The Results Are In….One Office Coder Tells Her Story on the Benefits of ComplyMD

Physicians who currently use ComplyMD, have seen great results in their documentation. They are more aware of the benefits of capturing accurate, real-time documentation: benefits to the patient, benefits to themselves, benefits to the hospital/ASC, and benefits to their office staff. Here, I’d like to focus on some great feedback we received from one practice’s office coder.

And I quote…

-Chart accuracy has improved by 75%.

-Specifically, our physicians are now documenting their (1) lesion removals and (2) incision and drainage of abscesses more accurately, resulting in more accurate coding and reimbursement for our office.

-The free-text availability in ComplyMD has proven helpful in coding procedures and diagnoses. Our physicians are able to better communicate to us exactly what they did, along with the exact condition of the patient.

-Our billing department has become a more efficient, productive place with the utilization of ComplyMD.

-Our work load has decreased by about 40%.

-Increased ComplyMD usage has decreased the frequency of phone calls to the hospitals’ HIM departments by 80%.

-ComplyMD promotes a more efficient, more accurate method of documentation and coding among healthcare professionals.

Real people. Real results. Why not document with ComplyMD?

Pay for Performance (P4P): Rich Data Creation

One of the quality initiatives set forth by Medicare is their Pay for Performance (also known as P4P) initiative. We have all heard about P4P. “The foundation of effective pay-for-performance initiatives is collaboration with providers and other stakeholders, to ensure that valid quality measures are used, that providers aren’t being pulled in conflicting directions, and that providers have support for achieving actual improvement.”

This is a great piece from a position paper on P4P: “The primary focus of the quality movement in health care should not be on “pay for” or “performance” based on limited measures, but rather on the patient. The American College of Physicians hopes to move the pay-for-performance debate forward with a patient-centered focus—one that puts the needs and interests of the patient first—as these programs evolve.”

I love that point that the American College of Physicians makes…basically, if we can make P4P about the patient and less about “payment” or “performance” then a lot of the fuss over P4P would be put to rest. With ComplyMD, physicians are in the business of rich data creation.

Good Documentation Means Quality Patient Care

“Too often, doctors are so focused on patient care they sometimes forget to focus on coding and documentation. But if they do not, they won’t get paid for the work they do. Some physicians think documentation takes time away from patient care and that compliant coding reflects nothing about the quality of attention patients receive. These statements are just not true. Good documentation is critically important to patient care.”

Coding Corner. March 2007

Good documentation is not only critically important to patient care, it actually reflects quality patient care. Physicians must ensure accurate documentation of the patient encounter if they want to receive accurate reimbursement…..we know that. But physicians must realize that properly documenting all of the diagnostic and procedural data for a patient actually helps the patient understand their condition and helps their insurance company know more about their patient.

Should Doctors Get Bonuses? Should they be rewarded for ‘good work’?

This is a great article from Time (also featured on CNN Headline News) that looks at CMS’s Pay-for-Performance program efforts. The title “Should Doctors Get Bonuses?” prompts many to think, “Don’t they already get paid enough!” Well, what most of us don’t realize is that, according to the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (January 2008), ‘Projections are that payment rates (for physicians) will decrease by an average of 5% each year for at least the next 9 years, resulting in reductions of as much as 40% by 2015.’ (Physician, do you realize this?) So, what do we think? I say, SURE, reward physicians for good performance. Now, the real question will be HOW will they gather correct information and documentation to prove their performance? You’ll find out………through a system such as ComplyMD.

In the article, they point out that,

“Corporate America has long doled out bonuses to employees who do the best work. Such pay-for-performance programs have only recently caught on in the health care industry, but caught on they have — more than half of U.S. health plans, including Medicare, report offering some type of incentive pay to doctors and hospitals for meeting certain basic standards of care…..”

Well stated. If the rest of corporate America is rewarding employees for good work performance, why not do so in healthcare? And, even more so. Physicians are taking care of people everyday, and peoples’ lives are at stake? Would we not want them to be on some sort of incentive program? YES, we all think that ‘ideally’ every physician in America should take the 100% utmost care of their patients. And many of them do. Yet we must remember, physicians are humans and think like most of us as well – they’d like a little financial pat on the back, just like the rest of us in corporate America.

“In the absence of systematic reform, many insurers have turned to pay-for-performance programs to try to improve quality of care, and cut costs along the way. Early efforts have shown positive signs. In the first three years of an ongoing pay-for-performance demonstration project led by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid…..findings released in January, researchers following the project concluded that quality scores in the five measured clinical areas had improved on average 17%, and costs had been reduced $1,000 per patient on average. Researchers estimated that if all American hospitals adopted similar bonus schemes, we could save 70,000 patient lives per year and $4.5 billion in hospital costs annually.”

So this data proves that P4P can work. Well, how can we attempt to save 70,000 patient lives per year and $4.5 billion in hospital costs annually in American hospitals? Yes, through P4P initiatives. But HOW will they gather more information to prove their performance rates are up? The issue is documentation: PHYSICIANS MUST PROVIDE PROPER DOCUMENTATION IN ORDER TO DOCUMENT THEIR GOOD PERFORMANCE. Will their coder be able to provide proper documentation for increased performance? No….the coder is not in the room during the procedure to know of a performance increase. The physician and his/her staff MUST document well in order to warrant their pay-for-performance.

And physicians must have the TOOLS to document well… an 8½ x 11 “Remember to Document ‘X Y & Z’ Diagnoses on Your Patients!” stuck to the wall in the physician’s lounge is not a tool to help doctors document well. Give them an easy to use product (ComplyMD) that will enable them to capture appropriate data to document appropriate diagnostic and procedural data to warrant accurate reimbursement and rewards for performance.  

Pay-for-Performance: Will you be a loser?

“Pay-for-performance reimbursement plans and consumer-directed health plans both depend on assessing and distributing information on clinical performance. Physicians who don’t have the means to track their own clinical results will be losers, literally, of patient volume and revenues.”

“Medicare Quality Codes & Their Impact on Physicians” ICLOPS, LLC. December 2005

With these new plans and governmental mandates, physicians need to be equipped with the tools to properly, easily and efficiently track their own clinical results. Capturing appropriate documentation of diagnoses and procedures will result in capturing appropriate revenue for the facility and the physician. ComplyMD is a web-based application located inside or immediately outside the OR to help physicians capture appropriate documentation, at the point of service. The more time physicians wait to document (dictate) their procedures, the more room they leave for error in their documentation.

ComplyMD gives physicians multiple choice lists of proper, code-ready documentation of diagnoses and procedures. It creates a comprehensive operative note for the patient encounter that’s ready to be sent to the coder’s office, immediately after the procedure. ComplyMD gives physicians the tools to track their own results so they will not be losers of patient volume and revenues, and their facilities will not be found as losers either.