Maritec Medical Systems

I’ve been distributing patient accounting and Electronic Health Records for over twenty years. Way back in the DOS days (that’s not Spanish for the number two for people born after 1960). I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve talk to providers thought they needed software designed for their specialty. What is the difference between the specialties besides CPT and DX codes? The answer is simple. Nothing. Practice Management systems must all accomplish the same things. They have to be able to take patient procedures in the form of transactions coupled with the proper diagnosis coding, facility codes, etc. and transform them into insurance claims and statements. They all do that. In addition, most systems offer some kind of appointment scheduler.

Don’t fall for the sales pitch that this software is designed specifically for Podiatrists, or Chiropractors or Neuro Surgeons. Look for a logical structure of the program. We are an independent distributor of medical software and can choose any product on the market. We choose McKesson’s Medisoft because it is a solid performer with a great human interface. It is a product designed for any practice and over the past 20 years we’ve installed every type of practice. It’s the coding that makes it specialty specific not the name of the program. The only thing that’s more important than the product is the dealer who will support the product. No one ever wrote a perfect piece of software (that’s a topic for another blog) so when you need help you’d better have a solid support company behind the product.

Electronic Health Record software designed for a specific practice specialty should be a red flag. First of all, very few if any specialty specific EHRs will make CCHIT/ARRA Certification. Without the certification, you will NOT be eligible for the government stimulus money. So when your associates are paying for their EHRs and using the excess money to buy a new car all you’ll have is a specialty specific EHR that didn’t qualify for the stimulus or perform any better than a real EHR AND you’ll be penalized for buying it with lower payments starting in 2015. Think about it.

A few final points.  Specialty specific EHRs do not offer the configurability and flexibility of use as does a full EHR.  You’ll be forced to use the program as written using a predetermined work flow.  I’ve never seen two doctors who operate in an identical fashion.  Look at the industry.  The small companies will be absorbed by the larger companies.  Will the smaller specialty specific EHR survive?  Why should they.  They’ll have a smaller client base that will dwindle as soon as the clients realize the programs can’t make certification.  Many are structured to be bought out.  In the end, their will only be a handful of EHRs in the market.  Where is the value in being limited in the way you use a program and then to have it disappear in the next few years leaving you to start all over and very possibly miss all the government incentives.  Think bigger.  Go with an industry leader.

We’ve installed McKesson’s Medisoft Clinical and Practice Partner in all types of practices. The configurability of the product allows us to duplicate existing forms, templates, procedures and work flow. It’s certified and doesn’t take a rocket scientist or computer geek to use it. The doctor doesn’t even have to touch a computer to use it. The name to remember is Medisoft Clinical EHR. The company is Maritec Medical Systems.

As a follow up to my previous blog on the “Go Live Date”, I’d like to add an example. In a previous life, I was employed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as a Project Engineer. My last project was the implementation of a new Air Traffic Control system at the Cleveland Air Traffic Control Center (ARTCC). The Cleveland ARTCC is either number one or two in the amount of traffic handled depending on the day’s activity. Chicago and Cleveland rotated in the role of first or second busiest Control Center.

The control system change was monumental in its scope costing more than 30 million dollars and teams of people at the Cleveland ARTCC. The project encompassed new computer systems and 60 new control positions. Technicians, Air Traffic Controllers and support staff had be trained and become familiar with the new systems, procedures and control consoles. For the Air Traffic Controllers’ standpoint, they had entirely new computer consoles, functions are duties to learn. The primary goal was, as always, not to let two aircraft collide in flight. Mid-air collisions are generally accepted as a “bad thing” resulting in the loss of life and property.

The process was slow and methodical. Controllers and support staff had to be trained and learn the new system much like a medical office learning Electronic Health Records. So consider this. If we (the FAA) had a “Go Live Date” where all the Controllers moved into the new wing with the new systems after classroom training, would you want to be flying on that day? Call me wimpy, but I wouldn’t want to be in the air on that day. So we moved the Controllers into the positions a few at a time on the midnight shift when air traffic was at a minimum. Group by group was transitioned to the new system for short periods of time. The process took a couple of months before Air Traffic Control felt comfortable with the new systems and was willing to handle daily operations from the new system. Even then the transition was done at night during light air traffic volume and they were ready to roll back if necessary. The result was a smooth transition and no loss of life.

So maybe you’re not responsible for hundreds of lives – oh wait, you are. Think about it. If you would like to talk about a common sense approach to implementing new systems, call Maritec Medical Systems at 440-899-7067 or toll free at 866-9-MARITEC. You can also visit our web site at www.maritec.net for information on Medisoft, Medisoft Clinical EHR and medical technology.

Maritec Medical Systems is now implementing McKesson products Medisoft, Medisoft Clinical EHR and Practice Partner EHR. We have had success in bringing this technology to offices with a functional implementation strategy.

We have made the following observations based on over 20 years of experience.

