The 3 Biggest Mistakes when Choosing Software – Chapter 12
Chapter 12 The 3 Biggest Mistakes when Choosing Software Mistake #1: Rushing I totally understand that most doctors get into the software search because they’ve finally hit a breaking point. They can’t stand something about their software, and they want a quick fix. Maybe their software company got bought out or is going out of business. It’s a lot like what patients experience. They are in pain and just want a “crack,” thinking that will solve their problem and prevent it in the future. This is where you get taken advantage of. You get on a call with ChiroTouch, ChiroFusion, or Platinum, and they immediately jump to all the fancy features specific to the “pain” you came in with. They show you a very low price, and your problems are solved—at least you think they are. The cause of your real problem is still there. You have decreased collections, lower patient retention, less compliance, and your staff is still running to dozens of reports missing steps, losing patients—and you are managing by fire. Switching systems is a decision you only want to make once. You don’t want to rush. A mistake could cost you thousands of dollars. And even though you may be losing thousands per month, it is hard to justify spending more money. Switching systems is also draining on your team, so even if you switch and then realize you’ve made a mistake, it may be too much on your team to ask them to switch again anytime soon. Lessons: Take your time. Look for solutions, not features, to your real business management problems. Do not buy on price alone. Remember all the hidden costs that occur without automation and Single Point Management. They are real. Mistake #2: Old Technology Platinum, ChiroTouch, and others are built in a software language that is the equivalent of Sanskrit—ancient. It means they are limited to the functionalities of that language. Future improvements will be extremely limited. Cloud-based systems have many advantages. The software language can be improved over time with no interruption to your system. It is like repairing a plane while you’re flying it. Genesis literally has a completely different language now than when we started. That means that new capabilities will be added, and you will never realize it. It means better integrations with other technologies. It means your data are more secure (see the next chapter for more on this). Don’t forget that it also means you are joining a network of doctors using data to beat insurance companies at their own game. No cloud, no centralized data, no research. Lesson: Go with the cloud and join a system like Genesis that is using collective data analytics to help the profession. Mistake #3: Price vs. Cost There is a huge difference between price and cost. A flip phone’s price is less, but the cost of not having a smartphone is huge. A phone is just one of the many examples out there. You get on a demo system, they show you a low price, you buy it, and it costs you for the rest of your career. Proven return on investment (ROI) Why don’t they ask you about your practice—your goals, your dreams, your patient volume, your no-show rate, your reschedule rate, your accounts receivable numbers, your collections, your documentation time, your management hours? If they did, they could tell you how much your current solution is costing you, right? Then you would know what kind of return you would get on their price. Software is not like a car. It is not an expense. It is more like a house, which is more of an asset. You should be able to calculate what your return will be if you buy it. The reason you never hear this conversation is because other systems were never built for ROI. They were built for a quick sale. They are not looking at before-and-after data across thousands of users, especially if they are not in the cloud, since that would be impossible. They simply could never tell you what your ROI would be. Even a cloud-based system without Single Point Management could not give you an ROI. Any claims they make about improved collections and efficiency are anecdotal at best. With Genesis’ Dream Practice Analysis, we do just that. We look at where your practice is, and we can show you what the real cost of your current system is or another one you are considering. If your accounts receivable are high, retention is low, collections per visit are low—what is that costing you? How much time is your staff spending doing things that Genesis will automate? What is that costing you? A true cost of ownership is what you want. Slow down and take the time to do it. Price is a relative number and should always be looked at in the context of cost. Lesson: Software should never cost you anything. You should get an ROI on your investment (the price). You should be looking for a software that can prove an ROI specific to your practice.
What to Look For in a Billing Company – Chapter 11
Chapter 11 What to Look For in a Billing Company As we have seen, Genesis has automated everything with the exception of following up on claims that need a phone call. So the word billing in billing company really does not apply anymore. We are really a follow-up company. For clients who keep things in-house and use Genesis, they really do not have a billing department anymore. They have a follow-up department. What You Do Not Want Sometimes it is easier to think about what you do not want rather than what you do want. We’ve already covered what you do want and why. Here is what you do not want in a billing company: No automation, just lots of experience You do not want a company that does not have automation and just says they have lots of experience or are really great billers. Genesis has been in the business for 14 years and processes millions of claims for practices all over the country. We have many expert certified coders (hundreds, actually) with lots of experience on our team. You might be saying, So what? One biller does not know more than what insurance companies have built into their AI. What happens tomorrow when the insurance company changes tactics? Are billers looking at data across thousands of practices and millions of claims? Are they building new automation and AI to fight back against insurance companies’ tactics? Can one very experienced person follow up on millions of claims? No accountability I used to outsource to a company that would send me lots of reports every month. Guess what? I never had time to look at them. If you cannot see top-down reporting of their work in real time, forget it. How many claims need follow-up today? What is your AR > 120 days? Then drill down into reports from there if you want to or need to. That’s what Genesis offers. Billing companies love to talk about their reports and how they log into your system. No good. No control, no transparency, no accountability. You will wind up not trusting them. They don’t outsource follow-up I know what you’re thinking. I don’t want to speak to someone in India. Of course not. We would never ask a client to do that. With Genesis, you always speak to a resource in the United States. But we do want the insurance company to speak to someone in India (or another country). Why? Because they are doing the same thing. Remember how we said they have unlimited manpower? If we are going to beat them at their own game, we must do the same. Outsourcing your claims follow-up while still giving you transparency is one of our secret weapons. We have hundreds of follow-up resources in other countries driving insurance companies crazy every day. They are managed by resources here in the United States. They are only paid when you get paid. They use another software If they are using another software, then no thank you. I shouldn’t have to explain all the reasons that this is a deal breaker. Your practice management end must be tied to your billing and follow-up if you want real control, transparency, accountability, and a chance to beat insurance companies at their own game. Even if you are using another cloud-based system, it is not enough. That would mean the biller is using the same exact system. But what about Single Point Management? Yes, control and transparency. Low fees and what they mean A billing service should be charging only a percentage of what you collect from the insurance company—not on copays and deductibles. You want them to have all their incentive focused on getting the money you deserve from insurance companies. The average fee for this in chiropractic is between 6% and 10%. The number varies based on what your average collection per claim is. Anything lower is a big red flag. It means they are probably not going to follow up on every single claim and that they will just take the easy money. Since most of them have junk technology, you’ll never really know. The low fee also tells you they are not investing in technology and are most likely using the system you already have and logging in remotely or using some other system. See #4 above. That’s a deal breaker. Some billing services advertise a very low percentage, but then you find out it is a percentage of what you charge. Some of our clients actually want this for some reason, and we do it. However, you’d better make sure you have a way to see everything they have done on any claim and have a way to know they are following up on every single claim that needs it. Some charge a lower percentage but take a percentage of everything you collect, including cash, copays, and deductibles. Watch out for that one. Another pitfall of low fees is that no system (except Genesis) can track underpayments. So while they give you a low percentage, you never really see the income from your underpayments. They just do not have the technology or enough workers to go after that money for you. It could cost you tens of thousands of dollars per year. If you do not keep insurance companies accountable, they will continue to take advantage, and it will only get worse.
