Elevating Chiropractic Web Presence
In an enlightening conversation, Dr. Brian had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Tony Seymour, the mind behind Chiro Website Pro. This blog explored the critical function that websites serve as sales tools for chiropractors, shedding light on Tony’s distinctive methodology in developing successful chiropractic websites. Drawing from his extensive two-decade experience, he provided valuable insights into his professional journey, underscored the importance of personalized messaging, and elucidated the complexities of search engine optimization (SEO). Recounting a journey spanning more than two decades in the chiropractic realm, Tony initially aspired to become a chiropractor. However, a turning point emerged when a management company acknowledged his marketing acumen, emphasizing the pivotal role websites play in shaping the narrative of chiropractic practices. This recognition prompted a shift in trajectory, leading Tony to focus on coaching chiropractors and specializing in tailored marketing strategies. The Three Pillars of Effective Websites: The three crucial elements in crafting impactful chiropractic websites were emphasized First pillar: message, emphasizing the uniqueness of each chiropractor’s philosophy. Avoiding the pitfall of generic, cookie-cutter websites, Tony’s approach involves a personalized interview process to extract the DNA of the practitioner’s message. Second pillar: design, the importance of congruence between a chiropractor’s service value and the visual representation on their website was highlighted. A misalignment between a high-value care plan and a low-quality website design could undermine the practice’s credibility. Third pillar: traffic, involves a dual focus on organic and paid traffic. Giving highlight on the backend coding work for SEO and the strategic use of Google ads to rapidly increase online visibility. Insights into SEO and Backlinks: Delving into the intricacies of SEO, Tony insights into the critical role of coding, relevant content, and backlinks were given. He shared his approach to backlinks, involving both local efforts and the integration of AI-powered tools. The evolving landscape of SEO, especially with AI involvement, added an exciting dimension to the conversation. Streamlined Process for Website Development: An outline of a three-step process for chiropractors interested in working with Chiro Website Pro was provided – It starts with scheduling a discovery call through the website, followed by a personalized interview to assess compatibility. Once established, Tony undertakes the website development, ensuring ongoing SEO and updates are seamlessly integrated. The conversation encapsulated the essence of Chiro Website Pro – a blend of expertise, authenticity, and a genuine passion for elevating chiropractic practices in the digital realm. The pivotal moment of realizing the crucial role websites play in conveying the essence of chiropractic practices led Tony to specialize in crafting personalized marketing strategies. As the dialogue unfolded, it became evident that Tony’s approach goes beyond mere website creation; it embodies a dedication to underpromise and overdeliver, ensuring chiropractors receive not just a service but a comprehensive solution to enhance their online presence. Conclusion: This podcast provided valuable insights into the multifaceted world of chiropractic marketing, emphasizing the importance of authentic messaging, effective website design, and strategic SEO for practitioners aiming to thrive in a digital landscape. To know more about Chiro Website Pro, you may visit them at https://bit.ly/cwp-genesis.
