“athenahealth is invaluable. Everything is right there. Denials are known immediately.”
Kristen Morales
Practice Administrator, Valley Medical Group
Letter from Jonathan
This month, we introduce the Rule of the Month. In each issue, we’ll highlight one of athenahealth’s rules – unrivaled payer knowledge that helps practices avoid mistakes that can delay payment and cause hassles for the billing staff. Check out the story of a large medical center that dropped its DAR and got laser-focused information about practice performance after implementing athenaNet®. And we’re happy to announce the second quarter Live Benchmarking winners – find out what the fuss is all about (and why some clients are “addicted” to checking their scores). We’ve hit some major milestones with athenaClinicals – implementing our hundredth provider and processing over 100,000 documents monthly – and client feedback has been incredible (some even saying “life-changing”). Should you have privacy concerns with physician blogs? Find out in this month’s Compliance Corner. Finally, we shine the spotlight on athenahealth’s communications team – they’re not your average PR group. I look forward to seeing you all at the User Conference in October. It’s shaping up to be our best yet. Read on!
Afraid that EMRs cost more than they save?
Software alone isn’t enough to achieve your goals. That’s why athenaClinicalsSM gives you all the features you’d expect in a state-of-the-art EMR plus an intelligent rules engine and experts who are passionately committed to helping your practice achieve a predictable return on investment. Check out our new online tour or call 877.889.8415.
New! Rule of the Month: New Patient Alert
Announcing the Rule of the Month! A new athenaPulse feature, each month we’ll highlight a special insurance rule that makes your practice life easier and more profitable. This month, check out athenaNet’s automatic new patient check.
Client Success Story: DAR Drops, Revenue Grows at Large Medical Center
Within moments of meeting athenahealth’s co-founder Todd Park, Tammy Shepherd (chief financial officer for Medical Administrative Services at The University of Kansas Medical Center) knew that athenahealth could tackle the multiple challenges facing her medical practices. Read their success story here.
How Practices Win With Live Benchmarking
Wouldn’t it be great if you could quickly see how your practice performed on key benchmarks? And if your practice had the best scores at the end of the quarter, wouldn’t it be nice to get a prize? Find out how athenahealth clients benefit (and have lots of fun) with Live Benchmarking.
athenaClinicalsSM Reaches 100 Provider, 100,000 Document Milestones
athenaClinicals, athenahealth’s clinical cycle management service, hit two major milestones last month. Read what clients have to say about our take on EMRs.
Ann & Natalie’s Compliance Corner
Starting to blog? Web logs, or blogs, are an increasingly popular tool among physicians. But there are important privacy considerations and inherent risks unique to physician and medical disclosures. Learn more here.
athenista Spotlight: Meet Our Corporate Communications Team
They pour over industry news, keep pace with demand for national media attention, create all kinds of written material and advocate for process change in the industry. All that and they keep Jonathan Bush supplied with Batman costumes. Meet John Hallock and Jennifer Bale, this month’s featured athenistas.
Performance Stats
Days in Accounts Receivable (DAR) dropped 4.2% between July 2006 and July 2007. We saw decreases across almost all areas, but the biggest improvements came in Medicare B and Medicaid, some of our most challenging payer segments.
What is DAR?
athenahealth’s Days in Accounts Receivable (DAR) represents the claim lifecycle beginning-to-end: starting the day a charge is entered into athenaNet to the day payment for a charge is posted. We calculate DAR by taking the total dollar outstanding, averaged over the last seven days of the month, and dividing by a rolling average of daily charges for the past 60 days. So it’s not simply a measure of a payer’s payment cycle. It’s actually a full assessment of a provider’s A/R cash flow. When DAR drops, your practice gets paid faster. It’s one of the many ways we use data to help you understand (and improve) your practice profitability and workflow.
Best wishes,
Johnathan Bush
