Robin yap OD wrote an interesting piece on his blog about customization and how it affects customers. Read his post below:
"I like my customized espresso drink at Starbucks. When I hear a barrista in any coffee shop sigh under their breath because of a complicated drink, I wonder if the training they received that linked their corporate vision to their specific work was clearly articulated.
At a training session in Atlanta this weekend, a colleague of mine, Dr. Carolynn Sweat, and I were swapping customization ideas that we can bring back to our training environments. I showed her Warby Parker and Marvel Create-Your-Own Superhero and she showed me Wizard101.
Warby Parker has a good story to tell, has a clear corporate responsibility program (buy a pair/give a pair) and the glasses can be virtually worn through self-pic upload mechanism – their customization piece. I like it (see the 4 choices I had above – tell me which one you like on me, if any, in the comments). This capability allows individuals to see exactly what they would look like when the classes are worn. Does this create an emotional connection with you? It does to me.
Then there’s Marvel Create-Your-Own Superhero. This is an old favourite as I’ve used this in training classes before. Saves you copyright costs if you build it yourself. Animate a sci-fi comic concept, create a universe, make sure you make money through a point system and voila, you have Wizard101.
Back to Starbucks, there are around 87,000 combinations at Starbucks and when it connects to an emotional level to a customer, that customer’s loyalty meter goes up dramatically. At least, it does for me. Does this happen with the comic strip idea? Bring this further up, would this work when you build training materials? How about when you talk with a client or potential client? How about when you connect with your work colleagues? So how many permutations of customization can your company products and services have? What activities should you create to have that emotional connection with your clients?"
How does this relate to optometric billing? Our service is not all things to all people ( see Eyefinity, officemate et al). Our service is designed exclusively for optometry. Each client can then further request custom items based on their particular needs. We feel this is extremely important because as Dr Yap mentioned, it creates a personal and emotional connection with our clients that helps them see we understand and get them!
Give opticXpress a "LOOK" today. Maybe we can customize something for you!
opticXpress is an optometric billing company that provides a clearinghouse, billing service and software strictly for optometrists.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Optometric Billing-Business Innovation
Pulled this from Dr. Alan Glazier's Twitter today. This is not an optometric billing post per-se but it is important to note that by implementing opticXpress' billing service into your practice you too can be an innovater and help get and keep your practice at the top of it's game for years to come! Call opticXpress today!
CONGRATULATIONS TO DR ALAN GLAZIER ON YOUR ACHIEVEMENT !
View a pdf of this year's Optometric Business Innovators 2011
Optometrists face business challenges every day. As CEOs of their practice, they must provide a vision for where their practice is headed.
That issue is behind The Optometric Business Innovators report, a special first-time collaborative project between Vision Monday and Review of Optometric Business.
Whether it’s incorporating new technologies into existing practice structures, managing managed care, training staff teams or learning to embrace new digital media—even as they provide first-rate vision care delivery to patients—the why’s and how’s of processes and procedures need attention…and inspiration!
With the help of a Professional Advisory panel composed of a mix of ODs from both the private and corporate arenas and professional OD business consultants, VM and ROB solicited input and suggestions to identify Optometric Business Innovators from across the U.S. They were asked to nominate individuals who excel at using creative and results-oriented approaches in a range of business areas.
From these suggestions, we also identified a group of Influencers who have taken lessons and ideas from their own practices and translated their business-savvy ideas into larger groups, organizations and projects which influence many optometrists about the ways in which consistent business knowledge and innovation can work hand-in-hand and even enhance the delivery of the ultimate in patient care.
The result is our 2011 Optometric Business Innovators; a diverse group of men and women who are redefining and moving the practice of optometry forward. ■
–The Editors of VM and
Review of Optometric Business
Downloaded from "Vision Monday" on Thursday, December 15th, 2011
CONGRATULATIONS TO DR ALAN GLAZIER ON YOUR ACHIEVEMENT !
View a pdf of this year's Optometric Business Innovators 2011
Optometrists face business challenges every day. As CEOs of their practice, they must provide a vision for where their practice is headed.
That issue is behind The Optometric Business Innovators report, a special first-time collaborative project between Vision Monday and Review of Optometric Business.
Whether it’s incorporating new technologies into existing practice structures, managing managed care, training staff teams or learning to embrace new digital media—even as they provide first-rate vision care delivery to patients—the why’s and how’s of processes and procedures need attention…and inspiration!
