Archive for the ‘What’s New’ Category

Looking Ahead

Last week, MedMan’s Board of Directors descended upon Boise, ID for about 48-hours of intensive discussion and planning. After a combined meeting with the corporate team where we reviewed the status of the 2010 Operating Plan, the Board convened with our primary focus being to:

  1. define the vivid description of where our company will be in 2015,
  2. determine the annual BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal) and
  3. set the annual objectives for 2011.

While we have decided to ‘get back to the basics’ there is nothing simple about our Plan. Redefining and recommitting to our core competencies is going to take a sobering level of focus and determination. I have a hunch that committing to a “To-Don’t” list will prove to be an enormous challenge because the culture of our company has always been about finding a way to say Yes. This not-so-basic “Back to the Basics” philosophy is sure to make 2011 an exciting year at MedMan.

Written by on November 15th, 2010
Posted in Culture, What's New

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MedMan and Mindjet

MedMan Streamlines Operating Process for Medical Practices Nationwide and Increases Client Satisfaction with Mindjet

 

MindManager version 9 brings together information for remote employees and clients to foster closer communication and improved client relationships

 

San Francisco – October 14, 2010 – Mindjet®, the leading provider of software and web-based applications for visually organizing and managing information and ideas, today announced the successful implementation of MindManager™ version 9 with MedMan, a leading medical management services company based in Boise, Idaho. MedMan was looking for a solution to help get closer alignment on internal operations and access to customer information for its 25 remote working employees so they could drive more strategic business plans for their dispersed medical practice client base. MedMan deployed MindManager to help employees create and organize all vital business documents, such as client rosters, HR documents and new hire information, in MindManager so information is easy to access, update and share. Using MindManager, MedMan is able to better serve its clients by providing in-depth and interactive strategy plans that foster idea generation and increase productivity.

MedMan provides administrative and business assistance and consultation for clinics, physician-owned and private medical practices. With numerous clients across multiple states and a workforce that is spread across the country, the business was difficult to keep on track. MedMan needed an easy-to-use and understand platform for tracking key pieces of information related to its clients and business.

“The methodology behind MedMan’s business is helping our clients prioritize needs and establish operational efficiencies to more effectively manage their medical practices,” said Jim Trounson, President of MedMan. “The beauty of MindManager is that we can easily create an actionable business plan with goals, owners and deadlines and work in real-time with the client to show progress and quickly revise the plan when needed. This allows us to the make decisions quicker and faster, making business better for our clients and MedMan.”

MedMan has also taken advantage of the new features in MindManager version 9 including the enhanced integration with Microsoft Outlook, the resource availability feature and the Gantt Project View to understand when clients have available assets and how MedMan can effectively use those to better a client’s business.

“Resource and project management is something that is essential to the survival of any business, whether providing services to clients or providing healthcare to patients,” said Scott Raskin, CEO of Mindjet. “MedMan’s use of MindManager demonstrates the power of visualizing pieces of information that are critical to everyday business function and we are excited to help MedMan provide a unique and necessary service to medical professionals.”

By using MindManager’s extensive visual environment and its innate ability to organize and manage all forms of data and information, MedMan has created elaborate maps that contain all pieces of relevant information for any client, ranging from current business plans, to action items to client rosters. With MindManager, MedMan has been able to strengthen its relationship with existing clients, acquire new ones and provide all clients the service needed to keep business thriving.

MindManager’s visual information maps start with a central theme, and then add branches with ideas, notes, images, tasks, hyperlinks and attachments. Users can easily import from all types of information sources. MindManager maps are used to capture and organize information, and quickly transform thoughts and ideas into fine-tuned visual representations, documents, compelling presentations and winning strategies. MindManager provides a better way to brainstorm, organize facts, plan projects, and communicate results. Users have access to tight integration with Microsoft Outlook and Office to keep the constant stream of information for a project organized in one easy-to-access location, and a visualization and dashboard tool for SharePoint environments with MindManager Explorer for SharePoint. Collaboration tools, real-time map co-editing and web based document storage with Mindjet Catalyst is also available.

For more information visit: www.Mindjet.com

About MedMan

Founded by Jim Trounson in 1977, MedMan’s business model was based on Jim’s experience with outsourcing management companies that were improving the efficiency of hospitals by centralizing and computerizing many of their management functions. MedMan’s goal is to positively affect healthcare delivery to one million patients per year by 2015, based on a proven ability to provide an elite team of professional practice administrators to physician-driven medical clinics.

About Mindjet

Mindjet provides productivity software that helps business professionals visually organize and act upon ideas, information, and resources to drive productivity, team effectiveness, and business innovation. Mindjet products include industry-leading software and online services centered on information mapping, as well as applications that incorporate Mindjet’s innovative visualization technology to improve the usability of leading business applications, including Microsoft® SharePoint® and Salesforce.com.  More than 1.5 million people around the world use Mindjet software to clarify thinking, efficiently analyze information, increase team productivity, and make better-informed decisions.

