“Before athenahealth, we could be weeks down the road before we spotted issues facing us. Now, we can quickly identify problems and address them.”
Penny Ratzlaff
Billing Supervisor, Rockford Health System
Letter from Jonathan
We’re always brimming with energy and ideas at athenahealth, and this issue of the Pulse is no exception. Check out 10 tips for improving self pay in a special guest article. And our split claims function is the Rule of the Month – find out how this rule saves clients the hassle of sending claims to multiple institutions (hint: we do it for them). Also, we’re gearing up for a major athenaClinicals initiative: specialty-focused content to guide practices from the beginning to the end of each patient visit. Yes, this means templates and guidelines for everything from patient history to clinical care and reimbursement related information. Also in this issue: have you heard about Medicaid’s initiative to intensify review and enforcement? Find out what you need to know in this month’s Compliance Corner. And the countdown to our fun-filled, information-packed User Conference is on – I can’t wait to see you there. For all this and more, read on!
See what athenaClinicalsSM has to offer at the 2007 User Conference!
Learn more about athenaClinicals – our fully integrated, results-driven EMR solution – at one of the live demonstrations throughout our User Conference. Also, get real insight on maximizing your practice’s profitability, streamlining workflow, optimizing staffing and much more. The athenahealth User Conference will be held September 30 – October 3 at the Sheraton Boston Hotel. We’ll see you there! Register now.
Rule of the Month: Split Claims
Tired of sending different parts of a single claim to multiple institutions? Our unique “split claim” functionality enables clients to enter charges on a single claim – no matter how many separate payers, formats, or forms are required. More here.
Client Spotlight: Orthopaedic Group Gets Flexible Practice Management
Southern Orthopaedic Specialists, LLC has been an athenahealth client since the day the practice was established. Find out how athenahealth has helped the practice get daily performance data, improve profitability, and stay on top of new initiatives here.
athenaClinicalsSM Update: Announcing the Clinical Content Initiative
Are you following clinical guidelines from memory? Confused about the requirements for evaluation and management coding? Taking too long to manage pay for performance initiatives? We’re announcing a new initiative to help clients tackle these issues and more.
10 Ways to Improve Collections from Self-Pay Patients
Every medical practice faces self-pay patients who pay late or not at all. The ideal solution is to do everything you can to collect payment at the time of service. When that’s not possible, these ten simple steps can dramatically improve your results.
Ann & Natalie’s Compliance Corner
This month, we highlight Medicaid’s initiative to intensify review and enforcement in the years ahead (and what this means for your practice). Click here.
athenista Spotlight: Meet Tom Cady
He heads the team responsible for giving clients a strong start with athenaNet®. But you can also catch him on the hockey rink year-round, at Friday family movie night, or dreaming about an Alaskan cruise with the whole family. Meet Tom Cady, this month’s featured athenista.
Performance Stats
Days in Accounts Receivable (DAR) dropped 4% between August 2006 and August 2007. We saw decreases across almost all areas, but the biggest improvements came from Commercial payers and Medicaid.
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