With the help of a Professional Advisory panel composed of a mix of ODs from both the private and corporate arenas and professional OD business consultants, VM and ROB solicited input and suggestions to identify Optometric Business Innovators from across the U.S. They were asked to nominate individuals who excel at using creative and results-oriented approaches in a range of business areas.
From these suggestions, we also identified a group of Influencers who have taken lessons and ideas from their own practices and translated their business-savvy ideas into larger groups, organizations and projects which influence many optometrists about the ways in which consistent business knowledge and innovation can work hand-in-hand and even enhance the delivery of the ultimate in patient care.
The result is our 2011 Optometric Business Innovators; a diverse group of men and women who are redefining and moving the practice of optometry forward. ■
–The Editors of VM and
Review of Optometric Business
Downloaded from "Vision Monday" on Thursday, December 15th, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Optometric Billing-Marketing Advice
This Marketing Tip comes from our friends at Mirro, Inc. Optometry Consultants. You can view their webpage for more marketing tips and as always, don't forget to check opticXpress.com for help with your optometric billing!
Luxury Is Key: When Dispensing
When dispensing frames and/or lenses to a patient, it is important that your staff presents the product in a manor that displays luxury. During your presentation, dispense items in jewelry trays (that contain a felt or leather base), not in plastic “job” trays. Present the customer with a cleaning cloth, a case (even if dispensing a patient’s own frame), a spray cleaner, and a nice bag where your practice’s logo is displayed. Even if you don’t sell high-end eye wear, you can still present a high-end experience that your patient’s will love.
Luxury Is Key: When Dispensing
When dispensing frames and/or lenses to a patient, it is important that your staff presents the product in a manor that displays luxury. During your presentation, dispense items in jewelry trays (that contain a felt or leather base), not in plastic “job” trays. Present the customer with a cleaning cloth, a case (even if dispensing a patient’s own frame), a spray cleaner, and a nice bag where your practice’s logo is displayed. Even if you don’t sell high-end eye wear, you can still present a high-end experience that your patient’s will love.
Optometric Billing Dry Eye-Grow Your Practice
Pulled this from our friends at Noble Vision Group
"Research shows that artificial tears, although beneficial, appear to be palliative and there is no evidence that they can treat the inflammation in dry eye disease. Doctors that want to build this part of their medical practice need to employ the use of medications that target the disease.
Articifial tears such as Systane, Optive, Blink, Theratears, Soothe, Refresh, Genteal etc. are a good starting place in the management of mild dry eye but may not be a sound treatment strategy alone for active disease. For example, in the phase III clinical trials for cyclosporine A 0.05% (Restasis) there were two treatment arms: one that recieved cyclosporine and one that received the vehicle, which turned out to be one of the best artificial tears available known as Endura a few years ago. When biopsy’s were performed on patient’s conjunctival tissue after six months of treatment the group treated with cyclosporine had less T-cells measured showing an improvement in the inflammation associated with the disease. However the group treated with the artificial tears alone (Endura BID + Refresh PRN) showed an increase in inflammatory T-Cells of over 39%!
This is probably why doctors that TREAT the dry eye with targeted treatment options seem to grow their medical practices faster as opposed to simply providing an artificial tear samples alone. Gallup pole data shows that most patients had already tried 3-5 artificial tears before seeing an eye doctor and yet over 70% of doctors put that patient on another artificial tear. No wonder they are seeking new practitioners.
Now, as I stated, I do begin all treatments with an artificial tear alone in mild cases, or in addition to targeted treatments. So when should a doctor consider targeted treatments such as Restasis and steroids such as Lotemax, which effectively target the dry eye disease?
There are three times I would consider the need for targeted treatments such as Lotemax and Restasis. If a patient is on a good artificial tear (as opposed to drops with BAK such as Visine or ClearEyes) and you see ANY of the following:
• The patient has dry eye symptoms including dryness, grittiness, burning, stinging, foreign body sensation, transient blurred vision, redness, irritation, epiphora etc.
• The patient shows signs such as corneal or conjunctival staining or an osmolarity reading above 308mOsmol/L
• The patient when using an artificial tear does not feel that the symptoms resolve for more than 4 hours or requires 4 or more drops per day.
All of these indicate that there is likely some degree of underlying inflammation or unprotected areas of the ocular surface and that warrants a more targeted treatment approach."
-Dr. Paul Karpecki
As always, opticXpress is your one stop for all your optometric billing and procedural needs!
