Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008 - (Page 41)

equipment that was defunct from the start. So I demanded my money back. That didn’t happen. So in August 2000, I sued. I sued everyone — including the leasing company. That turned out to be a bad idea. As the lawsuit unfolded, it turned out that the leasing company was the main ﬂy in the legal ointment. It considered itself “at no fault” and started its own recovery action for the money it deemed still owing on the original lease. Even though all the defunct equipment had been returned (transported via my own pick-up truck and deposited in the leasing company’s parking lot), the company demanded full payment for the entire length of the lease. It claimed more than $80,000 still owing for a system that initially cost me $45,000 (and was probably worth less than $10,000). Interim payments had already been made to the company for a system that never worked to the tune of approximately $40,000. Plus, it was asking for legal and collection costs, which amounted to another $10,000. After obtaining some legal advice, in April 2002, I decided to settle rather than ﬁght this seemingly unending and complex legal battle for $50,000. So the total cost of my defunct system included $45,000 for the initial equipment purchase and design costs, an additional $10,000 to supposedly make my remote ofﬁce functional, plus approximately $40,000 in payments I made to the leasing company. Then I had to replace all of my original equipment using my own designers and resources. And now I had to pay the leasing company another $50,000 to go away. My good faith and ignorance about this industry ended up costing me in excess of $100,000, and I had basically nothing to show for it. What survived was a single operating platform of my own design utilizing my now-functional EMR software and a separate standalone practice management system of a very simple variety that I purchased for $1,000. Each system functions separately with its own server, although they share the same workstation monitors and keyboards using hand-operated switches. WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM Did my decision to convert to electronic medical records represent a cost saving to my practice? Definitely not. Would I go back to paper charts again? Definitely not. Here’s why. WHAT I LIKE ABOUT MY EMR 1. Charts never get lost. Patient charts can easily get separated for different types of ofﬁce encounters. Sometimes patients are involved in motor vehicle accidents while they have an active worker’s compensation claim in process. Now, requests for chart notes from third-party payers can easily be kept separate by establishing separate charts for each patient for different purposes. It’s wonderful to be able to ﬁeld inquiries regarding a patient encounter and never have to search the clinic for elusive charts. 2. Electronic medical records are complete and comprehensive. Patients’ histories, allergies, medications, and all aspects of their encounters are now nicely organized and easily located. With a single mouse click, we can print chart summaries of the principle patient information we need. Our EMR turned out to be a savior when our practice underwent an audit from a major insurance payer in 2001. It accused our practice of “upcoding” and fraudulent billing following an audit in which it refused to recognize the -25 modiﬁer when osteopathic manipulation was coupled with an E&M service. Despite the fact that the use of this modiﬁer was perfectly legal, recognized by Medicare and by our own medical association guidelines, the payer demanded we return tens of thousands of dollars already paid on patient accounts, and they threatened my practice with criminal charges if we didn’t comply. In the end, we were charged with no criminal wrongdoing. In my opinion, we were saved from this fate by our EMR, which enabled me to quickly produce comprehensive justiﬁcations for each claim we submitted. Once the payer’s attorneys received our electronically generated comprehensive patient medical records, they quickly became less aggressive. • Biometric Fingerprint Technology • Save Money • Prevent Time-Theft • Easy To Use! • Affordable, Award-Winning Solutions to Manage Company Time and Attendance. Timecard Monitor is more secure than swipe cards and more accurate than adding up hours manually. Plus, it works seamlessly with: • QuickBooks® • Intuit Complete Payroll ® • AccPac® • PeachTree® • ABRA Payroll ® • Millenium® • PayCHEX ®and more. Call TOLL FREE: 888-4-TIMECLOCK! Or: 888-484-6325 Editions Start At ONLY $29999 www.countmein.biz The Perfect ComputerizedTime Clock! TECHNOLOGY GUIDE | PHYSICIANS PRACTICE | 41 http://www.countmein.biz http://WWW.PHYSICIANSPRACTICE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008

Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008 TG Cover Story: Protect Your Practice and Sleep Better Operations: Paperless? Not Quite The Internet: You've Got Mail...Or Do You? Patient Relations: Attention Grabbers The Tech Doctor: All About Blogs Lessons Learned: 'My EMR Nightmare...And Why I'd Do It Again' Scheduling: No More No-Shows The Marketplace: Who's Got Your Back IT Enhancement: Time, at Last, for an Upgrade? Online: 'Yup, I'm a Junkie. And Proud of It.' In the Office: New Technologies in the Workplace: Blessing or Curse? Web Surfing: If You Build It...

Physicians Practice - Tech Guide 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.