I know, good documentation helps us get reimbursed better by insurance. I get it. But…
It’s Not Just About Insurance.
I graduated chiropractic college in the late 1980s. Back then, no one cared about our documentation. Ever. We would scribble meaningless stuff on ridiculous travel cards, but it worked for us back then.
No one ever looked. Not even for PI.
Then, one day, it changed. The health care world wanted more from us. The problem was, it took them YEARS to tell us what they really wanted.
I want you to think about documentation differently. Instead of thinking of it like the worst and most time-consuming part of practice, let’s start thinking of our documentation as …
How we communicate who we are and what we do to the rest of the world.
Right now, the rest of the health care universe just doesn’t quite understand us or know what to do with us. We keep telling them how effective chiropractic care is and how cost effective it is, but we’re not communicating that very well. We’re just not speaking in their language.
This is why exceptional documentation, in which we document certain metrics at the right time and in the right way, can finally show the world who we are.
Many of us, over the years, feel uncomfortable with a report of findings. It often feels like a sales pitch. What if we can explain to the patient what is going on with the two most important things to them: pain and function? By documenting and calculating metric improvements in both, we can easily tell the patient what normal/ideal is and what they are. Then we can simply ask them what they want to do about it. We can tell them how much measurable improvement they’ve achieved and if there is more measurable improvement to be had.
All based on metrics. No sales pitch. No charisma needed. Just numbers that are relevant to the patient.
But I’m a chiropractor, too, and I know how many of us think. I’m the same way. First, this all sounds well and good, but if I can’t do it really quickly, I’m hesitant to change. Second, it’s got to be easy.
Is this doable without technology? Of course, it is. But it’s going to take more time than you probably want to spend. Is this doable with technology? Of course, it is. But almost all software programs don’t do it.
I do it. Every day. With every patient. And, for most visits, it takes me SECONDS. It doesn’t matter if it’s for a cash paying patient, a Medicare patient, an insurance patient or even a workers comp or PI patient. That should be irrelevant. Same exceptional documentation for all patients.
It’s not just about insurance.
Gregg Friedman, DC, CCSP, FIACA
Creator of The Bulletproof Chiro EMR
