Re: My first year

[Guest guest]

Hello Rothe,

Monday, January 17, 2005, 9:02:48 AM, you wrote:

Kac> Well, I haven't been on in awhile, other than to take

Kac> advantage of our group rates for infopoems! In December I

Kac> completed my first year going it solo. I just completed my

Kac> computations for taxes, and I am sure many of you have the

Kac> concerns I did just starting out...can I REALLY make ends meet. I

Kac> saw a few patients in 12/03, 1-2/04, but didn't really get

Kac> started until March when Alteer finally got up and running and I

Kac> did my first billing (it took that long to get contracted with

Kac> the myriad insurance companies around here anyway). So from 3/04

Kac> to 12/31/05 I collected $93,500. I work M-R 8-2 and sometimes

Kac> 4-6 (after I pick up my kids from school), if there's an urgency.

Kac> I do my billing on Fridays, and also see urgents..usually 2-4.

Kac> Every 7th week end I cover for the call group (seven other solo

Kac> docs or small practices who got together here to share nights and

Kac> weekends and vacations). This figure does not include $20,000 I

Kac> still have out there collecting (the learning curve for billing,

Kac> even with an awesome EMR like Alteer, is HUGE). Also I did not

Kac> do any billing for December yet (I am billing about $30K a month

Kac> and collecting $12K-$15 now). (3/04-12/04 I billed $225,000.) My

Kac> rates are 200% of medicare.

Kac> I have my expenses on Gordon's excell sheet which I still

Kac> preactice with regularly to tweek the #'s as I'd like to work a

Kac> little less (we are a two doctor family with two kids) - if

Kac> anyone would like it or my financial summaries (created

Kac> automatically in Alteer) I would be happy to share so you can see

Kac> how it works...and although a lot of work to get started...does

Kac> work.

Kac> I love my practice, and my patient's love me. I am looking

Kac> to hire another Osteopathic Physician, because even though I have

Kac> been closed to new patients for 6 months (capped it at 400,

Kac> thanks for that advice Gordon! It saved me, I am MORE than busy

Kac> enough), I get 3-5 calls a day for new patients. It helps

Kac> billing as an osteopath, because in addition to my office codes,

Kac> mostly 99214s, I add a 25 modifier, place my hands on the patient

Kac> for the time we are talking, and bill an extra $40-100, so am

Kac> collecting sometimes up to $185 for my hour office visit. I also

Kac> do a lot of procedures and they pay amazingly well. for anyone

Kac> interested in that, take one of Pfenninger's procedure courses,

Kac> they are amazing and he tells how to bill for it too.

Kac> I'll glance through to see what YOU are all up to. I hope well.

Kac> My new email is kelly@...

Kac> and my website should be up and running in a couple of months

Morning.

8 below here today.Brrr

It seems from the financial analyses so kindly shared on this group

that collections are in the range of 50% Yikes I suppose this is the

difference between charged charges and what pittance the payors

pay Am I correct in how I see that?

When I try to get fees through t he cms site they want me to put in

hcpcs codes which I thought are older codes for supplies etc

Wouldn,t I want to ask about cpt codes? Anyone have advice?

Medrium is something I learned about through this group but for

folks considering them--pricing is changing Feb 1 they now will

still be able to be a doc's full billing back office but the flat

rate per claim price is only for submitting a claim The full

outsource billing service is " 8-10 " of collections I personally think

for now I will do it-- this will be the biggest hunk of anything i pay

for .If I go ahead with welford chart notes as I tink I will the

cost for that very nice emr is $2500.. If I buy their billing

ciompoment it is 10,000 more- would pay for it self in a good year

or afew yrs at least but I choose to see another patient a dayto

pay for it as eveything else I will do will be very lean I planno

staff.

Also, I thought i was pretty well read about hipaa but have not

seen in my reading something I think I do need to know about- do

patietns have to re sign every so often the privacy notice?

thanks

Jean

--

Best regards,

mailto:jantonucci.rockomeka@...