Physicians Practice - September 2008 - (Page 50) ASK THE EXPERTS have a friendly chat with the practice owners and just ask that patients needing you be referred to you. This need not mean a message on the outgoing message; it could just be an on-the-spot referral when folks call in. I realize your departure was not entirely friendly, but if they don’t want the patients, why wouldn’t they pass them to you? Here’s the other angle: What are you doing to market to all patients in the area now that you are with this new practice? That message will presumably reach old and new patients, and you’ll grow your base regardless of what your old practice decides to do. Just go do it instead of wasting more restless nights worrying about your old practice. MANAGING REFERRALS to verify the information and communicate with the patient. It is an expensive process for me and I get no return other than avoiding liability for not doing so. Another part of the problem is being in a community which sometimes requires additional assistance in making the appointment: language barriers, literacy issues, and behavioral issues. Can my staff bill for a “nursing visit” if the patient is brought back in for “coordination of care” to help in arranging specialist visits? need you to do all this paperwork/ preauthorization? Finally can you capture better data from patients at the front end of the process to ease referrals later on? • Pamela L. Moore, PhD, CPC, editorial Q As a primary-care physician, my office is responsible for specialist referrals for the vast majority of payer types. It takes an extraordinary amount of time A You can't bill a 99211 without actually doing evaluation and management of some sort. I think your better bet is to try to streamline things: Can the key practices to which you refer help out? You need to do the referral but maybe they can help track down information. It seems to me that many specialist practices do this leg work. Work with payers. If they never turn down a referral, do they really director for Physicians Practice, is this month’s expert. Moore has been writing for physicians on practice management issues for 10 years, and she is a recognized speaker and commentator on healthcare management. She can be reached at pmoore@physicianspractice.com. 50 | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | SEPTEMBER 2008 WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM http://www.medinotes.com http://www.medinotes.com http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM
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