serrant addresses the total needs of each patient. His practice offers a unique combination of excellence in primary care in addition to comprehensive, state-of-the-art medical spa services. It s this specialized holistic approach to total wellness paired with an unparalleled level of dedication to his patients that s earned him recognition as one of Louisiana s Best Doctors by Louisiana Life magazine and even landed him on a national best of list published by New Orleans magazine. Dr. Serrant s practice has been a happy DuxWare customer since 2006. They have used Sevocity EHR interfaced with DuxWare since early March, 2011. We are excited to serve Dr. Serrant and his staff they are are a pleasure to work with. page two
Why Doesn t My Patient Pay There have always been and likely will always be patients who are unable or unwilling to pay their service billings. Your practice is often faced with tough decisions on what course of action to take on delinquent service billings and when to take that action. Too often, people find that organizations wait too long to take decisive action with delinquent patient receivables and find that the delinquent account is virtually uncollectible, regardless of the actions they may take from that point forward. Reasons vary as to the timing of and decision to escalate the matter, but most often it is simply an organization s desire to maintain good patient relations as its No. 1 goal, occasionally sacrificing its hard earned fees for services as a trade off. The timing of and decision to escalate a collection matter within your practice is likely based on what you know about your patient and her or his circumstances. In many cases, you may not even be aware of why the patient is unable or refusing to pay. As such, an important step in the internal collection process is the establishment of two-way communication. This is often easier said than done. Following are some helpful hints on why successful two-way communication can be challenging and possible ways to help achieve it. Why Patients Do Not Respond They are embarrassed because of their circumstances and believe that avoidance will eventually resolve the issue or that it will simply go away. Your messages, by telephone or mail, are not being received by the patient. The patient is unhappy with the service(s) they have received in part or completely. How Can You Get Their Attention Consider sending a succinct correspondence by certified mail requesting a return receipt. Within the correspondence, provide the patient with one or more options for paying their bill or resolving service level concerns. Most often the patient has received the standard past due letters or statements with no options but to pay the full balance due now. Take advantage of alternative delivery methods for your correspondence. UPS and FedEx are always good alternatives for delivery and are an excellent alternative to provide not only proof of delivery, but protection of the patient s privacy. Consider staffing one day a week, or even one day a month, in the evening or Saturday morning. More often than not, organizations conduct business from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. or 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. likely the same time the patient is working as well. Evenings and weekends can be an excellent time to make a successful contact with the patient. If after attempting to reach the patient by alternative methods you still can not communicate or resolve the unpaid billing, you then face a tough decision to refer the matter to an outside collection agent or continue hoping for a breakthrough. If you have determined a breakthrough unlikely, consider a wellestablished, licensed, receivable management company to work with your staff to minimize bad debt loss and still maintain patient relations where it is still an option. It can be done! New Team Member MPS is growing again - Welcome Jalon Beech, Customer Support Manager Jalon comes to Medical Practice Software with an associate degree in computer programming and over twenty years of experience in the medical field. Jalon spent 16 years of her career as a medical claims analyst, claims investigator and team leader for one of the largest third party administrators in the Southern region of the U.S. She also has experience as a medical office manager and practice management consultant specializing in revenue cycle management and credentialing. Jalon says she is excited about being a part of growing the company. We are proud to have Jalon heading up our support team. page three
5010 Claim Manager All DuxWare customers should now be using the 5010 Claim Manager. If you get a message saying "Group Missing". Call DuxWare Support: 985-646-1665. Recall - continued from page one to honor the recall effort. DuxWare will be able to generate this final letter as well. Losing track of your recall patients can be devastating to your practice, yet can easily go unnoticed until it is too late. Every time a patient leaves your office without making a follow-up appointment you risk loosing that patient. Besides, your patients lose the benefit of timely checkups and treatment. Timely recalls let patients know your practice is organized and on top of their healthcare. By not properly managing recalls, the loss can be significant, even if it is only the recall fees. Let s say your production from recall appointments, not including treatments, is $50,000 a year. If instead of seeing your patients twice a year you see them every nine months, you