Month: September 2018

Call Your Patients with Vetters Enterprises

When You Should Call Your Patients Instead of Emailing

Posted on by VettersEnt

Technology has changed the entire healthcare landscape, and for many doctors, it has also transformed the way that they speak with their patients. Instead of communicating by telephone and letter being the only options, emailing and texting are now on the table. Do you know when you should call your patients instead of emailing or texting?

Why Do Doctors Email?

A growing number of doctors use email for most regular communications, as it can increase practice efficiency and prevent playing phone tag. Doctors also like being able to make themselves available for patient questions and concerns around the clock through email. Email communication can also be perfectly sufficient for quick messages requesting appointments, rescheduling or requesting prescription refills. However, there are HIPAA violations that can come to play over email that aren’t as possible elsewhere.

When Emailing Is Inappropriate

As with any other technology product, there are both upsides and downsides to emailing instead of calling your patients. Beyond potential murky water with HIPAA guidelines, there are many situations where emailing can lead to unnecessary stress and confusion:

  • Discussing issues before completing a physical examination of the patient could lead to misdiagnosis.
  • Email messages can be misinterpreted by the patient receiving them. If the misinterpretation leads to damage, you could be held liable.
  • Anyone who is not the patient could open the email and read sensitive information.

If there is a chance that any of the above scenarios could occur, you should call your patients instead. Remember that the tone of your voice can have a huge effect on the message that a patient receives, and written words are not ideal for conveying tone.

If You Do Email

When it is appropriate to email instead of calling your patients, use the following best practices:

  • Use email messages to supplement your existing patient relationship, send reminders and offer general health tips.
  • Only use email if you have a firewall-protected server and both you and the patient are using encryption technology. Most standard email does not meet HIPAA requirements.
  • Educate your patients about when it is appropriate to email the office instead of calling.

Learn When to Call Your Patients with Vetters Enterprises

Vetters Enterprises specializes in practice management, private practice business support and revenue cycle optimization. We can perform in-depth assessments of your practice or facility and identify potential issues. Let us keep your business as healthy as you keep your patients! Give us a call at (443) 352-0088.

Recredentialing with Vetters Enterprises

The Most Common Recredentialing Mistakes

Posted on by VettersEnt

The credentialing process is fraught with deadlines, paperwork and requirements that can leave your head spinning. Unfortunately, when it’s time to complete the process again to keep everything current, things aren’t necessarily that much easier. There are plenty of recredentialing mistakes that practices across the country face when it’s time to recredential.

Failure to Report Adverse Peer Review Actions

Most insurance companies require you to not only report these in your initial application but to also keep them up to date. Adverse peer review actions include things like revocation, suspension and voluntary relinquishment of clinical privileges, state licenses, DEA licenses or other memberships. While this can happen inadvertently, to third parties it can look a lot like you’re trying to hide something. More importantly, failure to report is a violation of the bylaws of your agreement and can ruin your relationship with a provider.

Starting Too Late

Recredentialing deadlines can sneak up on you, especially since many doctors fail to realize that recredentialing can take almost as long as the initial process. Set aside plenty of time to complete all forms, get all of the documents together and review licenses and certifications to ensure that they are in compliance. If you leave these steps until the last minute, your application might not be approved before the deadline, and you’ll need to start the entire initial credentialing process over again.

Missing Information

One of the most common recredentialing mistakes is also one of the easiest to prevent—missing information. Credentialing paperwork is not hard, but it is complicated. You need to take plenty of time to provide all required information in an accurate manner. If you are missing information, there is a high probability that the provider will not contact you to get it, meaning that your application will sit on the back burner for an indefinite period of time. Review your completed paperwork multiple times before you submit it.

Failing to Keep Up with Standards

Many credentialing processes require doctors at your practice to be registered with a number of federal health care programs including Medicare and Medicaid. All federal programs have different registration processes, and any errors in your registration could prevent you from a speedy recredentialing process.

Prevent Recredentialing Mistakes with Vetters Enterprises

Vetters Enterprises specializes in practice management, private practice business support and revenue cycle optimization. We can perform in-depth assessments of your practice or facility and identify potential issues. Let us keep your business as healthy as you keep your patients! Give us a call at (443) 352-0088.