Used by business professionals in 44 of BusinessWeek’s® 50 “World’s Most Innovative Companies,” Mindjet solutions dramatically boost productivity and team effectiveness. Surveys across several industries show that Mindjet can increase productivity by up to 25 percent by making meetings, common communications, and project management tasks more efficient and effective. Mindjet products are available for free trial or purchase at www.mindjet.com/products/overview, through salesforce.com AppExchange, and through an extensive partner network at www.mindjet.com/community/partners/overview. Mindjet is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia.

 

Contact Information
Aaron Grabein

Text 100 for Mindjet

415.593.8432

aaron.grabein@text100.com

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Written by on October 14th, 2010
Posted in Culture, News, What's New

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MedMan University – My Freshman Year

WOW!  I had no idea what to expect when I headed toward McCall on Tuesday after a long day’s work.  My biggest concern was the need to bring a sleeping bag, and I hadn’t asked if there was indoor plumbing!  (I was so pleased to find there was!).    I arrived around midnight, found that breakfast was at 7:30, met my roommate Jennifer from Alaska, and fell onto the plastic mattress for a great night’s sleep!

In our first session in the morning, Jason put us in groups based on the results of our DiSC personality tests.  I was so excited to be in a group with all the social “I” people!  It was comforting to know there is a whole group of people, who overcommit, like to work in groups, avoid aggressive behaviors, and love to be appreciated.   On a practical note, I can’t wait to get back to the office and arrange to send the DiSC survey to the two new doctors we have signed, which should help me know how to communicate with them.  I also plan to have my manager’s take the survey and use it as a training tool with them.

It was eye opening to see that the MedMan team has many in each category.  This is good for me to know, so that I didn’t assume that great managers need to fit in one or two of the categories.   I have also decided that I am going to have my family take the DiSC survey and use the results to have fun over the holidays.  Now that my kids are grown, and we have added a daughter-in-law, it would be a great exercise to talk about our personality styles and it may help them as they choose their future career paths.

It was just the first session….and already I found that MedMan University is offering a curriculum beneficial to my professional and personal life.   I’d say this is a world class institution!

Written by on October 7th, 2010
Posted in Culture, Training, What's New

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Getting Things Done

It occurred to me today how much I have accomplished this week on the road.  By ‘on the road’, I don’t mean work that occurs from a location remote from my primary residence in Boise.  I literally mean ‘on the road’.  I left Boise on Tuesday morning for the Tri Cities and have burned up the highway between Kennewick and Prosser all week.  I’ve had more things to accomplish this week than hours available and so I’ve maximized my road time with a little GTD tip that I learned from our own Brad Turpen.

Each morning, I have taken an inventory of the priorities on my @Calls list in Outlook.  That’s where I store the tasks that I am responsible for completing that require me to use a phone, but not necessarily a computer.  Brad taught me to put the telephone number in the subject line of the task so that as I pull it up, I need only click on the 10 digit number (which Outlook recognizes as a telephone number) and it automatically asks me to confirm that I want to call.  My Bluetooth allows me to keep my hands on the wheel while I conduct business from behind a windshield instead of a desk.

So this week I’ve initiated a special meeting of our Board, conducted a reference check on one of our recruitment candidates, done a screening interview with another potential candidate, negotiated details of the compensation package that our client is offering one of our candidates, and more.  As a matter of fact, I didn’t get in to my car one time this week without the name and number of my next call already prepared on my smart phone.  As I arrived at my hotel room each night, I could at least feel good that the work before me was work requiring me to use a computer – the person to person stuff was already out of the way.

Technology isn’t making my workload any lighter but it sure is helping me to get stuff done.

Written by on September 7th, 2010
Posted in Culture, Training, What's New

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Project Management Never Seemed So Cool

One of our newest “MedMan Ways” is mind mapping.  We’re rolling MindManager9 software from MindJet out to our entire company this week after early adopters decided they couldn’t live without it.  Once when I was on the phone with a MindJet technical support representative, she pitched it as the “missing piece” of the MS Office suite and I’d say all of us at MedMan would agree.

Why do we like mind mapping so much?  Here are my top three reasons:

  1. Project Management – our corporate team uses MindManager for our annual operating plan.  We can add tasks, task information like resources and due dates, attach documents, link to websites, and move things from one area of our plan to another with the click of a mouse.  Once you add your information you can view it in an integrated Gantt Chart or filter by resources.  For example, anytime I want to see what has been assigned to me (and make sure my due date isn’t creeping up) I just do a power filter on my name and less than two seconds I have what I’m looking for.

