Neither software nor traditional outsourcing services provides everything you need to effectively and efficiently manage your billing and claims process. Software can delay billing. Nationally, the average number of days a physician practice has bills in accounts receivable (AR) is 52.32. Within this average, 32 percent of a practices bills age more than 120 days, according to MGMA. Thats why athenahealth offers a unique approach, one that incorporates Web-based software, unparalleled industry knowledge and dedicated, experienced support staff integrated into a single service that delivers consistent, dependable results.
athenahealth is the leading provider of internet-based business services for physician practices. The companys service offerings are based on proprietary internet-based practice management and electronic medical record (EMR) software, a continuously updated payer knowledge-base and integrated back-office service operations. Centrally-hosted network-based business services produce consistently superior business results than traditional software-only practice management and EMR. How? By centralizing scale-intensive work into massive, high-performance back offices for members. Through centralization, network members tap into a “comparative advantage” that is impossible to achieve on their own. Because of their scale, highly evolved workflow and expert systems, network-based business services simply get the complex tasks done faster, more efficiently and with higher quality outcomes. Furthermore, as the network membership grows, the services gets “smarter and smarter” increasing the comparative advantage delivered to the member over time. Members boost profitability, get paid faster, improve patient care, and enjoy a newly found capacity to pursue growth or other interests. Vivian Family Medical, a single-provider family and urgent care practice in Tennessee, had used traditional billing and practice management software since its inception in 2002. While the software ran smoothly for a while, there was a change in the company’s ownership and “our billing and practice management became a nightmare,” said Dawn Vivian, Office Manager. “Being on a live network is wonderful,” Vivian said. “athenahealth staff can see exactly what we’re seeing on our screens in real time and immediately help us fix issues. We don’t have to spend hours on the phone with the tech department explaining the problem and then trying different things to fix it.” In addition, network members have time to focus on more value-added tasks within their practices. By outsourcing complex, back-office work, staff and providers are free to tackle more strategic activities. For example, by tapping into a centrally-hosted network, practice managers can rise above many of the onerous tasks associated with the daily billing process and can focus on their payer relationships, adding patients and in-sourcing ancillaries. In return, this allows the doctors to get back into the routine of practicing medicine. In another example, Dr. Eugene Louie-Ng opened Lake Manassas Womens Health Associates, an OB/GYN practice in Manassas, Virginia in 2001. He hoped for more personal interaction with patients, unlike the hurried visits he was used to in a previous position. “Since going live with athenahealths practice management service, we have experienced a 50% increase in collections. With their EMR service functioning on the same platform, I now get real-time clinical visibility into both of my practices. I have more time to spend with my patients, which was my ultimate goal,” explained Dr. Louie-Ng.