"Research shows that artificial tears, although beneficial, appear to be palliative and there is no evidence that they can treat the inflammation in dry eye disease. Doctors that want to build this part of their medical practice need to employ the use of medications that target the disease.
Articifial tears such as Systane, Optive, Blink, Theratears, Soothe, Refresh, Genteal etc. are a good starting place in the management of mild dry eye but may not be a sound treatment strategy alone for active disease. For example, in the phase III clinical trials for cyclosporine A 0.05% (Restasis) there were two treatment arms: one that recieved cyclosporine and one that received the vehicle, which turned out to be one of the best artificial tears available known as Endura a few years ago. When biopsy’s were performed on patient’s conjunctival tissue after six months of treatment the group treated with cyclosporine had less T-cells measured showing an improvement in the inflammation associated with the disease. However the group treated with the artificial tears alone (Endura BID + Refresh PRN) showed an increase in inflammatory T-Cells of over 39%!
This is probably why doctors that TREAT the dry eye with targeted treatment options seem to grow their medical practices faster as opposed to simply providing an artificial tear samples alone. Gallup pole data shows that most patients had already tried 3-5 artificial tears before seeing an eye doctor and yet over 70% of doctors put that patient on another artificial tear. No wonder they are seeking new practitioners.
Now, as I stated, I do begin all treatments with an artificial tear alone in mild cases, or in addition to targeted treatments. So when should a doctor consider targeted treatments such as Restasis and steroids such as Lotemax, which effectively target the dry eye disease?
There are three times I would consider the need for targeted treatments such as Lotemax and Restasis. If a patient is on a good artificial tear (as opposed to drops with BAK such as Visine or ClearEyes) and you see ANY of the following:
• The patient has dry eye symptoms including dryness, grittiness, burning, stinging, foreign body sensation, transient blurred vision, redness, irritation, epiphora etc.
• The patient shows signs such as corneal or conjunctival staining or an osmolarity reading above 308mOsmol/L
• The patient when using an artificial tear does not feel that the symptoms resolve for more than 4 hours or requires 4 or more drops per day.
All of these indicate that there is likely some degree of underlying inflammation or unprotected areas of the ocular surface and that warrants a more targeted treatment approach."
-Dr. Paul Karpecki
As always, opticXpress is your one stop for all your optometric billing and procedural needs!
Optometric Billing For Contact Lens Bandage
Over the last few days we have received a few requests to find a more effective method of billing insurance companies for a "contact lens bandage ". To date, many doctors have been submitting a "92070- Fitting of contact lens for disease" but we want to know if there is a better code. We are specifically looking for a code that is more detailed. Maybe there is none maybe we have just been looking in the wrong places but we are relying on your experiences to help us out.
Please contact opticXpress today and share with us. We want to know!
RELATED POSTS:
http://optometricbilling.blogspot.com/2012/02/optometric-billing-billing-for-contact.html
http://optometricbilling.blogspot.com/2012/02/optometric-billing-one-more-way-to-bill.html
Please contact opticXpress today and share with us. We want to know!
RELATED POSTS:
http://optometricbilling.blogspot.com/2012/02/optometric-billing-billing-for-contact.html
http://optometricbilling.blogspot.com/2012/02/optometric-billing-one-more-way-to-bill.html
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
How Good Optometric Billing Practices Can Help you Find and Retain Profitable Patients!
"80% of your business comes from just 20% of your patients"
That quote was pulled from a post on practiceprnciples.net tweeted to us by the TSO Network. The gist of post was simple, get to know your patient's, serve them well and learn them so you can identify more patients like them. Good optometric billing practices can help you identify profitable patients because you will learn which insurances cover the most services and reimburse the best. Properly billing these patients' insurances will help you earn repeat business from that patient and word of mouth by these patients will lead you to more patients like them!
It's no secret that many optometric practices derive sometimes 50% or more of their revenue from cash patients. This is not a viable business model because finding and serving these cash patients will require you to be in a region that supports that demographic, like one of our clients in Boca Raton, Fl. However, we serve many practices that operate on insurance only and are just as profitable, if not more profitable than their "mostly cash" counterparts. Why? Because learning and employing good optometric billing techniques has enabled them to provide ongoing, quality health care to the same patients AND their referrals...over 80% of thier income is from insurance alone and, when done properly is a highly efficient and dependable business strategy.
Call opticXpress today and learn how they can help you employ good optometric billing so you can begin identifying your most profitable patients right away!
