Many doctors’ offices are turning away non-urgent patients to help reduce the risk of the spread of COVID. This is leaving many practices wandering how to keep their doors open, their patients safe and able to access care. As a Practice Development Manager, this is your time to shine. The relationships you make with your physicians will make you the go-to person to help them get what they need based on the current patient demand. You can also help your physician to find additional services that they can use to service patients between visits for chronic diseases, preventive care and counseling.
Here are a few solutions that you can be talking about right now.
Telemedicine
Many practices are NOT Telemedicine ready. NOW is the time to be talking about it. Doctors are looking for this product and looking for easy to implement and cost-effective solutions. You have these!
This year, more and more insurances are accepting Telemedicine visits and doctors are suddenly realizing that adding Telemedicine to their offer is not as expensive or complicated as they initially thought. Furthermore, Medicare is opening their acceptance of Telemedicine visits to ensure many of the at-risk or remote patients can still have access to care.
Some Telemedicine platforms are easy to add to a current website without a complex installation and learning phase. Adopting Telemedicine now gives your physician the ability to care for many of their patients with chronic conditions. Patients can be prescreened before they walk in the door of the practice either unnecessarily or ensure the best precautions are taken in directing the patient for care.
COVID testing
Many practices are looking for COVID 19 testing kits and some do not want any due to the lack of gowns and masks they need to protect themselves. Work closely with your lab partners to determine availability and set realistic expectations. Supply and demand for this testing is currently overwhelming and labs and suppliers are doing their best to keep up with demand and to share the supplies with where they are needed.
Other Supplies and Screening tools
Check with your ancillary provider for up to date stocks of other inventory including portable lung ultrasound, thermography screening devices, hand sanitizer, masks and more. Your provider will be looking to source relevant products to help practices and patients get past this pandemic as efficiently as possible.
Pre Arrival Patient Software
The dirtiest item in a medical practice is the pen at the front desk. Many practices may not have even thought about this – until now. Help them reduce the risk of disease spread by having patients do their registration from the ease and convenience of their smartphone. This solution can free up about 15 minutes of workflow as well as helping most patients complete their documentation even before they arrive at the office. Data-entry errors also reduce significantly.
There is no special portal to access and integration is ready for many EHR systems including Athena, Allscripts, Cerner, and Nextgen. Even if the EHR they have is not yet compatible, a stand-alone solution is available.
This system is helping to reduce no shows, phone calls, reduces claim denials and show improved collection rates. The patient registration can be customized to the workflow offer in your practice and enhance the uptake of additional services.
Electronic Payment System
Practices may not want to send out bills or accept in-office payments right now. Help your practices get their patients to pay their bills online. Only 38% of practices currently provide an online payment solution. Offering an online system reduces the need for handling potentially contaminated cash and cards in the practice. Furthermore, practices routinely experience an initial spike in collections of 23% over current methods.
CBD
With the reduction in visits for non-urgent care, many patients are still left to suffer from pain. Anxiety over the current global situation is also an increasing problem as many people face uncertainty around their health, loved ones, and livelihood. CBD products provide practices with a solution for patients who may not have access to their typical prescriptions or for those who may not seek care to relieve the way they are feeling.
Hemp-derived CBD is best known for its reported ability to reduce inflammation and anxiety, but the list of possible health benefits grows more each day. Although there is already a tremendous amount of anecdotal information about CBD, there are thousands of studies going on at universities, major health organizations and the highest levels of the government to research the full potential health benefits
CBD products are formulated for a variety of conditions including pain, tension and for sleep.
Avacen
This device acts by gently warming the blood and applying a vacuum to the hand to open microcirculation throughout the entire body. This treatment creates a mild ‘fever’ effect in the body temporarily. Many physicians agree that a large variety of chronic conditions are associated with impaired microcirculation. Warming the blood creates a cascade of reactions in the body. The body can better heal and oxygenate with improved circulation. The science around this device is evolving. Thermotherapy is showing some remarkable benefits to a wide range of conditions and is currently being assessed by the US Department of Health for further uses way beyond pain relief.
This device is a portable thermotherapy unit that is available for patients as a take-home unit or as a professional unit to be used in office. It is currently FDA approved for the relief of pain associated with arthritis and soft tissue injuries.
Remote Patient Monitoring
Physicians may be wondering how to maintain care for many of their chronically ill patients. These patients often come into the practice frequently and may currently be discouraged to do so.
With reduced face to face visits and improved technologies, Remote Patient Monitoring still gives the practice information on vitals to help keep at-risk patients closely monitored. This service allows qualifying Medicare patients to receive 3 Bluetooth enabled devices that feed information back to the practice on a daily basis. The patient can be prompted to do their at-home monitoring. Once the monitoring is performed, the information is sent back to the practice via the software platform alerting the physician of any outside of normal parameters. The patient can then be contacted for any further assessment or treatment by the doctor or other office staff.
Some RPM providers offer an included Lifealert system as part of the service. This is covered by Medicare except for the patient copay. It does help keep the patient at home, cared for and revenue flowing for the practice.
Codes for this service include a one time set up of 99453 and then monthly codes 99454 and 99457. These codes can be billed with the staff being under the general supervision of the physician.
Chronic Care Management
This program has been available for several years and has not been taken up or utilized as comprehensively possible. This change in the healthcare environment allows practices to utilize existing office staff to call and provide care for the patient via phone.
This service provides qualifying patients with 20 minutes of out of office care providing continuity of care between visits. Offering a service such as CCM will help keep the patient up to date with what they can do while they are unable to visit the practice. Patients with 2 or more chronic conditions qualify for this service on Medicare. Codes for this service include 99490 and 99489 for more complex cases that require additional time.
This service will help allay fears that patients may be experiencing right now and provide a valuable layer of care.
Prepackaged Medication Dispensing
The demand for medications and the reluctance of patients to visit more establishments than they need to means offering in-office Medication Dispensing makes sense.
Help minimize patient exposure to other public environments by offering your practice in house medications. Your practices can stock commonly requested medicines from the convenience of their practice. This also ensures patient compliance and retention while providing some additional revenue for the practice. A large formulary of medications is available to suit most any practice type.
As a Practice Development Manager, you can work with a variety of vendors. Be familiar with the payer mix and patient types for your practices to help them find the right solutions to keep patients cared for and their business afloat.
Some services are in particularly high demand right now. This is a time to work closely with your doctors and vendors to help set realistic time frames and expectations. Some commodities have become HOT overnight and this is creating its own challenges. Be honest with your providers and a trusted partner. This is your time to shine.