When Should You Outsource? – Chapter 10
Chapter 10 When Should You Outsource? Disclaimer: I own Genesis. Many of our clients outsource their follow-up to us. You might think that makes me biased. The truth is that many of our clients keep billing in-house as well. Each practice is different. Genesis makes a profit in either case, so my real incentive is to make sure every practice has real control over their insurance department and that we offer the best option for them. Since we offer both in-house and outsourced support, Genesis clients have the option to switch back and forth as their needs change. Step 1: Choose the Right Technology As you can see, if you do not have Single Point Management with everything integrated in the cloud, you are behind the eight ball. Step 2: Gain Control, Accountability, and Transparency Leveraging the Genesis system means you can see exactly how many claims need follow-up at any given time, from anywhere. You can see if your accounts receivable is within normal limits. What is within normal limits? The national average for AR >120 days is 17.7%. That means that on average, any given doctor does not collect 17.7% of the money he or she should from insurance companies. Statistics prove that if it takes you longer than 120 days to collect money owed to you, the chances of ever collecting it go down to almost 0%. With Genesis, you see how many claims need follow-up each day (and if your staff is keeping up) and your % AR > 120 days in real time. The Genesis average Across thousands of users, our average client % AR > 120 days is 7%. Many are 0%. Do the math: 17.7% – 7% = 10.7% increase in collections when using Genesis. Step 3: Decide What’s Best for Your Practice and Be Flexible You may already have a superstar biller. Leveraging Genesis will make their life easier and more efficient. My personal opinion is always to outsource because a great biller could also be great at doing other things in your office like helping get new patients. That being said, if you keep things in-house with Genesis and, God forbid, something happens to your biller and you need to outsource, it is as easy as flipping a switch. Genesis can take over right where the biller left off, with no fall in income. You can even outsource some billing such as Medicare only, for example, to Genesis. Step 4: Track the Results Regardless of what direction you go, with Genesis you always have a simple way to see if your billing department is up to par. You are no longer in the dark. You have more control and accountability than you have with any other in-house solution, even when you outsource with Genesis. The choice is yours. You are in control
Streamlined Interface – Chapter 9
Chapter 9 Streamlined Interface You might be thinking this all seems complicated. There is some truth to that. Winning isn’t easy, but the work it takes is not all on your shoulders. The smartphone is more complicated than your old flip phone, but you were willing to do what it took to learn the new interface because of the tremendous value it brought to your life. Genesis is like that smartphone, and it’s also like an iceberg. There is a lot to it, but most of the work is hidden—automated—and you do not have to look at it. For the office that uses Genesis, there are only a few places that you need to get used to interacting with it. Some of these are similar to what you are used to with other software, like the keypad on your smartphone. Then there is what is different. Here is a breakdown of what is the same, what is similar, and what is different. What Is the Same? Features that are the same are more advanced with Genesis, but there is a smaller learning curve. Scheduling Reports Patient information and transactions What Is Similar? Documenting your visits. What Is Different? The biggest difference is what we call the workbench. That is where you and your staff find all the tasks Genesis is bringing to you. Remember, these tasks are mission-critical for revenue, patient retention, and compliance. The fact that you do not have to find them anymore means you’ve just saved a ton of time every day for you and your team. The fact that in many cases Genesis is finding things that are frequently missed means your business will grow. There is no more wasted time looking for work in reports. There is no more wasted time doing work that could be automated. Now you just do the work that comes to you and make sure everyone did their work by the end of the day, just by looking at one number. If you can make this little but massively important shift in how technology is being used to beat insurance companies and serve more patients in a compliant way, you will experience a new level of freedom and satisfaction you would have never thought possible before. The following chapters are questions Genesis receives all the time. Many times, there are misconceptions about how various software platforms address these issues. For example, the traditional problems that doctors encounter with outsourced billing services no longer exist when they use Genesis. Many older software companies say that cloud-based software is less secure or that cloud-based software prevents doctors from owning their patient data. I am not sure if they are purposely not telling the truth or if they simply do not know the truth. In either case, you should know the truth about cloud-based software, so I’ve included a chapter dedicated to that.