How Practice Automation is Redefining Chiropractic Care
In an era where technology continually reshapes the landscape of healthcare, chiropractic practices are not left behind. The integration of practice automation into chiropractic care, as exemplified in discussions like the insightful interview with Dr. Aaron Gum of Blueprint to Practice Automation, is a testament to this evolution. This blog delves into the transformative impact of practice automation on chiropractic care, exploring how it enhances patient experience, streamlines operations, and opens new horizons for practitioners. The Rise of Practice Automation in Chiropractic Care: The concept of practice automation, as discussed by Dr. Gum, revolves around the integration of advanced technological systems into the day-to-day operations of chiropractic practices. This includes everything from patient management systems, electronic health records (EHRs), to automated patient education tools. The goal is to streamline administrative tasks, improve patient care, and ultimately, enhance the overall efficiency of chiropractic practices. Key Components of Practice Automation: Automated Patient Management Systems: These systems manage appointments, reminders, and follow-ups, significantly reducing the administrative workload and enhancing patient engagement. Electronic Health Records (EHR): EHRs provide a digital platform for storing patient data, facilitating easier access to treatment histories, and enabling better coordination of care. Digital Patient Education: Automating patient education ensures consistent and comprehensive information delivery, crucial for patient understanding and adherence to treatment plans. Remote Monitoring and Treatment: With advancements in technology, some aspects of chiropractic care can be monitored or even administered remotely, increasing accessibility and convenience for patients. The Benefits of Automation in Chiropractic Practices: Enhanced Efficiency: Automation reduces the time spent on repetitive tasks, allowing chiropractors to focus more on patient care and less on administrative duties. Improved Patient Experience: Automated systems contribute to reduced wait times and more efficient communication, leading to higher patient satisfaction. Scalability of Services: With automation, chiropractic practices can manage a larger patient load without compromising the quality of care, facilitating growth and expansion. Data-Driven Insights: The use of technology in practice management provides valuable data that can be used to make informed decisions about patient care and business strategies. Challenges and Considerations: While the advantages are significant, the transition to an automated practice requires careful consideration. Issues such as data security, the cost of technology, and the potential impact on the patient-practitioner relationship must be addressed. Additionally, there is a learning curve associated with new technologies that both staff and practitioners must navigate. Conclusion: The integration of practice automation in chiropractic care, as highlighted in discussions like Dr. Aaron Gum’s interview, is not just a trend but a necessary evolution. It offers a pathway to more efficient, patient-centered care, and a more sustainable business model for chiropractic practices. As we continue to witness technological advancements, embracing practice automation becomes not just an option, but a crucial step towards the future of chiropractic care. To learn more about Blueprint To Practice Automation you can visit them here https://bit.ly/bpa-genesis
AI in Medical Billing
AI has revolutionized many different industries, and healthcare is no exception. In recent years, medical billing has benefited greatly from using Artificial Intelligence. Where are the major pain points in healthcare today? 1-Patients: A major challenge today is long wait times. In 2022, the average wait time for a physician appointment in the 15 largest U.S. metro markets is 26 days [1]. The longer someone has to wait, the higher the risk of complications or possibly more serious health issues arising. Some possible solutions to address this problem include use of telemedicine involves providing medical consultations and services remotely using technology such as video conferencing. increasing the number of healthcare professionals in practice, streamlining administrative processes and improving patient communication and education to help prevent avoidable illnesses and hospital visits. 2-Physicians: Physician burnout is affecting a high percentage of physicians. 62.8% of physicians experienced at least one symptom of burnout in 2021 [2]. Reasons for burnout include outdated technology and inefficient workflows, which contribute to increased work stress and frustration even for skilled and experienced professionals. Additionally, a shortage of skilled workers puts extra pressure on those in the workforce, leading to burnout and poor job satisfaction. One potential way to address these challenges is to invest in updating technology and improving workflows, which can streamline processes and reduce workload. Additionally, increasing access to training and education for both current and future workers could help alleviate the skill shortage issue. It’s essential to take proactive steps to address these issues to ensure that our healthcare workforce can continue to provide top-quality care to patients without experiencing burnout. 