Healthcare Providers Making Headway on IT Challenges

Every healthcare provider out there is being forced to change – and quickly. The breathtaking pace of regulations from agencies, such as the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Office of Inspector General (OIG), as well as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations has the entire industry running as fast as it can to stay abreast of new policies. Staying on top of the regulations can be particularly difficult considering the varying degrees of technological understanding at each individual provider.

Finding the Right Person to Help You Make the Right Decisions

Historically, medical offices have been anything but regimented. The rule of thumb has been… well, come to mention it, there has been no rule of thumb! Physicians vary in terms of their business goals, and their staff is built around ownership.

Some doctors have hired practice managers with MBAs. Other practices are doctor-run. The person making the business (and more recently, technological) decisions could also be a proficient receptionist who has become an office manager. With such a variety of experience and education running the show, the industry’s communication channels are extremely complex and fragmented.

As a practice manager, you do not have a chain of command. There is no one person who knows how to explain what the new regulations mean, or give you advice on the next step. That was fine before because the pace of regulation was easy to follow. Back in 1996, the HIPAA privacy and security rules threw a curveball, but navigating those years was like a paddling a canoe across a pond, compared to the whitewater rapids of today.

The process of organizing the information is complicated enough, but deciding to wager your way through that minefield is extremely difficult. Technology can help you outsource a lot of the regulatory burden. For example, there are cloud-enabled applications that can keep your HIPAA privacy and security practices up-to-date automatically, so you know your office is covered on that front while you address what we like to call the Emergency Medical Records (EMR) crisis.

We know business like yours because we have helped healthcare providers in the Atlanta area for years. We know what your business is going through and how technology can help you simplify, change and grow.