Confessions of a Pediatric Practice Consultant

Single Payer Bogey Man

chiphart — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:22:38 -0500

For the record, I'm not in favor of a single-payer system. But I'm also not a fan of much of the rhetoric that I hear against the concept.

In particular, I have always wondered why those advocating for the strength of choice aren't presently railing at the lack of payer choice for both physicians in patients in so many places. I remember my first time confronting this when I was in Rochester talking to some practices about insurance negotiation and they asked, "What if the plan represents 75% of my business?"

Phone Code Update

chiphart — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:22:11 -0500

A surreal moment - I am in Richmond, VA listening to Dr.Lander talk about coding during the Pediatric Alliance/VAAAP event while working on the blog. And watching my laptopbattery drain quickly!

Shame on Horizon BCBS of NJ

chiphart — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:26:31 -0500

It started when Susanne Madden sent me this "nice" message from Horizon to help me warn our clients about games Horizon continues to play. Bottom line: they expect to stop paying for -25 or -59 modified codes starting May 10, 2010.

Cool ICD-9 Search Tool

chiphart — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:22:47 -0500

Many thanks to Siousxe for sending me this awesome ICD-9 lookup tool that even works well with an iphone. There are some other ICD-9 tools on-line and I'm such a nerd that I do it by hand, but this is well conceived and delivered.If only the AMA would actually help it's members by doing the same thing with CPT codes and RVU values.

What Is Your Time Worth?

chiphart — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:49:35 -0500

Check out my new favorite toy:

What's More Profitable: Demonstrating Meaningful Use or Managing Your Productivity?

The Art and Business of Pediatrics

chiphart — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:44:35 -0500

We had a knock-out AAP-endorsed practice management event in Miami two weeks ago. I say "knock out" because every single person who completed the survey at the end of the day gave us a perfect score in the following categories "Speakers's Knowledge of the Subject," "Preparation/Presentation," "Class Materials," and "How Would You Rate The Seminar Overall." 4 out of 4, every single box, every single person.

Do You Even Qualify For the ARRA Money?

chiphart — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 09:48:20 -0500

We continue to get daily calls and requests for information about the ARRA funding. We were even told by a potential client that they went with a well-known (but little liked) vendor now in order to maximize their ARRA $$, even though the money itself may be a mirage and they don't even know what their state is going to do.

Big sigh.

First 2010 Post (Conferences, Meaningful Use, and More)

chiphart — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:57:28 -0500

A few years ago I passed a church as a wedding party pushed out onto the lawn at the end of the ceremony. My boys were in the back seat and the younger looked out the window and said out loud, "Dad, I don't want to have to get married."

I wasn't too surprised, really, because even then, at the age of4 or 5, he was full of funny exclamations. "Why not, buddy?"

"Because sometimes...sometimes, I just need a day off."

The Economy and Pediatric Practices

chiphart — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 07:45:54 -0500

Over on PedSource, we just ran an in-depth piece about the effects of the recession and the Swine Flu on our clients from 2008 to 2009.

H1N1 Admin Reimbursement

chiphart — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:28:16 -0500

I had grand plans to keep track of all the different payers and publicize/shame many of them, but by the time the data came in...it was too late.

Still, how have PCC clients fared with the new H1N1 administration code?

Better than I would have guessed.