"Thanks to athenahealth, we have the data today that tells us exactly what's going on in the practice."
Nathan Beraha, M.D.
Anchor Medical Associates
Letter from Jonathan
Happy Holidays! In this issue you'll find an update on our ongoing quest for the medical claim holy grail-real-time adjudication-in a pilot project we will kickoff shortly in Florida with partners Humana and BCBS. Also, we have begun some work with the people from Homeland Security. Read about the results of our first table top exercise with the Northern New England Metropolitan Medical Response System. For our athenista spotlight this month we bring you the man behind the green curtain. Chip Ach leads the Production Systems Team charged with keeping athenaNet up and running. Also in this issue are words of wisdom from Dr. Deborah Hazen, this year's Live Benchmarking grand prize winner. And don't forget to check out the Department of Health and Human Services' response to the President's August executive order on improving transparency and quality in healthcare in the Compliance Corner.
The Ultimate Clean Claim: Real-Time Claim Adjudication (RTCA)
athenahealth partners with payers to help physicians resolve claims immediately.
In a joint effort to simplify administrative tasks and help physicians obtain payment for services from patients more quickly, athenahealth is participating in a pilot project with Humana and BCBS of Florida. Is this the holy grail we've been searching for?
Live Benchmarking: Words of Wisdom from the Grand Prize Winner
Meet Dr. Deborah Hazen of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. Dr. Hazen and her staff were the grand prize winners in athenahealth's 2006 Live Benchmarking competition. Find out how she did it.
Ann & Natalie's Compliance Corner
Check out the Department of Health and Human Services' response to the President's August executive order on improving transparency and quality in healthcare (the topic of our September athenaPulse article).
athenista spotlight: Meet Chip Ach
Ensuring that athenaNet is always working for you, Chip Ach is the man behind the curtain. Often awake in the middle of the night, Chip and his team give you 24/7 service so you can sleep well knowing that your practice is operating at maximum efficiency. What makes Chip tick?
Vital Stats
Days in Accounts Receivable (DAR) dropped 6.2% between November 2005 and November 2006, with lost patient care revenue slightly down at 5.2%. Of particular note is BCBS's drop by 26% due to continued denials analysis, rule writing, and payer outreach. And Workers Comp, where we have put most of our innovative work due to its small size, is down 7.3%.
athenaFunnies: Yummy Statement!
True stories from the athenahealth vault
A client called in regarding a patient's payment that had not been posted to his claims. In looking through unpostables, it was located. Apparently, the athenahealth employee could not read the statement which had a note attached to please excuse his statement because his dog had eaten some of it. The statement had ended up in unpostables because only half of the statement was there due to his dog getting a bit hungry.
Best wishes,
Johnathan Bush