could lose around $17,000 a year simply because of the timing of your recall appointments. An effective recall procedure can be handled by DuxWare. Whether to provide a better service, to avoid potential liability or to increase practice income, a recall system is too important to be left ignored. Before the patient leaves the office, their next appointment should be scheduled if possible. If an appointment is not scheduled, create a recall in DuxWare. The prior education of the patient on the importance of regular exams, etc. is very important to this step going smoothly. Patient education plays an important part in any successful recall system. You have to spend time with your patients and realize that the success of your recall system is related to the education of your patients and the use of the system itself. It is important to reflect the importance of continuing care rather than the traditional come and see us in 6 or 12 months attitude. Sometimes the word recall can have negative connotations. Patients may think of defective merchandise being recalled by manufacturers. Re-examination, re-evaluation, regular visits or regular appointments are friendlier words than recall. To create a steady flow of patients into the practice, you must look closely at your recall procedures. Remember that the longer it has been since a patient has come in, the more likely it is that the doctor will find services that need to be rendered. Patients who have nothing to be done should still be incorporated into the recall system for regular exams. The DuxWare Recall Manager can be used to increase revenue for your practice. If you do not already have a recall system stably in place, you will most likely need to begin creating one by pulling a Patient Inactivity Report for patients who have not been in for any type of service for a year or more (see Patient Inactivity Report on page five). After this has been done, two things happen: Everyone in the practice suddenly realizes there is a lot of potential work out there. You can establish the number of active patients you actually have. Once this is known, it is a lot easier to project your goals and work towards them. Begin a program to contact all such people and appoint them for the needed treatment. Set up recall categories. Create a recall letter for each recall category, or a standard recall Recall - continued on page five page four
Recall - continued from page four letter for all. Enter patients into recall when you want to see them back in the future. Run the Recall Report monthly to see which patients have not yet scheduled appointments and provide adequate follow through to a scheduled appointment. Use the Recall Manager to generate letters, or labels, or as a call list. Use an automatic call service, which can be very helpful in reminding the patient it is time to schedule their appointment. The DuxWare Recall Manager creates the output files automatically with one click. When the patient calls for an appointment and has an outstanding recall: link the appointment to the recall, if they cancel their name will return to the recall list. If they reschedule, the recall will be linked to the new appointment. No-shows do not automatically go back into recall so be sure to un-link the recall to a no-show appointment: Run a No-show Report for the previous week. These patients should be put back into the recall program. From the report click on the patient name to go to the Patient Information screen. Go to Recall Information > View All. This brings up the Patient Recall screen. If the missed appointment is linked, the scheduled date will be highlighted, click on the Scheduled Date this will bring up the Patient Recall Add/Edit screen. Go to Related Appointment (near the bottom of the screen) and choose None (this will un-link the appointment from the recall). You will then be able to work this with your regular recalls. IMPORTANT: Be sure to link all new appointments to a recall. If there was no recall for the no-show you now have the opportunity to add this patient into your recall system so that the patient does not become lost. Of course, there are various reasons you would not want to continue to work a patient recall such as the patient was to be a new patient and did not show and did not call to reschedule. You might let this one go unless it was a referral from another doctor in which case you might want to send a note to the referring physician informing him of the patient s failure to follow through. Be very diligent about follow-up. Do not let patients fall between the cracks. Every patient should be in the recall system to be reminded at some time in the future of their need for an appointment. DuxWare will keep track of recalls linked to appointments even if they have been rescheduled or canceled. Patient Inactivity Report Reports > Patient > Patient Inactivity For Recall purposes the Date Range for the Patient Inactivity Report should have the same start and end date (back a year or more). This will give you a list of patients who have not been seen since that date. Sort by Service Date. Choose Provider, Location, Facility, Place of Service and Payer. You can also choose to limit your search to a certain ICD code or range of codes or Procedure code or range of codes. Choose to output to: Report, CSV/Excel, or Labels. Best practice would be to output to report first and look it over. If it is what you want then you can export the file or run labels. Choosing Labels will also allow you choose the label type. page five