Tag: Home Healthcare

How Can Volunteering Help Your Physicians Recharge?

Posted on by VettersEnt

Experts have known for a long time that volunteering is a good thing. After all, what could be bad about giving back to the communities around us? However, new research is suggesting that volunteering is also good for your body and mind. Physicians who are looking to recharge and reignite their passion for helping others can benefit from taking time to volunteer.

The Mental Health Benefits

Volunteering has a wonderful effect on mental health. According to the Corporation for National and Community Service, much of that stems from social integration theory. Social integration theory is the idea that the social connections between individuals provide meaning and purpose and satisfaction. Individuals who volunteer feel accomplishment from giving back and also gain fulfillment from being in a helpful role. Another study of older adults found that volunteering can buffer the sense of loss that they felt as they lost other identities, like being a wage-earner or parent.

The Physical Health Benefits

One study from Carnegie Mellon University found that adults over the age of 50 who regularly volunteered had a lower likelihood of developing high blood pressure. As most physicians know, high blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart disease, stroke and premature death. While the link between physical health and volunteering might be incidental, it goes to show that doing good can also do your body a whole lot of good.

Why Volunteering for Physicians?

Long days and nights at a medical practice can make it easy to forget why doctors went into medicine in the first place—to help others. If doctors and nurses in your practice need to recharge, volunteering is the perfect way to do so. What are some of the other benefits of volunteering?

  • Increase social interactions with people other than patients and co-workers during the week.
  • Provide a sense of satisfaction and increase self-esteem.
  • Add career experience in other fields to your resume, like public speaking, writing or business development.
  • Stay mentally and physically active outside of work.
  • Enjoy the rush of endorphins and happy feelings associated with volunteering (similar to how you feel after a great workout).

Partner with Vetters Enterprises for Help Taking Your Practice to the Next Level

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.

Obtaining Approval for Home Visits

Posted on by VettersEnt

While doctors aren’t known for making house calls anymore, there are major advantages to making home visits for primary care. If you are considering making the move from in-office care to home care, the transition might be easier than you think.  

Why is Home Care Needed?

Home health care is still in demand today, despite the model of a doctor visiting the homes of well patients for check-ups and annual physicals seeming antiquated. There is a huge demand for home health care today because:

  • Many adults avoid seeking medical treatment for themselves because they work during traditional doctor’s office hours and cannot take leave for a wellness visit.
  • Some areas of the country don’t have many doctor’s offices, so patients can live in areas without access to regular primary care doctors outside of emergency rooms and urgent care clinics

Getting Started with Home Visits

Insurance companies offer a small degree of flexibility when it comes to primary care doctors visiting patients in their home, but you need to fill out all of the proper paperwork. It is relatively easy to be approved for home healthcare when working with homebound or recovering patients.

Medicare Part A and Medicare Part B will cover in-home healthcare that falls under intermittent skilled nursing care, physical therapy, speech-language pathology services or continued occupational services. The most important variable when justifying home health visits to insurance companies and Medicare is the inability of the patient to access regular medical practices. Apply for approval by contacting individual insurance agencies. Always explain to patients that approval for home healthcare services can depend on whether or not the need can be justified.

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.

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.