That quote was pulled from a post on practiceprnciples.net tweeted to us by the TSO Network. The gist of post was simple, get to know your patient's, serve them well and learn them so you can identify more patients like them. Good optometric billing practices can help you identify profitable patients because you will learn which insurances cover the most services and reimburse the best. Properly billing these patients' insurances will help you earn repeat business from that patient and word of mouth by these patients will lead you to more patients like them!
It's no secret that many optometric practices derive sometimes 50% or more of their revenue from cash patients. This is not a viable business model because finding and serving these cash patients will require you to be in a region that supports that demographic, like one of our clients in Boca Raton, Fl. However, we serve many practices that operate on insurance only and are just as profitable, if not more profitable than their "mostly cash" counterparts. Why? Because learning and employing good optometric billing techniques has enabled them to provide ongoing, quality health care to the same patients AND their referrals...over 80% of thier income is from insurance alone and, when done properly is a highly efficient and dependable business strategy.
Call opticXpress today and learn how they can help you employ good optometric billing so you can begin identifying your most profitable patients right away!
Monday, December 12, 2011
OPTOMETRIC EMR NO NO'S
opticXpress publishes Optometric EMR software. We believe that it should be easy to use and affordable and that it should ADD to the patient-doctor interaction...not DETRACT from it.
I came across the following article and thought I would share it with you all since it highlights 5 key points that we believe about our EMR software here at opticXpress.
"1. Should not make you design it
Many EMRs on the market today ask that physicians design their own templates. This is not only time consuming, indeed would require many days of not seeing patients just to enter the data, but can force an ophthalmologist to try to fit a very complicated patient into a pre-set template that does not address his or her issues properly. Thus, the physician is left editing the template at nearly every visit, another time-consuming task. The solution is to do away altogether with the idea of templating medical notes. The EMR that we are currently working with comes out-of-the-box with the knowledge of a 2,000-page ophthalmology textbook. It easily harnesses that information to present you with only the options that you need for any given diagnosis and then remembers your preferred settings. Each time you use the EMR, it automatically updates the way you dose your medications and do your procedures. There is no need for you to make any additional effort to tell the program what you do each time. Once it is done once, the system learns, but allows you to choose unique items for what are doubtlessly your unique patients.
2. Should not make it difficult to render drawings
An EMR that uses a mouse to render drawings on cornea and fundus diagrams is not only time consuming, but sometimes impossible. We are not graphic artists, we are ophthalmologists, but our diagrams are just as important. An EMR for ophthalmologists needs to allow us to quickly translate what we are seeing on our exam onto the screen and touch-based technology is a perfect vehicle for this. A few swipes of your finger should signify where the retinal tear or cataract is, how big it is, and any other features you choose to note.
3. Should not take away from the doctor-patient encounter
As Dr. Pauline Chen confessed last year in the New York Times, after implementing an EMR, “In order to use the computer, I had to turn my back to the patient as I spoke to him. I tried to compensate by sitting on a rolling stool but soon found myself spending more time spinning and wheeling back and forth between patient and computer than I did sitting still and listening. And when my patient did talk, his story came only in spurts because every time I turned my back to him to type, the room fell silent.”2 This is, of course, unacceptable, but all too common. We have found that it is absolutely imperative that the EMR not take away from our encounter with our patient. The EMR with which we are working allows the physician to rest an iPad on his or her lap and easily touch a button here or there to record an exam and history, all while maintaining eye contact with the patient.
4. Should not ask you to make further capital equipment purchases
The capital equipment costs for an ophthalmology practice are high and we should not be asked to purchase an expensive server to utilize an EMR. The advent of so-called cloud computing has made the need for an office-based server a thing of the past and quite an unnecessary purchase. Cloud based systems are far and away better suited to managing patient records. They are available anytime, anywhere, on any device. If an EMR company is providing the remote servers, they can support massive economies of scale in redundancies and backup, providing the service without interruption in almost every scenario. If the server in your office has a hard-drive fail, or the power supply dies, or someone spills coffee on it, everything must stop until it is fixed. Having an EMR that utilizes cloud computing allows you to at least have one less piece of equipment that you are responsible for.
5. Should not cost you time
As physicians, time is our most valuable resource. More minutes or even hours spent with your EMR, mean less time for your patients or your family. Your EMR simply cannot cost you any time and ideally should be a time-saver. According to a New England Journal of Medicine article, as of 2008, only 4% of physician practices in the United States were using fully functional EMRs.3 The reason for this often comes back to the amount of additional time many EMRs ask physicians to devote to documentation-- time we just don’t have. The motto of the company we are working with is “What’s Your Time Worth?” Time considerations need to drive everything an EMR company does.
