First 6 weeks

[Guest guest]

I thought I would give you all an update of my first 6 weeks of

practice.

I alluded to UHC earlier and now I'll tell you what happened. I

contacted all of my contracted insurances in early November to start

the change in demographics and tax ID. I completed all the paper work

for everyone by Nov 10th. I didn't hear ANYTHING from anyone except

BWC before the end of the year, despite all the provider network reps

stating that all would be taken care of in 30 days. Early January I

called all my contracted insurances (I have like 15) and everyone

told me it was OK to start seeing patients Jan 9th. I wrote it all

down.

I actually started seeing patients January 18th. My 4 biggest

insurers still haven't paid me, each for similar reasons. Aetna sends

auto replies that my provider number is wrong, when I talk to them

they say it is fixed and they will be sending payment (eventually I

guess), I get a similar response from Med Mutual. Anthem (BC/BS) is

the wackiest, they changed my tax id, service and billing address and

sent denial of payment to my old practice, who forwarded it to me a

month later. I called them then went to their Ohio headquarters

(which conveniently is across the street from my office) to avoid the

phone tree hell they put you through. I got a personal visit from

their provider network guy who then hand delivered my contract and

his cell phone number to my new office. The important thing is that I

still haven't been paid by them, but they say it will be very soon.

On to UHC... They told me it was all fine 3 times. I talked to an

actual person, the SAME person every time. So then, I didn't get

paid. I called her and she said I actually needed a new contract,

not just a demographic change. Some of the companies required this,

others didn't. I mailed a new contract the 2nd week of January.

They lost it. Mailed the second one, still hadn't gotten paid. I

called my personal network person Beth and she said the contract

hadn't been loaded. Then she said that it would be loaded by March

1st. I said well, should I resubmit my bills after then, she said

they had no provisions for retroactive payment. So... there you go,

she told me to go ahead and see patients, then lost my contract that

allowed retroactive payment, slipped me a new one then denied

payment. She also said " I'm sure we told you it takes 30 days to

load new infor " . I then gave her the dates and asked to speak to her

boss, who I have left messages for twice a day for 10 days now, still

no payment but my " helper " Beth says they are trying to work on

a compromise. I called some of my patients whose bills are not being

paid, one is an attorney who likes a fight, the other is luckily an

HR manager who is in current negotiations for a new contract with

them so they seem to be slowly agreeing to pay me further and further

back.

Ok, on to more positive things, I am paying about $1100 a month for

my office space. That is for around 1000 sf. It includes all my

utilities and the cleaning service (every DAY!). I have 2 exam

rooms, 2 offices a tiny kitchen/drug room, a small waiting room (no

one waits here) and an L shaped central area with a desk for my

helper and 2 seperate sink areas (clean counter and dirty counter) I

also have a bathroom. The building is mostly offices, insurance

companies, mortgage companies etc... The really nice thing is that I

am in this little office with my helper (more on that below), but the

other companies in the office are very social, we have potlucks once

a month (quite the midwest theme here, this month it will be all

green food on the 17th). So, while still medically isolated, not so

socially isolated. One of the offices I am renting to a psychiatrist

who is seeing private pay outpatients in the evenings. He is my

husband so I lucked out there.

My helper is someone who was my nurse at my old office. She had left

to go back to school. She is now waiting to get into her nursing

program and has completed her prereqs so she works mostly fulltime

now. My office is totally doable alone, but I still stink at blood

draws and prefer she do it now. Also there was so much start up stuff

to do. When she is in school full time I think I will hire a part

time person that I already know to help, one of my friends or former

ma's. The climate at my old office resulted in lots of capable and

kind MA's leaving and I have kept in touch with most.

I had 1400 patients at my old practice. I sent letters to all of them

with a card to return if they wanted me to take their charts with me.

I took about 350 charts and since them have had to go back and pick

up about 50 more. I have also added about 20 new patients who read

the letter I sent to my patients about how my new practice would

operate.

Since opening I have seen about 30-40 patients a week. Hopefully I

am going to get paid for them! I have collected about $2000 or so in

copays or self pays and have gotten about $1500 in insurance payments

so far. My schedule is so much different than before, at the old

practice I worked 3 days a week. I took all my own call, but if

someone called the office on my day off with an urgent problem, they

would see my " partner " . Now I have only me. I have been really

trying to concentrate on Pam's idea of a happy worklife being well

integrated into all the other segments of life so actually work at

least a little everyday, the prescheduled patients are always on

those same 3 days.

Anyway, I'm much happier. Things are going well overall.