Digital practice management tools can help to streamline the frequently time-consuming tasks required in retina practice management. Here, two authors offer two quick tips on how to use digital tools to optimize your practice.
DIGITIZING PRIOR AUTHORIZATIONS
By Paul Lucas, MSHA
Obtaining prior authorizations is one of the time-consuming but necessary tasks that can be a burden for busy retina practice administrators. At Georgia Retina, we have implemented SamaCare (SamaCare), a digital platform that provides one uniform tool to obtain prior authorizations from almost any payer. This platform has been around for several years, during which time it has increased the number of eligible payers. SamaCare works with each provider to add payers as needed.
Using one single source for requesting and receiving prior authorizations received from multiple payers can add tremendous efficiency to a labor-intensive and inherently inefficient process. For our practice, having all prior authorization requests, approvals, and rejections housed on one convenient website has significantly reduced the burden of obtaining, documenting, and communicating this critical information to multiple locations on a timely basis. Not only has it streamlined getting the prior authorizations, but also our clinics now have instant access to this information through the host website.
Given the ease and efficiency of this process, we have centralized it in our practice. Now prior authorizations for our multi-doctor, multi-location practice can be handled by one person.
Before we implemented SamaCare, we had to use a number of different methods for obtaining prior authorizations, from faxed requests to phone calls. This was very inefficient—being kept on hold and dealing with busy fax lines and follow-up calls to payers, only to later hear that they never received the original request. All this resulted in a significant amount of duplicative work. Further, we had little consistency in how information from payers was returned. Before SamaCare, we had to manually communicate and document this information across the practice, which caused many delays.
Digitizing and streamlining prior authorizations has allowed us to manage every aspect of our practice more efficiently.
FINDING THE RIGHT EHR
By Daniel Schroder, MBA
As the practice administrator for Bay Area Retina, I have overseen the implementation of two electronic health record (EHR) platforms. Believe it or not, I was a technician the first time I was charged with researching, selecting, and overseeing our transition to an EHR. Our practice leaders chose a technician for this task because we wanted to select a platform with the perspective of the medical professional’s workflow and user experience in mind. Due to the business failure of our first EHR vendor, I was recently tasked once again with selecting the right EHR for our practice and overseeing our transition to it. This time we chose a specialty-specific solution provided by Modernizing Medicine, modmed Ophthalmology.
In this article, I describe the process we used to choose the right EHR and the key features we were looking for in our EHR system.
Efficiency. User experience and efficiency during patient examinations was the main feature we focused on in choosing this system. Implementing any EHR system will help to improve practice efficiency, but the system’s user interface and ease of use within your particular practice’s workflow are two important factors influencing practice efficiency. The optimal choice can vary greatly between practices.
One reason behind our decision to opt for Modernizing Medicine’s EHR was the platform’s ability to learn and adjust to the user. In addition to including retina-specific procedure workflows and treatment plans right out of the box, as a user continues to make selections in the system, it starts remembering his or her choices and customizing itself to that user. Subsequently, the most popular selections for a given user are presented as a list of choices, and the most relevant treatment plans appear as a list based on diagnosis, etc. Essentially, the platform learns and optimizes the workflow interface automatically.
Integration. A major draw of the Modernizing Medicine EMR platform was its ability to integrate functionality with our existing imaging equipment. Finding an EHR capable of this was a common sticking point during our search.
The Modernizing Medicine platform presents images in the patient chart so that the doctor can see the latest image alongside those from previous visits. Being able to see all the patient’s tests in the chart without having to do the digital equivalent of paging through the chart to find them is quite convenient, and that feature has only gotten better over time. Also, as patients have started to use their portals to access information from home, the system has become more interactive.
CONCLUSION
Transitioning to an EHR is a daunting, complicated, and time-consuming endeavor that will ultimately prove more than worthwhile. Using an EHR in your practice can help to optimize workflows, create efficiencies, and facilitate future growth. Although it can be a challenge to find the right system for your particular practice, exercising your due diligence can lead to a successful pairing.
