This quote by Jim Rohn must apply to companies as well. So we’re especially proud to have been selected by a Virginia Mason subsidiary as their partner. Through NetworxHealth, MedMan is providing practice management support to their consulting clients. As part of our partnership MedMan has access to Virginia Mason resources such as Virginia Mason Institute’s well known lean and process improvement expertise. MedMan is becoming better through the company we keep.

In the first article in this series, we looked at the Institute of Medicine’s STEEEP acronym, which stands for care that is Safe, Timely, Effective, Efficient, Equitable, and Patient-Centered. Efficient care is the fourth pillar. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement describes efficiency by stating, “the health care system should be efficient, constantly seeking to reduce the waste — and hence the cost — of supplies, equipment, space, capital, ideas, time, and opportunities.” This definition, though, doesn’t just include the time, supplies, space, ideas and opportunities of the providers and clinic staff, but also those of the patients. How many times have we, as patients in the healthcar

MedMan is gearing up for our annual company meeting, MedMan University (mmU). MedMan is not unique in its desire to bring our team together for continuing education, networking and teambuilding. What we do strive for, however, is to create an 'only at MedMan' event. We want our employees to have a sense of pride, feel appreciated and, as a result, share a bond. By creating 'only at MedMan' events, experiences, terminology, we are forming our culture. Are you creating 'only at [your insert company name]' experiences?

Should it be? When was the last time you opened your file drawer and looked at your contracts? Do you know if any of them have expired? Because medical practices are so busy on a day-to-day basis sometimes the administrative burdens, such as contract review, gets put on the back burner until one day it’s been years since we’ve looked at them. One way to combat not keeping up with your contracts is to join a network, but are you getting annual reports and updates from your network administrator? Do you belong to more than one network and do you know which network is bringing you patients? There are some simple things you can do to determine if it’s time to review your contracts: Open the

I suspect the reason that there are so many good books on the topic is that organizations are not so good at decision making. Hierarchical structures and a myriad of legal structures are overlaid with all kinds of unique physician interrelationships that just make decision making messy. Managers are trained in a model of “we decide” and doctors are trained in a medical model of “I decide”. With such training it is difficult to seed decision making to others – their trusted manager or administrator, or even a physician colleague. Lack of effective delegation is but one source of ineffective decision making. When struggling to understand why your practice is experiencing difficulty with decisi

It is fair to say that the process of obtaining authorization prior to a procedure or costly medication has become quite burdensome for many of our practices. Personally, it has been frustrating to see staff jump over and through countless obstacles and hoops just to help one patient get the medication they need. It’s even more frustrating when payment is denied based upon a technicality or a mistake on the payer’s part. Well, hopefully a recent collaboration will begin to improve the way we do prior authorizations. A number of healthcare stakeholders have put out a Consensus Statement to demonstrate their plans to streamline the prior authorization process. This group includes associations

With the New Year, is the introduction of a new team member. Cynthia Billmeyer joins the MedMan team as our administrator for Arthritis Specialty Center in Eastern Idaho. Cynthia has held various roles in independent medical practices during her nearly twenty year career. Cynthia is a Pocatello native and is excited about the opportunity to remain in, and continue to support, the Eastern Idaho healthcare community. Coupled with her experience and ability to 'air traffic control' the day-to-day operations in a medical practice, Cynthia brings a tenacious spirit and compassion for helping others.

Believe it or not, our first reporting year of MIPS has already come to a close. Equally uncanny are the amount of changes happening to the program has we jump into 2018. Listed here are a few key things to keep in mind as we face a tougher yet still watered down version of the Merit-based Incentive Payment System. Eligible clinicians will need to accumulate 15 points, instead of 3, to avoid a penalty all together in 2018 Groups will still report 90 days of data for both the ACI and Improvement Activities components, however, will need to report a full 12 months for the Quality section. Data completeness for each Quality measure is now raised to 60% of all applicable patient encounters. CMS

Want to feel like you accomplished something in 2018? Start with this one simple secret to success that will boost your confidence and your energy…. clean up your messes and incompletes. Here is the thing – when we don’t handle our irritations, they distract us from doing what is important because they are always on our mind, making us feel ineffective, and draining energy. My desk was a constant irritation for months, until today - New Year’s Day. In the upper left corner was a wire in-basket where I put documents - an organizer right? Wrong… it turned into what David Allen called a “someday / maybe” file of things undone, a mental papercut, and greeted me every time I walked into my offi