Welcome To PedSource
Physician's Computer Company (PCC), developer of Partner pediatric practice management software, is a valuable business resource for pediatricians. PCC created PedSource to share these resources with the larger pediatric community.
Read up-to-date information about pediatrics, share a page from your day with your pediatric peers, and participate in this lively online community. Sign up to join in on the discussion, receive e-mails about new updates to the site, and stay informed on important pediatric topics.
Benefits
When you join PedSource you'll enjoy...- Invitations to Pediatric Conferences and Audio-Seminars
- A library of tips and tricks to help you save time and money
- Benchmarks and Calculators featuring Pediatric data
- Opportunities to assist with the design of a Pediatric EHR
- Peer-to-peer networking
So You Think You Can Negotiate?
July 9, 2010 by Erica
Negotiation in the New World of Managed Care will be presented by Susanne Madden, MBA, at the PCC 2010 Pediatric Coding & Practice Management Conference in July.
You have 5,000 patients with ABC Healthcare coverage and their rates are terrible. Is it time to negotiate? The answer is, maybe. The truth of the matter is, you'll need something more than patient volume to negotiate successfully.
From the Payer perspective, that “more” comes in the form of savings to them. Specifically, does patient care rendered by your practice cost them less than what it costs members to be seen at other practices in their network? Instinctively, you might say ‘yes.’ For example, ‘we do a great job with our asthmatics and routinely keep them from having to go to the ER.’ That may be true, but can you prove it?
Scanning Charts - Some Tips and Tricks
July 16, 2010 by jakeevans
When it comes to transitioning to EHR, scanning your practice's charts and files can be an intimidating task. The older your practice and the more patients you've had over the years, the more work that needs to be done to get your files up to date. We spoke with a few practices who have already begun the scanning process, and asked them for some tips and tricks to make the chart migration an easier process.
Create Your Scan Plan
- Obtain a good scanner (our recommendations are below)
- Decide which patient's charts to scan and when
- How much of each chart to scan
- When during the day to scan
- Who will scan the charts
New at PedSource
Interested in these items recently posted at PedSource? After two weeks, new articles may be protected for exclusive use by PedSource members. Membership is free so Login or Join Today to access these items and other pediatric specific content.
- Do You Need A "Certified" EHR?
- Are You Eligible for ARRA Money?
- PAC Uses Decreased Visit Volume as an Advantage for Gradual EHR Implementation
- Three Ways to Boost Your Bottom Line
- Pediatric Practices and the Economy: Year in Review and Looking Ahead
- Highlights from the 2009 MGMA Conference
- H1N1 Vaccine Information and Resources
- Final Interim Rule Issued on HIPAA Breach Notification
- Utilizing Clinical Data in Your Practice Management System
- Pediatric Partnership: A Case Study of One Practice Using PCC Partner Practice Management System with Office Practicum's EMR
- Meaningful Use Dialogue and What Pediatricians Need to Know
- Ten Ways You Can Improve Office Efficiency
In It Together: True Community Pediatrics
July 16, 2010 by jakeevans
Dr. Homer Nash and his daughter, Dr. Alison Nash, have built a thriving practice in inner-city St. Louis, despite many challenges. What’s behind their success?
The story begins in 1955 in segregated St. Louis. Dr. Homer Nash, an African-American and a WWII veteran, started his pediatric practice in a vacant office above a drugstore. He charged three dollars for an office visit “because most of the folks coming in had holes in their shoes,” he explains. “I didn’t have any high-flying ideas to serve the underserved. I started my practice in my own community, and there weren’t too many rich black folks back then.” Working a variety of jobs on the side, Dr. Nash made a living and grew his practice steadily, eventually moving to a new, bigger location just a few blocks away.
Blog: Confessions of a Pediatric Practice Consultant
Jul
14
As you may have heard - even the AAP has announced the news - the Final Draft of the Meaningful Use Final Rule has been issued by CMS. There are already dozens of analyses of the results posted on-line (how some of these folks read 860+ pages in a matter of hours is beyond me), but remarkably little as it relates to pediatricians. As you know, MU and the ARRA money are really aimed at the 95% market share, namely physicians who take Medicare.
Before I give you some of the best pediatric-focused analysis of the new rules, I will give you the second best. histalk2.com has both the original announcement as well as an amazing comparison of the Prelim and Final rules. The comments for the original announcement are particularly important to read.
The best analysis, especially for pediatricians, comes from within PCC, of course. I assume she is going to share some of this on pedsource.com in general once she has looked over everything, but our own Erica Greenwood sent me a list of pediatric-focused items that I thought were worth sharing in advance of a more formal, official reading. So, approach these carefully - and any misinterpretation here is my own and not hers - but some highlights include:
- Under the Medicaid program, EP's can participate for six years and the years do not have to be consecutive. So, if you start and then miss a year, it's okay, you can pick up the following year. This is very different -- and better -- than Medicare which offers five consecutive years.
- States can now only add criteria related to two of the measures and any criteria they add must pertain specifically to public health objectives and data registries. CMS has to approve the additional criteria. [This is very different from what I have been led to understand is happening in places like VT, DE, and PA. For example, I was told that VT practices would have to submit a complete "Blueprint For Health" data set (225? discrete items?) for each visit to qualify!]
Erica spotted many other changes, some of which haven't been picked up by any of the other places I've read, but the two items above are of particular interest to pediatricians. Unfortunately, the "20% Medicaid" bar has not been lowered, so our estimate that only 31% of private pediatric practices qualify remains unchallenged. You can see more of PCC's running ARRA/CCHIT/MU content here.
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