Tag: Healthcare

Is Your Practice Location Hurting Your Bottom Line?

Posted on by VettersEnt

What is one of the keys to a successful medical practice? It’s all about location, location, location! When you are trying to find the perfect practice location for your office, there are many factors that you must consider to ensure long-term profitability and success. Whether you’ve been in the same location for a decade or are finding space for the first time, here’s what you need to know about choosing the right location. 

Why Does Location Matter?

Three recent studies found a single common factor in what matters to patients—location. 6 out of 10 patients choose a practice primarily based on location. In fact, convenient location is twice as important to patients as your practice’s success rates or outcomes.

Competition Isn’t Always a Bad Thing

In neighborhoods and cities where medical practices are on every street, it might seem like you have no chance to succeed against already-established doctors with a reputation in the community. Don’t be intimidated by competition, as there are many clever ways to differentiate your practice from the crowd. Check the population-to-professional ratio for the area around you. In areas with low numbers of professionals, there won’t be much competition. However, in busy areas marketing, reputation and customer service can make a huge difference.

Demographics Make the Difference

Another key to a great practice location is staying on top of ever-changing demographics. Is the population declining or growing? In many cases, it’s easiest to gain traction in newer communities than tight, well-established locales. Pay attention to numerous demographics including household income averages, age distribution, the types of jobs and population growth.

Look Around You

The most successful practice locations are often those surrounded by other popular things. What else is located within 5 miles of your potential practice location? Are there banks or grocery stores? What traffic patterns are there? In general, a location that is passed by 40,000 or more cars in a 24-hour period is considered to be a retail location. If you set up shop in a smaller town, you might have higher visibility thanks to less roadside clutter, but you also won’t have access to as many potential patients.

Partner with Vetters Enterprises for a Great Practice Location

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.

Tips for Surviving a Federal HIPAA Audit

Posted on by VettersEnt

Being contacted by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) or the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) for a HIPAA audit can be a very scary situation. The best way to survive a federal HIPAA audit is ensuring that you have the proper procedures in place every single day on the job. A single employee who is non-compliant could cost your practice a lot. 

Make Sure It’s Valid

Unfortunately, some scammers try to take advantage of practices by pretending to be OCR representatives conducting an audit and asking practices to purchase “certification” services. OCR and HHS will only make contact with your practice via email or certified letter. You always have a right to respond to ask for proof of validity, and that will not be held against you during the audit process. There is no certifying body for HIPAA compliance in existence, so any organization that approaches you claiming that they are one is lying.

Educate Your Employees

One of the best prevention strategies is educating your employees of the serious consequences of a HIPAA violation.

  • A HIPAA violation that occurs without knowledge: $100-$25,000 violation
  • A HIPAA violation due to reasonable cause: $1,000-$50,000 violation
  • A HIPAA violation due to willful neglect, but fixed within 30 days: $10,000-$50,000 violation
  • A HIPAA violation due to willful neglect that is uncorrected or corrected after 30 days: $50,000 violation

Reminding employees of the steep cost associated with each violation regularly can help to ensure compliance.

Tips for Survival

When preparing for a federal HIPAA audit, ask yourself the following:

  • Are our HIPAA policies and procedures regularly updated and effective? You should have things like a Breach Notification policy on hand and in effect.
  • Is our HIPAA training regularly updated and effective? How do we know it’s working? Every practice is required to hold HIPAA trainings for employees that are up-to-date, as well as maintain detailed records showing when employees attended the training and tests or surveys showing they understood the content.
  • Has our practice completed a risk assessment? This aspect of HIPAA often lies under the radar, but it’s a requirement as part of the HIPAA security management processes.
  • Have we had HIPAA breaches? If you have had a breach, you should make sure that all documentation has been properly completed.

Keep Your Practice HIPAA-Compliant 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.

In-Home Doctors: Are They Still Around?

Posted on by VettersEnt

Historically, doctors would make house calls to visit sick patients and elderly patients, in addition to those just needing a check-up unable to trek into the city to get the job done. While these primary care doctors that perform home visits are certainly a dying breed, what are the potential strengths of this model?

Patients Get Care When They Need It

Many people avoid seeking medical treatment because of transportation and timing issues. If the doctor’s office is open from 9:00 AM-5:00 PM and they work during that time and cannot take off, they might skip their annual physical for years. If the patient is a post-partum mother who needs primary care but cannot find a babysitter for the baby or a vehicle to drive to the doctor, important care steps might be missed. Primary care doctors who make home visits often provide care to needy patients when and where they need it.

Everything You Might Need

You might be surprised to learn that primary care doctors making home visits often carry with them everything that they might have in a traditional setting, from a stethoscope to a mobile X-ray machine. Healthcare at home has come a long way in a relatively short period of time, so today’s mobile doctor bag is deeper than ever.