    Annual Op Plan

  2. Presentations – we recently used a map for the first time to give our marketing presentationto a new client.  I think everyone was a little nervous at first to change from our trusty ol’ Power Point, but the whole idea of a map just makes sense.  You can see the starting point and ending point at the beginning, but as you move through the map, you can focus on a bit of information at a time with the “walk through” view.

    Presentation Map

  3. Visual organization – my personal use is where I really get the most out of mind mapping.  I am one of those people that has to get the crazy, disorganized thoughts out of my brain before I can start to make sense of it all – from “operationalize technology plan” to “tell husband to pick up dog food.”  Which leads me to another MedMan Way – GTD, or Getting Things Done (based on the book of the same name by David Allen).  But that is a topic for another day…

    Personal Brain Dump Map

Written by on August 29th, 2010
Posted in Culture, Opinion, What's New

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CMS Audits & Complexities of Infusion Services

Infusion coding continues to be a “hot spot” for CMS and private payor audits.  The evolution of these codes has created several vulnerabilities.   First, within a 5 year time frame, infusion CPT codes have been revised, transitioned into Level II HCPCS codes and then re-categorized within the 90,000 series of CPT services.  Beyond this, the rules have continued to change with respect to bundling edits, supervision and general use of the codes depending on the site of service.

No surprise, most of the RAC’s have issued audits focusing on infusion services and specifically hydration.  Although the RAC has defined the audit as a review of “units” per patient per date of service, clinics and facilities should realize that other types of audits may look deeper into other issues surrounding infusion/hydration billing.  Likewise, some of the other RAC issues may incidentally create opportunities to find overpayments.  One example is blood transfusions.  Although both hydration and blood transfusion are defined as “automated audits”, it may create a complex review opportunity if both services were billed and paid at the same visit.  Coding rules dictate that although these services may be performed together, hydration services are bundled as part of the overall transfusion service and therefore should not be paid separately.

Most recently, the OIG issued a report dated July 28, 2010 on payments received by Princeton Community Hospital from its Medicare contractor for outpatient infusion therapy services. The OAS (office of Audit Services) found that Princeton Community Hospital billed for infusion services during surgical services and received payment over and above the global package. The report stated that “Payments received by the hospital from its Medicare contractor for 762 claims were not appropriate because they were for outpatient infusion therapy services provided as part of a surgical procedure and therefore were not separately payable by Medicare.”

A few suggestions on conducting internal reviews to detect potential problems

  • Cross check physician/nursing time against unit value time on claims. As per CPT, time under 31 minutes may not be billed as a separate service.
  • Cross check multiple infusion services for facilities as CPT has specific hierarchies based upon structural algorithms.
  • Cross check surgical services and items billed “over and beyond” on the same date of service.  Multiple procedures should have modifier -51 appended (unless exempt).  Review modifier -59 criteria and non-surgical services billed and paid on the same date as a surgical service.
  • Review infusion services performed “concurrently” as services such as hydration are bundled into other infusion services.
  • Review “start” and “stop” times of infusion as time is only calculated when medication/hydration is going into the patient.  Prep and observation time are NOT a part of infusion time.
  • Review billed equipment and supplies associated with infusions.  Items such as local anesthesia, IV access, flushes and standard tubing, syringes and supplies are bundled into the infusion service.

Jana Gill is a Certified Professional Coder and MedMan’s Coding and Compliance Director.   Jana offers audit, coding, training webinars, and other services for MedMan clients. For more information, contact us at 208-333-0000.

Written by on August 17th, 2010
Posted in Training, What's New

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“Using VoIP in a medium-size practice call center”

Nicole Brown, MedMan’s Operations Director, recently partnered with David Kirk of St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center to author “Using VoIP in a medium-size practice call center,” featured in the May/June 2010 edition of MGMA’s Connexion magazine.  To read the full article, click the image below.

Using VoIP in a medium-size practice call center

MGMA's May/June 2010 Edition of Connexion Magazine

Written by on June 18th, 2010
Posted in News, What's New

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Creating Access with PNWU

Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences and MedMan have strikingly similar missions – to improve and create access for quality healthcare in the Northwest. MedMan achieves this by managing medical groups; PNWU is achieving this through their program to increase the number of physicians practicing family medicine in rural communities. In this interview, Dr. Stan Flemming, President of PNWU, discusses how our two organizations are working together on a common vision.

Written by on October 8th, 2009
Posted in Multimedia, What's New

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We’ve Been Featured In Idaho’s Largest Newspaper

MedMan was recently featured in Idaho’s largest newspaper, the Idaho Statesman! The article, titled “A Boise company finds success – and makes employees happy – by doing business digitally”, can be read in its entirety here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/eyepiece/story/785245.html

Read the rest of this entry »

Written by on June 20th, 2009
Posted in What's New

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