3-Payers: Payers recognize the importance of delivering better experiences to their customers. To meet these expectations, payers are focusing on several critical areas: A-Improving ease of use Improving ease of use can be achieved through various initiatives, such as clear communication to help customers understand their network, status updates on claims, and easy-to-use portals and tools. B-Ensuring the availability of services on-demand. Having around-the-clock access to support and information is essential to ensuring customers can get the help they need when they need it. To support these initiatives, payers need to leverage data-driven insights to create value for their customers. This can be achieved through technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, which can help to identify trends and patterns in customer behavior and preferences, enabling payers to provide targeted and personalized support proactively. Overall, payers must continue to innovate and adapt to meet the evolving needs and expectations of their customers, and taking a data-driven approach to improve ease of use and availability on demand could be a critical step forward. C-Reducing hospital readmission rates Payers are leveraging machine learning to gain actionable insights from healthcare data sets. By analyzing claims data, payers can identify trends in patient outcomes and determine the most effective treatments for specific patient populations. They can also predict which patients are at a higher risk of complications or readmissions, e.g., inflammation and blood clotting occurs most following surgery, and provide this information to providers to help them take preventative measures. This kind of data-driven approach is valuable because it enables healthcare providers to deliver more personalized care to patients, leading to improved patient outcomes and reduced costs. By sharing these insights, payers can demonstrate the value of their contributions to patient care while simultaneously empowering providers to make better decisions and improve healthcare delivery. Improved Medical Coding Accuracy One way AI has been used in medical billing is through automated billing and coding. The technology can analyze electronic health records and notes made by healthcare providers and use that information to generate codes that accurately bill for specific services. This reduces the risk of errors, which can result in denied claims and lost revenue. Improved Insurance Cash Flow Prediction and Denial Management AI is also used for claims prediction. By analyzing past claims data, AI identifies patterns and predicts which claims will likely be denied. This allows billing teams to proactively address issues and avoid denials, which saves time and money. Also, when denials are increasing due to a lack of medical necessity, lacking documentation, or coding mistakes, AI can analyze the denials to find the cause and then create tasks within the EHR to correct the likely causes for denials. Improved Medical Billing Workflow To automate the claims follow-up process, AI analyzes claims data and identifies the claims that are most likely to require follow-up. AI automatically generates follow-up tasks for billing teams. This reduces the administrative burden on billing teams and ensures that claims are followed up on in a timely manner. The deep learning of users’ interaction with EHR and billing software allows the learning of users’ habits, needs anticipation, and the display of the right data at the right time. Automatically retrieving and displaying all of the required data and just at the right time drastically reduces the amount of labor spent on manual billing tasks and allows staff to make better decisions about the next steps for denial resolution. Improved and Expedited Pre-Authorizations The current pre-authorization process can be a real headache for patients and healthcare providers. A streamlined, automated system that can quickly analyze a patient’s health data and determine the medical necessity of a procedure would be a game changer. Imagine how much time, stress, and resources could be saved if medical billers no longer had to worry about pre-authorization denials or chasing down authorization numbers. It’s exciting to think about how technology can continue to improve and simplify healthcare processes like this. Improved patient customer service With the rise of technology, we’re seeing a lot of improvements in healthcare that can benefit patients and providers alike. Using bots for patient interactions like appointment scheduling and payment collection is one way to streamline processes and reduce frustration for patients and billing staff. By standardizing these tasks, there’s less room for error and confusion, leading to smoother, more efficient
Claim Denial Management
Partial denials cause the average medical practice to lose as much as 11% of its revenue (Capko, 2009). Payers are known for denying claim payments for legitimate reasons (provider-generated errors) and arbitrary reasons, motivated by the inherent benefits of controlling the float for the maximal time (Stahl). Systematic denial management must address both kinds of errors. Denial management is difficult because of the (intentional) complexity of denial causes, payer variety, and claim volume. Systematic denial management requires measurement, early claim validation, comprehensive monitoring, and customized tracking of the appeals process. According to a survey by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), 69% of organizations reported a significant increase in denials, averaging 17%, in 2021 alone. These findings are further supported by additional alarming statistics (Zipple, 2023): In 2021, claim denials surpassed 48 million (Kaiser 2023). On average, nearly 20% of all claims are denied, and shockingly, up to 60% of these denied claims are never resubmitted (Poland and Harihara, 2022) Certain payers exhibit denial rates as high as 80% (Revenue Cycle Intelligence, 2022) However, there is some hope as, on average, approximately 40% of denials can be overturned through appropriate appeals processes (Kaiser 2023). According to a HIMSS Analytics study, here are some key findings on how hospital executives manage claim denials: 44% of hospital executives rely on vendor solutions to manage denials. 