“What used to take hours and sometimes weeks can now be done almost instantaneously.”
Sharon Deamon, Practice Manager
Nutfield Surgical Associates
Letter from Jonathan
This month, we highlight athenahealth® initiatives made possible by the vast amount of data we collect and process every day on behalf of clients. Read about the newly updated PayerViewSM rankings that (finally!) quantify the “ease of doing business with the payer.” Live Benchmarking is another athenahealth project that helps clients quickly see how the practice performs on key benchmarks and awards fun prizes for top performers. We’re also happy to announce that The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) has certified the software component of athenahealth’s service-based EMR, athenaClinicals – big news! And in this month’s Compliance Corner, you might be relieved to read about the contingency plan for those who will not meet the May 23, 2007 deadline for complying with the National Provider Identification (NPI) regulations. Finally, we meet athenista Melissa Lukowski, who manages athenahealth’s relationships with our payer partners. Dive in!
New, Expanded PayerView Now Available
This month, we released the second annual PayerView Ranking. PayerView is the first-ever review of health industry payer performance from the vantage point of physicians. Get the scoop here.
athenaClinicalsSM Receives CCHIT Certification
We’re happy to announce that The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) has certified the software component of athenahealth’s service-based EMR, athenaClinicals. More here.
Are You Thinking About The Right Key Performance Indicators?
Finding a small set of meaningful key performance indicators (KPIs) will help you understand your business and ultimately realize its success. But which KPIs are best for your practice? Learn more here.
How Practices Win With Live Benchmarking
Want to quickly see how your practice performs on key benchmarks? What if you could compare your practice to others? And if your practice had the best scores at the end of the quarter, wouldn’t it be nice to get a prize? Learn more about Live Benchmarking here.
Ann & Natalie’s Compliance Corner
CMS announced that it is implementing a contingency plan for those who will not meet the May 23, 2007 deadline for complying with the National Provider Identification (NPI) regulations. More here.
athenista spotlight: Meet Melissa Lukowski
She’s traveled throughout South America and worked on a spacecraft that flew to Saturn. Now, she manages athenahealth’s very down-to-earth Payer Outreach Program. Meet Melissa Lukowski, athenahealth’s Director of Payer Outreach.
Performance Stats
PayerView data comes from athenahealth’s web-based athenaNet® practice management system database. PayerView looks at payers’ performance based on a number of categories, which combine to provide an overall ranking aimed at quantifying the “ease of doing business with the payer.”
| National Payer | 2007 Rank | 2006 Rank |
|---|---|---|
| CIGNA Healthcare | 1 | 5 |
| Aetna | 2 | 4 |
| Medicare B | 3 | 2 |
| Humana | 4 | 1 |
| UnitedHealth Group | 5 | 3 |
| Wellpoint | 6 | 7 |
Check out this month’s article to learn more.
To view the complete 2007 PayerView Ranking, visit www.athenaPayerView.com.
Best wishes,
Johnathan Bush
