"With athenahealth, our dollars outstanding over 90 days have declined by 50%, and total collections as a percent of billed charges have increased by 10%."
Stuart Weprin, M.D.
Chief Executive Officer, OGM
Letter from Jonathan
As usual, lots going on here – hopefully in the order you'd like it to go. Our first order of business has been handling a massive volume of reprocessed Medicare claims. This has held up some work on process innovation in our posting area, but Electronic Remittance rates keep on rising and we continue to hack through the wrinkles in these very new and (very immature) payor transactions. That said, our Payor Performance team continues to build strong rules and chip away at your DAR. Meanwhile, we've reorganized the departments that service you directly into a single organization. Now, all of our client support, professional services, and account management people are under one integrated roof, called Client Operations, with one leader: Leslie Locke, our new SVP Client Operations. The specifics are in this issue. We've also gotten confident enough in athenaClinicals to formally launch a sales effort to existing clients. Not to mention our new Pulse feature – Ann & Dan's Compliance Corner – bringing you the latest, most relevant compliance issues affecting athenahealth and your practice. And finally, it's time to SAVE THE DATE for our 2006 User's Conference. This has been the high point of the athenahealth year since we started it, and it gets better every year. I look forward to seeing you all there. For all this and more, read on.
Keeping up with athenaClinicals: Our new VP of Clinical Sales
By the end of this year, over 200 clinicians will be using the Beta version of athenaClinicals. So what's in store for your practice when it comes to our clinical solution? See what Richard Moore, our new Vice President of Clinical Sales, has to say about the growing demand for athenaClinicals here.
Our new, integrated client operations team: Better service for you
After lots of planning (and lots of listening to you about too many hand-offs), we are happy to announce the implementation of a new, integrated client operations team at athenahealth. Find out how we're reorganizing – and improving service for our clients – here.
New feature: Ann & Dan's compliance corner
Welcome to Ann & Dan's Compliance Corner! In this new monthly column, we'll bring you updates on compliance and regulatory issues you want to know about. This month, we kick off the column with an update on the much-anticipated HIPAA Enforcement Rule.
athenahealth helps clients process re-adjudicated Medicare payments
As many of our clients already know, Medicare claims paid from 1/1/06-2/2/06 were re-adjudicated and additional payments will be made for these claims. Find out what athenahealth is doing to process these items and shield our clients from additional labor costs here.
athenista spotlight: Meet Dan Orenstein
Ever hear the one about the lawyer and Sparky the Monkey? It's all in a day's work for athenahealth's Chief Integrity Officer of the Compliance Program. Meet Dan Orenstein, this month's featured athenista. Miss one of our athenista profiles? Click here for the archive.
Vital Stats
Days in Accounts Receivable (DAR) dropped 1.5% between April 2005 and April 2006, with lost patient care revenue (LPCR) steady at 5%. While DAR dropped overall, DAR for Commercial payors and Medicaid remained about the same. We're working hard to make sure DAR continues to go down among all the major payor categories.
Save the date! athenahealth's 5th Annual User Conference is October 10-13, 2006
This year's User Conference is going to be the biggest, the best, the most useful ever. So save the date: October 10-13, 2006 at the Sheraton Boston Hotel. We'll kick off with an Opening Reception on Tuesday evening, then enjoy two full days of content on Wednesday and Thursday, wrapping up with a half-day on Friday. More details coming soon.
2006 Practice of the Year Contest Entries Now Being Accepted by Physicians Practice®
Physicians Practice®, America's Leading Practice Management Journal, is now accepting entries for its fifth annual Practice of the Year competition. Practices will be evaluated on their descriptions of innovative, unique, or creative solutions that they have implemented to improve practice operations in technology, office management, finance, personnel, and patient satisfaction. athenahealth is proud of our clients' consistent and innovative work to improve the lives of patients, and we encourage you to enter. Need a little help with your contest entry? If you are interested in working with athenahealth to submit your practice for the 2006 award, please contact John Hallock, jhallock@athenahealth.com. Requests for assistance from athenahealth considered on a first come, first served basis.
Best wishes,
Johnathan Bush