For years, many EMR companies have been concerned with the needs of pharmacists and administrators, neglecting the needs of physicians and expecting them to adapt their practice to the EMR. But physicians have been voting with their feet and rejecting the vast majority of the products on the market. Recently, the tide has turned and ophthalmologists are demanding the things we need our electronic records to do. Let us not forget the things that they also must not do."
Now our software is not perfect but we are working hard every day to make it as close as possible. Hopefully we too will meet all 5 of these requirements for you and then some.
I came across the following article and thought I would share it with you all since it highlights 5 key points that we believe about our EMR software here at opticXpress.
"1. Should not make you design it
Many EMRs on the market today ask that physicians design their own templates. This is not only time consuming, indeed would require many days of not seeing patients just to enter the data, but can force an ophthalmologist to try to fit a very complicated patient into a pre-set template that does not address his or her issues properly. Thus, the physician is left editing the template at nearly every visit, another time-consuming task. The solution is to do away altogether with the idea of templating medical notes. The EMR that we are currently working with comes out-of-the-box with the knowledge of a 2,000-page ophthalmology textbook. It easily harnesses that information to present you with only the options that you need for any given diagnosis and then remembers your preferred settings. Each time you use the EMR, it automatically updates the way you dose your medications and do your procedures. There is no need for you to make any additional effort to tell the program what you do each time. Once it is done once, the system learns, but allows you to choose unique items for what are doubtlessly your unique patients.
2. Should not make it difficult to render drawings
An EMR that uses a mouse to render drawings on cornea and fundus diagrams is not only time consuming, but sometimes impossible. We are not graphic artists, we are ophthalmologists, but our diagrams are just as important. An EMR for ophthalmologists needs to allow us to quickly translate what we are seeing on our exam onto the screen and touch-based technology is a perfect vehicle for this. A few swipes of your finger should signify where the retinal tear or cataract is, how big it is, and any other features you choose to note.
3. Should not take away from the doctor-patient encounter
As Dr. Pauline Chen confessed last year in the New York Times, after implementing an EMR, “In order to use the computer, I had to turn my back to the patient as I spoke to him. I tried to compensate by sitting on a rolling stool but soon found myself spending more time spinning and wheeling back and forth between patient and computer than I did sitting still and listening. And when my patient did talk, his story came only in spurts because every time I turned my back to him to type, the room fell silent.”2 This is, of course, unacceptable, but all too common. We have found that it is absolutely imperative that the EMR not take away from our encounter with our patient. The EMR with which we are working allows the physician to rest an iPad on his or her lap and easily touch a button here or there to record an exam and history, all while maintaining eye contact with the patient.
4. Should not ask you to make further capital equipment purchases
The capital equipment costs for an ophthalmology practice are high and we should not be asked to purchase an expensive server to utilize an EMR. The advent of so-called cloud computing has made the need for an office-based server a thing of the past and quite an unnecessary purchase. Cloud based systems are far and away better suited to managing patient records. They are available anytime, anywhere, on any device. If an EMR company is providing the remote servers, they can support massive economies of scale in redundancies and backup, providing the service without interruption in almost every scenario. If the server in your office has a hard-drive fail, or the power supply dies, or someone spills coffee on it, everything must stop until it is fixed. Having an EMR that utilizes cloud computing allows you to at least have one less piece of equipment that you are responsible for.
5. Should not cost you time
As physicians, time is our most valuable resource. More minutes or even hours spent with your EMR, mean less time for your patients or your family. Your EMR simply cannot cost you any time and ideally should be a time-saver. According to a New England Journal of Medicine article, as of 2008, only 4% of physician practices in the United States were using fully functional EMRs.3 The reason for this often comes back to the amount of additional time many EMRs ask physicians to devote to documentation-- time we just don’t have. The motto of the company we are working with is “What’s Your Time Worth?” Time considerations need to drive everything an EMR company does.
For years, many EMR companies have been concerned with the needs of pharmacists and administrators, neglecting the needs of physicians and expecting them to adapt their practice to the EMR. But physicians have been voting with their feet and rejecting the vast majority of the products on the market. Recently, the tide has turned and ophthalmologists are demanding the things we need our electronic records to do. Let us not forget the things that they also must not do."
Now our software is not perfect but we are working hard every day to make it as close as possible. Hopefully we too will meet all 5 of these requirements for you and then some.
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