Dr. R. A. Foxworth, FICC, MCS-P
I’ve been around more years than I want to admit, and I don’t know that I’ve ever seen DCs and their teams more stressed out.
One of the biggest reasons for that is the impending ICD-10 transition. But some of it is also confusion over PQRS, or Medicare, or EHRs, or documenting for medical necessity. On top of all that, records requests are pouring in at an unprecedented rate. Audits and their often frightening consequences are in the news every week.
These days, it seems like there are even more ways to run afoul of the regulations than there are rules. And there are oh-so-many rules, guidelines, laws, and policies that many doctors have only a general grasp of. When I’m at a seminar and ask doctors about something as basic as their fee schedules, I often get a blank look in response. They’re overwhelmed. And I’m unsettled by that.
It’s a tough time of year. The kids are out of school, and doctors are torn between going on vacation to connect with their own families and staying in town to try and do whatever they can to get more patients coming in the door.
Surely you feel it too. You get phone calls, not always coherent, with questions you may or may not be able to answer with pleas for help you truly want to be able to give. There is frustration expressed by DCs who just want to offload the business side of running their practices and get back to taking care of people. How many times have you had to put a doctor on hold, or take a number and call back, or go running off to do some research?
I know it’s not because you’re not giving your job everything you’ve got. It’s because chiropractic has gotten so complicated, that there’s hardly a single question with a simple answer, let alone an answer a beleaguered doctor wants to hear.
Allow me to offer a solution to simplify things for you just a bit. ChiroHealthUSA is a single, simple answer that protects your state association member doctors from charges of dual fee schedules, illegal discounts, or inducement. It also comes with a wealth of expert support.
ChiroHealthUSA is a network that works in conjunction with a Discount Medical Plan Organization (DMPO) to give chiropractors the means to offer safe, legal discounts to financially challenged patients based on their practice’s actual fee schedule, a schedule we help doctors set and understand. That means your members don’t have to worry about dual fee schedules, inducement, and the resulting risk of being audited that comes with them.
And, relevant to the ICD-10 transition, we also provide access to our colleagues who are experts with the new code set, as well as documentation, reimbursement, compliance, patient finances, and billing and collections. With ICD-10 about to land on October 1st, you’re going to want to keep our name and contact information handy.
Becoming a ChiroHealthUSA provider means no cost whatsoever for the doctor with an affordable $49 fee per patient family per year. Most patients recover this amount quite easily in the first patient visit. We offer a free on-demand webinar that explains the benefits of becoming a ChiroHealthUSA provider as well as how to easily offer membership to patients. Invite your members to register.
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Why is the Discount Challenge prize amount $15,024? Because that is the average “per-occurrence” fine for Medicare inducements. That’s not $15,024 per patient, that’s not per provider, that’s PER VISIT. Stinks, doesn’t it? To us, the prize amount is worth the investment if we can help our profession better understand proper discounting.