MediLink Consulting Group

The Three Minute Read

You Can Profit From Our Experience

October 18, 2010

In This Issue

Automate Billing

Strategic Planning

Ed cropped

Changing the Financial Set Point of Your Imaging Center

We believe that it is very important for each of us to think differently about competing in the outpatient imaging market today as we prepare for the changes that are already being phased in by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).In every issue of The Three Minute Read we share ways that that you can change the cost structure of your imaging business. In today's issue we discuss automating your billing services to reduce the cost of managing your accounts receivables and the important process of planning for your center's successful future as the ACA is completed implemented in 2013.

If you have additional ideas for cost reduction or revenue enhancement that you would like to share, send us an e-mail. We will evaluate your contribution and potentially it could be included in a future issue of The Three Minute Read.

All the Best

signature

Ed Eichhorn

Recent Advances in Radiology IT Workflows Can Reduce Your Billing and Practice Management Costs

Today, radiology offices and imaging centers can automate their billing and revenue management efforts to achieve both process improvement and staff cost savings. By using the IMAGINEradiology™ Billing and Management system, proprietary software,all paper information related to your patients can be scanned and electronically transferred when this information is required. The result is a rules-driven, practice specific, automated task list that will take replace many staff functions that your team normally performs in the daily, weekly or monthly billing process. 0.9227272727272727

Automatic processes can be triggered at pre-set times to do many of the mundane and time consuming jobs, such as the downloading and acquisition of demographics and charge data, real time data verification, coding and posting charges, checking against payer rules. The system can also automatically generate claims and submit them for payment.

The system will also provide very useful dashboards, with trending and links to management reports. Imaging companies that have become users of these automated billing processes have found that as many as 40% to 60% of their billing charges can be processed from transcription through payment posting without staff intervention.

To learn more about the IMAGINEradiology system click here!

The Importance of Strategic Planning for Today's Imaging Center

There is an old adage for the management of business in general that is "Businesses that fail to plan, plan to fail." Nothing could be more relevant than planning in outpatient imagi Strategic Planning ng today. We all know that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has several very specific changes in reimbursement that are a part of this expansive law. Reimbursement for the technical component of Medicare will drop by 38% by the beginning of 2013. The CMS MIPPA study will be completed in 2012 and it is possible that the result will suggest some sort of preauthorization for Medicare patients. The SGR annual adjustment in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule will be replaced with another program to control payment in the current session of Congress or the new session in 2011.

Please consider these questions about your planning process:

1. Does your imaging center conduct an annual strategic planning process?

2. Is your budget based on your annual goals and strategic plan?

3. Does your annual planning include input from your employees, supervisors and managers?

4. Is your budget reviewed and financials analyzed based on referral data throughout the year?

5. Have you developed strategies to meet the challenges posed by the ACA or other attempts to reduce reimbursement for imaging services?

It the answer to any of these questions is no please contact us so that we can help you develop a viable and definitive plan for your imaging center that will address the major changes that are on the horizon in outpatient medical imaging.

Click here to learn more about our stategic planning services