• Doctors do not want to be IT experts.
• Medical office staff personnel want to know how to use technology to help them without having to learn complex programming and configuration details of software products.
• Doctors do not want to shut down the office for extensive periods of time to train on new technology.
• Providers have been hurt financially by insurance company regulators and reduced payments and cannot afford extensive and ineffective implementations.
• Doctors do not want to see fewer patients in a given day.
• Office personnel cannot absorb the amount of training detail EHR vendors want to impart and make meaningful use of new technologies in a compressed time frame.
• People cannot be effectively trained for more than four hours at a time.
• People best learn by repetition in manageable time units.
• Learning and applying knowledge incrementally is most effective.
• Ignoring these principles leads to frustration, non-acceptance and destroys productivity.

The best way to the top of the mountain is one step at a time.

In applying these principles, we reduce the intensity and the amount of training when deploying technologies. It is our belief that most people want to learn how to drive the car and not design the car. To that end we teach functional use to the operators and leave the complex details to our IT staff. This approach saves the office time and the providers money. It reduces frustration, enhances acceptance and activation.

The first engineering principle I ever learned was KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid. It’s a sound principle.

Next – the infamous “Go Live Date”.

We can be reached at 440-899-7067 or 866-9 MARITEC, email mms@maritec.net or on the web at www.maritec.net

In the beginning… I’ve always wanted to start with that phrase, but I’d better restate the opening.

Twenty-one years ago I took my daughter to a pediatrician who had just installed a computerized patient accounting system. She paid $5,000 for very basic computer hardware and $5,000 for the software. The doctor knew I was an engineer and asked me to look at the system and give my opinion. What I thought was that she had drastically overpaid. Probably because she was a doctor, knew little about computers and the vendor thought she made a lot of money and was an easy touch.

I spent the next nine months researching medical office operations and billing procedures. Next I started looking at the products being offered to doctors and found that most were priced in the thousands of dollars and some in the five figure range. The doctors paid the price because they thought they had no other choice. I looked at every product I could get my hands on. Then I found a patient accounting program called Medisoft which sold for $500. I wasn’t going to test it because it was so inexpensive, but I did just to rule it out. To my surprise Medisoft was as good as programs selling for thousands more and even as good or better that software that was $5,000 and more. Medical Manager was the dominant product at the time. Medical Manager didn’t even have a suggested price. “Sell for whatever you can get and keep the profit”, I was told. That sounded unethical so I passed on Medical Manager.

My choice was Medisoft Patient Accounting. It was inexpensive and did the job. After all, these programs printed insurance forms, patient statements and reports. There was no real magic in any of the products. Initially, doctors thought as I first did that Medisoft was too inexpensive to be good. After presenting it to several doctors, I finally had one agree to try Medisoft. And then another. Soon they were telling their friends they could automate patient billing and get rid of peg boards and ledger cards for a reasonable cost. We never priced systems like they were for the medical industry. We set a fair price without regard to the vocation of the purchaser.

Medisoft was developed by a small company in Arizona. Years later they were bought by National Data Corporation then by Per Se′ Corporation. A year later an industry giant called McKesson bought Medisoft and all the electronic solutions. Today Medisoft is the number one patient accounting software in the one to ten doctor market. We have installed Medisoft in over 500 offices.

Today Medisoft has moved from a pure accounting function software to a Practice Management System (PMS) capable of managing patient accounts, electronic submission of insurance claims, electronic eligibility, electronic payment posting, has extreme reporting and maintains a user friendly interface. The structure is intuitive and easy to learn.

Completing the circle, McKesson purchased Physician’s Micro Systems in Seattle and integrated a high level Electronic Health Records (EHR) program with Medisoft. The full system is called Medisoft Clinical EHR.

The business structure of medicine is changing rapidly.  Government mandates will force virtually all medical offices to comply or see reductions and in some cases losses in revenues.   The driving components are ANSI 5010, ICD-10, electronic prescriptions and of course ARRA and EHR.   Extensive interconnectivity between patients, labs, hospitals and providers is guaranteed.  You won’t recognize this industry in five years.  Our web site details these issues and more.  www. maritec.net

ANSI 5010:  The 5010 standards will replace the existing 4010/4010A1 version of HIPAA transactions, which go back nearly a decade—an eternity in the IT world—and address many of the shortcomings in the current version, including the fact that 4010 does not support ICD-10 coding.  Deadline January 2012.

ICD10:  A major change in diagnostic coding will require  system and business changes throughout the industry.  ICD10 will affect coding for everyone covered by HIPAA , not just those who submit Medicare claims.  Deadline October 1, 2013.

ARRA:   American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009.  Provides government funds to assist  with EHR implementation.  Up to $64,000 per provider. 

EHR:  Electronic Health Records.  Implement now for maximum ARRA funds.  Plus cash incentives for electronic prescribing.

The problem:  Significant changes in the way medical offices operate will required time and funding.  Failure to comply will result in a reduction or loss of payments.   Procrastination will increase cost.

Like it or not this industry will change dramatically in the coming years.  We have a choice.  We can keep up, move over or get run over.  Even doctors who will be practicing for only a few more years will be affected.

In the coming days, I will write about Electronic Health Records – the good, the bad and the ugly.  I’ll take exceptions with industry standards of training, implementing and using and EHR.  We’ll also discuss ANSI 5010, ICD-10 and the other forces behind the coming technology explosion in medicine.

You can find an easy to use ARRA calculator on the www.maritec.net home page.  The calculator will show estimates of the government stimulus money paid to providers.

Robert Ontolchik

President

Maritec Medical Systems