WELCOME 2020

2021 will bring the big changes for us in the area of E&M codes and using time as the main factor in picking codes - which will be different than we have today whereas we use time when more than half of the visit was spent in counseling and/or coordination of care. We will be doing several seminars and webinars this year on the changes you need to make within the next 364 days. 2020 does not bring in changes in the E&M.

FREE CEUs

IN 2019, we became credentialed with the AAPC and AMBA and arranged for CEUs for specific programs we're in the process of teaching. In November, in conjunction with JFAMC, we started teaching Tuesday night live webinars a couple times a month, and that has attracted quite a bit of interest- and especially those we're doing for free once a month that includes a free CEU from AAPC, AMBA, PMRNC and others. We plan on continuing those in 2020. In the meantime, here is a free one that is available On-Demand that includes 1 CEU. It is on NCCI Edits, MUE and Global Fee Periods. Getting the CEU certificate does require taking a 10 question quiz, but that has revealed to us who failed to watch the webinar (the only way someone would fail this quiz was if they didn't watch the video). You can log into Sharefile with your email and download the webinar and instructions for the quiz at SHAREFILE LOG-IN

REMOTE PHYSIOLOGIC MONITORING - HUGE INCREASES FOR 2020

Medicare started paying on the RPM services a year ago and made some changes in 2020 that should convince every wise manager and doctor how this will benefit their patients and their practices. Medicare already figured out they are saving a fortune, as a result of their 3 year study, whereas they saw a 38% reduction in initial hospital admits, 25% reduction in ER visits and 25% reduction in hospital re-admits. So - they are convinced it helps their patients. Now - we have to convince the doctors how it will impact their practices. Since we opened Telecare-USA at the beginning of 2019, we've had tremendous success with doctors from NY to California and points in between. Interestingly, one change that CMS made in November will help us to assist even more clients. In this past year, we've only lost 2 clients and in both cases, we've figured out that it was due to the physician's medical staff "not wanting to mess with it". Literally, we heard excuses of "patients don't want to test at home" and nurses saying "I don't have time to spend 10 minutes a day checking the portal" A change made by CMS in November takes care of that, so that effective today, these services fall within Designated Care Services and placed into general supervision status. This means that doctors can let Telecare-USA not only provide the system - but it will be OUR employees that will be checking the numbers, calling the patient, etc, and the doctors will still make more money than they make now on CCM each month - without the doctor's nursing staff having to lift a finger. Yep - we've made it easy for you - and even smaller, one-doc practices are still looking at $100K a year net profit on these - again - without making the doctor work any harder. They can do this while doing what doctors want… HELPING PATIENTS!

Let's see how easy & profitable it is: Let's assume a clinic has 500 Medicare patients (75% hypertension & 35% diabetic) and half of the diabetic and hypertensive patients want the monitoring. The doctor has two choices: 

1) Utilize our system and their own staff - and the annual net profit is $193,000. 

2) Utilize our system and we provide the monitoring - and their net profit is $110,000.

Call us today and let us explain how this can help your hypertensive or diabetic or CHF or COPD patients, as our system is set up and works well. On top of that, CMS added another code we can use in 2020 for an additional 20 minutes to increase the profits even more!

LESS THAN 8% OF FAMILY PRACTICES ARE DOING IT RIGHT

Ok - that is abrasive and I apologize, but it is true. I've recently done some polls with large groups of more than 25,000 office managers, billers and coders and less than 8% of respondents had the right answers. Yes, this means that your own practice may be losing a lot of money needlessly - AND NOT KNOW IT. It might be like your patient that never does a colonoscopy or breast exam and wonders why they can't do anything now about their cancer. They refused to ask when both were so easy to take care of. Don't wait too long.

When we do our one hour analysis with doctors, managers and their billers, more than 9 out of 10 times, the doctor and the manager are SHOCKED at how much they are missing. Yet - almost every single one is doing the same things - missing the same money. Only 1 out of 10 are doing it close to right. I can prove it to you. You have nothing to lose and a lot to gain - but I have $500 to lose if I'm wrong. Let me prove it to you.

I will spend an hour on a call with you, your doctor, your manager and your biller. I'll show you what you have been billing (I have your Medicare billing history here) and ask questions and make suggestions. It may be like a practice I did yesterday when I told them they will be audited in 2020 for using 99214 on 89% of their visits. It may be like the same practice that was not billing for everything the doctor was doing (90% fall into that category) when carriers would have paid them - had they billed it. At the end of the hour, I'll ask your doctor the MAGIC question. DO YOU BELIEVE THIS HOUR JUST HELPED YOU INCREASE YOUR INCOME BY AT LEAST $20,000 A YEAR? If they say yes - they pay me my fee of $500. If they say no - they do not owe me anything. The average FP agrees that the increase is well over $70,000 a year - and some are over $200,000 a year.

Now - the big question. If that extra $70,000 or $200,000 being deposited was going into your own bank account - how quickly would YOU be calling me to schedule? Don't you owe it to your employer to do the same? Or - just go to my scheduling page - and click on the link and pick the day/time best for you and your doctor.

Oh yeah - if the doc isn't on the call - neither am I as I have questions I have to ask the doctor about their practice that only they can answer.

@ERISA, #FAMILY PRACTICE, #RPM, #REMOTE PHYSIOLOGIC MONITORING

DON SELF, CPC, CMCS, CASA

WWW.DONSELF.COM

[email protected]