Copyright 2008
DoctorsPartner, LLC.
( all rights reserved )
Starting a New Practice – The EMR Perspective
Starting
a new practice is not an insignificant task. Is that the
best time to really look at an EMR? Many of the new docs
have voted yes by going the EMR route. The logic here is
why not start now and avoid a whole conversion effort later?
However, this move needs to be planned carefully as this does
add another layer to consider in your newly minted practice.
The following are checkpoints taken from our standard
implementation plan for you to add to your new practice
checklist.
Gather
your physician/provider setup information. This
typically includes:
License
Number(s)
DEA
Number
SSN
and or/ Employer Id Number (Your federal tax ID)
Office
location(s) and addresses
Hospitals,
Nursing Homes, ALFs that you may see patients in
Your
commonly used ICD codes, CPT codes, HCPCS codes and
Medications
Gather
your practice setup information. This typically includes
Practice
Address
CLIA
number
Practice
hours
Gather
your insurance related information. This typically
includes:
Your
insurance carriers – names and addresses.
Your
practice group number (if applicable) for each carrier
Your
PIN number for each carrier
Default
charges for each CPT or HCPCS code
Allowed
amounts for each CPT or HCPCS code (if you have an
integrated package)
If
you are planning on filing electronic claims, please be
aware that it will take about 4-8 weeks to get approval
for electronic claims submissions for Medicare, Medicaid
and Blue Cross. Plan for this delay and sign up
early.
Training
Please
make sure that you schedule UNINTERRUPTED time for
training. This is the single biggest favor you could
do for yourself to prevent a lot of headaches later.
Please
make sure that your staff are sufficiently trained in the
appropriate areas and please participate in the training
to ensure that they understand the software
Other
items
Your
referral network – who refers to you and who do you
refer to?
List
of users – who is going to be using the system
List
of access rights for users – who is going to be able to
do what?
Plan
a lighter schedule for the first couple of weeks to ensure
a smooth transition.
While
this is not an exhaustive list for all EMRs, getting all of
this ready prior to starting any EMR software implementation
will make things smoother right from the start. In any
EMR or Billing software, the more time you spend in carefully
planning and setting up the system, the less time you will
have to spend on a day to day basis fixing things!
Best in KLAS®
2007 Award Winner! #1 Ranked PM & #2 Ranked
Electronic Medical Record System in the small practice
space (1-5 Docs) as reported by the Top 20 - 2007 Best in KLAS
report! Our customers can also fill out the customer survey
here!
Best in KLAS®
2007 Award Winner!