What Is Happening to At-Home Healthcare?

At-home healthcare for non-sick or non-elderly people remains on the decline. Many people have moved from visiting their primary doctors to urgent care facilities when in need. While at-home primary healthcare is on the decline, there is still a great need for on-demand and annual care throughout the country, so there is a chance it might make a comeback.

Vetters Practice Management Consulting

Vetters Enterprises specializes in practice management, revenue cycle optimization, and private practice business support. We can perform detailed 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.

The Shift from Volume to Value: The Challenges

Posted on by VettersEnt

Now that we have covered the basics of volume-based reimbursement and value-based reimbursement and all of the wonderful benefits it will bring, we will address some of the anticipated challenges your healthcare facility might face.

In Case You Missed It

Healthcare providers are currently shifting from volume-based reimbursement plans to value-based reimbursement. This dramatic change is designed to benefit patients, healthcare providers and the payers. Value-based reimbursement promises to give patients the highest quality care for the lowest possible amount and shift the focus of healthcare providers to the actual health of their patients.

Medicare and Medicaid

As the baby boomer population grows older and more reliant on Medicare for their medical expenses, the reimbursements that healthcare facilities receive will decrease. In addition to the growth in Medicare patients, the use of Medicaid has also grown. The new mix of revenue will definitely take a toll on your office’s bottom line if you are not prepared.

Reconciling Volume-Based and Value-Based Payments

The next challenge healthcare providers face is reconciling the new value-based reimbursement model with your current fee-for-service environment. Tracking progress can be tricky, as you need to maintain detailed logging in two different payment systems at the same time. Your accounting systems and software might need a major upgrade in order to track value-based reimbursement patients, populations, and billing.

Keeping Track of Quality Measures

Most incentives for practices that meet certain value standards rely on keeping track of quality measures. You are probably already used to submitting some quality measures, but their effect on your bottom line might be new. The value-based reimbursement shift means that your ability to meet quality standards, benefit patients and cut costs is directly tied to whether or not you receive incentives or penalties.

This transition period is the perfect time to have an evaluation performed on your facility’s systems to see where you can further reduce costs and increase efficiency. Vetters Enterprises specializes in practice management, revenue cycle optimization, and private practice business support. We can perform detailed 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.

Provide Quality Care through Tele-mental Health Consultations

Posted on by VettersEnt

The National Alliance on Mental Illness reports that anxiety, depression, substance abuse and other psychological ailments affect nearly one in five Americans, or 43.8 million people. However, it can be difficult for people with behavioral problems to seek help from a mental health professional and receive an accurate diagnosis. Mental health services are often offered in abundance in urban and suburban areas, making it difficult for people in rural areas to conveniently access the help that they need. That’s where tele-mental health comes in.

 

What is Tele-mental Health?

The Tele-mental Health Guide defines tele-mental health as “the provision of mental health services using live, interactive videoconferencing.” It makes sense, doesn’t it? In an instant we can use videoconferencing to virtually connect face-to-face with our friends, out-of-state relatives and business associates – so why not use this technology to serve mental health patients from afar? Tele-mental health consultations are an increasingly popular way to provide quality mental health services to those living in underserved communities with limited clinicians.

What are the Benefits of Tele-mental Health Services?

Without convenient access to mental health services, those suffering tend to neglect seeking proper treatment. Who wants to drive 200 miles out of town to the closest specialist for continuous care? In the past, patients were forced to make that kind of time and shell out for gas, potential childcare and missed work days if they wanted to be seen. Tele-mental health consultations provide mental health access like never before for both doctors and patients. Some of the benefits associated with tele-mental health services include:

  • Access to patients worldwide, resulting in an increased patient pool for practitioners
  • Ability to facilitate an immediate 3-way consultative session with a specialist through video conferencing, allowing for more comprehensive care on the same visit
  • Higher consumer and practitioner satisfaction
  • Increased convenience and efficiency
  • Minimized/eliminated travel costs for patients
  • Increased comfortability for those who find it difficult to open up to specialists in person
  • Same day psychological test results
  • Reduced emergency care costs (by diagnosing and treating illnesses earlier on).

What is the Goal of Tele-mental Health Services Moving Forward?

The primary goal of tele-mental health services is to provide patients with the highest quality comprehensive care. Many clinical groups and medical professionals that have employed tele-mental health capabilities have reported that the efficiency of remote care is on par with in-person care.

Want more useful information? Visit our blog again! Vetters Enterprises is a full service practice management company specializing in practice management, revenue cycle optimization and private practice support. Contact us today if you’d like to see how we can help you improve your cash flow.