31% of executives still handle denials manually, without any specific tool or software. 18% of hospitals have developed their own in-house tools for denial management. 7% of executives are unsure about the method they use for denial management. Among respondents without a vendor-provided solution, 60% plan to purchase one within the next 7-12 months. (Regulsky, 2023) Denial Risk Classification The denial risk is not uniform across all claims. Certain classes of claims run significantly higher denial risks, depending on six factors: Claim complexity Modifiers, e.g., incorrect modifier used Multiple line items Temporary constraints Claim not filed on time Patient constraints, e.g., claim submission during global periods (see below) Payer constraint (e.g., claim submission timing proximity to the start of the fiscal year) Procedure constraint (e.g., experimental services) Payer idiosyncrasies Bundled services, e.g., services incorrectly bundled or Unbundling and upcoding Disputed medical necessity, e.g., Not a medical necessity Non-covered services Other Patient data Patient deductible Plan benefits exhausted Provider data, e.g., Out-of-network (OON) provider Process Compliance Incorrect insurance ID number Duplicate claim submitted Prior authorization not attached Typo errors in patient information Note that for complex claims, most payers pay the full amount for one line item but then pay only a percentage of the remaining items. This payment approach creates two opportunities for underpayment: The order of paid items The payment percentage of the remaining items Next, temporary constraints often cause payment errors because of the misapplication of constraints. For instance, claims submitted during the global period for services unrelated to the global period are often denied. A global period is a period of time before and after a surgical procedure during which related services are bundled into the initial procedure’s payment. It helps streamline billing by including pre-operative visits, post-operative follow-up care, and related services within a single payment (Master, 2020). Similar mistakes may occur at the start of the fiscal year due to misapplying rules for deductibles or outdated fee schedules. Additionally, payers often vary in their interpretations of Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) bundling rules or coverage of certain services. Developing sensitivity to such idiosyncrasies is a key to full and timely payments. CMS contractors conduct medical reviews on certain claims and prior authorizations to ensure that Medicare payments are made only for services that comply with all Medicare regulations. Suppose a review leads to a denial or non-affirmation decision. In that case, the contractor responsible for the review provides the provider or supplier with a comprehensive explanation detailing the reasons for the denial or non-affirmation. For example, the code AM300 is used when the provided documentation lacks evidence to substantiate the provision of Basic Life Support services during an emergency response. Please refer to 42 CFR § 410.40 (c), 42 CFR § 414.605, Internet Only Manual (IOM), Publication 100-02, Medicare Benefit Policy Manual, Chapter 10, Section 20, and Section 30.1.1 for further clarification and guidelines on this matter. (Reason Statements and Document (EMDR) Codes | CMS). Payers can also separate the Claim Processing and Denial Management departments to add complexity and improve the likelihood of underpayments and delays. In this scenario, the provider may be forced into a deadlock by having to deal with two separate departments for the same claim, where each of the two departments “waits” for the decision of the other. Denial Risk Management Stages In a high-volume clinic, the only practical way to manage denials is to use computer technology and follow a four-step procedure: 1. Prevent mistakes during claim submission This can be accomplished with a built-in claim validation procedure that includes payer-specific tests and EHR integration. Such tests (“pre-submission scrubbing”) compare every claim with Correct Coding Initiative (CCI) regulations, diligently review modifiers used to differentiate between procedures on the same claim, and compare the charged amount with the allowed amount, according to previous experience or the previous contract, to avoid undercharging. Integrating EHR and claims management systems allows for the seamless transfer of patient data and encounter information from the EHR to the claims system. This eliminates the need for manual data entry or transcription, reducing the chances of errors or omissions that may occur during the claims submission process. EHR systems often include built-in templates and structured documentation features that guide providers to capture complete and accurate information. These templates help ensure that all necessary information for claims submission, such as procedure details, diagnoses, and supporting documentation, is appropriately recorded. 2. Identify underpayments Identifying underpayments in the claims process is crucial for healthcare organizations to ensure accurate reimbursement and maximize revenue. This involves comparing the payment with the allowed amount, identifying zero-paid items, and evaluating payment timeliness. The
