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Case Study
Mark J. Stenclik, M.D.
An orthopedic practice
located in Rochester, New York, Mark J. Stenclik, M.D. provides
orthopedic surgery and fracture care to patients ranging in age
from four to 100. One full-time physician and a physician's
assistant see approximately 150 patients a week. Total staff
size is eight.
Dealing with numerous insurances with
multiple plans is one of the biggest challenges we face,
explains Diane Stenclik, Manager. Having software from a vendor
who is on top of industry changes is critical. Both with
Medicare changes several years ago and with New York State's
recent ability to accept Workers' Comp claims electronically,
we've been in the forefront. In the first three weeks, we submitted 110 claims.
No longer do we need to print, sign, assemble and mail 220 forms -- 110 to the
NY Comp Board and 110 to the insurance company. Our practice will save at least
four hours each week, and payment is so much faster.
CHALLENGES
When Mark and Diane Stenclik founded their
practice in 1987, they purchased software to submit claims
electronically. However, the vendor began to charge additional
for each insurer to which claims were submitted. Upon inquiring
of a major insurer which vendor was the best at submitting
claims, Diane learned about MEDENT from Community Computer
Service.
SOLUTION
The Stencliks began using MEDENT
Practice Management in 1990 and MEDENT EMR in 1992.
With
MEDENT, the Stenclik practice submitted more claims
electronically. They began using the Community Computer service
for the creation and mailing of patient statements as soon as it
was available in 1995. The practice became paperless in 2003.
They use e-prescribing and have been using speech recognition
for four years. The physician's assistant uses speech
recognition to record all narrative. Dr. Stenclik records notes
from initial visits for transcription and uses speech
recognition for follow-up visit narrative.
Before MEDENT,
Dr. Stenclik hated computers. Diane describes telling him that
once he found a valuable use for a computer he would change his
mind. She states, In the early days of the practice, if he
needed to find a patient's chart after hours and it wasn't in
the file, he would look in multiple places shelves containing
charts, the nurses desk, the transcriptionist's desk. Even if he
found the chart, often he couldn't locate the information he
needed. Now with EMR, he has immediate access to the patient's
record whether he is in the office or at home. Specific
information is in a consistent location. Now he loves his
computer.
There's flexibility as to how the chart is
structured, explains Diane. If you want to change the way it's
set up, you can make a change, and the change is made across the
system. Also, there are many ways to get information in to the
system, and it can be tailored to the way the doctor works.
With each new version of MEDENT, the software has
improved, states Diane. I recall when auto-post was first
introduced, and it's fabulous! Before, when payments came in, it
would take three hours to post them. With auto-post, it takes
five minutes. Also, Community Computer has implemented in new
versions specific requests I've made.
I've been pleased
with the ease of getting paper work out since we began using
MEDENT, comments Diane. When there have been changes, such as
those which occurred some years ago with Medicare, Community
Computer was on top of the changes. They were among the first to
re-program their software to handle the changes. They are always
up-to-date on what's going on in the industry. When I first
heard about NYS Workers' Comp electronic submission, I knew they
would handle it well.
The Stenclik practice submits
about 130 Workers' Comp claims each month. They were on the
leading edge of submitting claims electronically through the
iHCFA clearinghouse. Any initial kinks were worked out with
iHCFA in the first days of April, states Diane. Within three
weeks, we submitted 110 claims. Typically this would have meant
printing, assembling, signing and mailing 220 forms -- 110 to
the NY Comp Board and 110 to the insurance company.
Dr.
William DeGasperis, President of iHCFA, describes, "The
electronic Workers' Comp bill is a simpler version, and it
includes all of the supporting documentation. In addition, when
bills are submitted to the insurance carrier, the Workers' Comp
Board has already authorized the claim. There is confirmation
that the bill has been received and no risk of confusion about
its receipt. With MEDENT the submission process is completely
electronic, including the progress note, and it can be done in
one seamless step."
Community Computer support has always
been excellent, states Diane. With the vendor we used before
MEDENT, if there was a problem, they would attribute it to
hardware or software they didn't support, even though they had
sold us all of the hardware and software we used. Community
Computer has never done that to me. Whatever the problem, they
fix it. We haven't been down in the twenty years we're had
MEDENT.
RESULTS
MEDENT has enabled the Stenclik
practice to efficiently submit claims and post payments,
basically eliminate paper within the office and access patient
information when and where it is needed.
The practice is
one of the first to reap the benefits of electronic submission
of NYS Workers' Comp claims, enabling Diane to meet her goal of
being on the front-end of new functionality.
The Stenclik
practice saves at least four hours per week on the printing,
assembling and mailing of Workers' Comp claims. In addition,
there is no longer a need for Dr. Stenclik to sign two copies of
the forms, and no need to wait for him to sign for the claim to
be submitted. Once the procedures are in place with iHCFA, it
takes only one to two minutes to submit a claim, describes
Diane. The first claim was paid within three days. In
comparison, another claim paid in the same timeframe had been
submitted by paper over two months earlier.
CCHITSM
and CCHIT CertifiedSM are service marks of the Certification
Commission for Healthcare Information Technology.
Testimonial
Diane Stenclik
I want to let you know
everything is now successful. My last submissions went without a
hitch, and the procedure I need to do is running smoothly and is
not time consuming at all.
Thank you and the team for
all the hard work in making this happen. Especially Tammy, it
was a painful process that we all grew from with each error. And
I would like to thank the staff at IHCFA, John in support was
always friendly, looked into my questions, and I even spoke to
Bob a couple of times to work through the problems.
The
cost of processing with IHCFA will be absolutely nothing,
compared to the cost of the paper shuffle that goes on in our
office. I have always plugged in the charges, and created the
C4, but Debbie in our office had the tedious task of assembling
all the attachments and getting them out to each insurance
company and the board, and since I typed "see attached letter"
on every single C4 that was created, that was alot of printing
and attaching to the forms. In less than two weeks we sent IHCFA
76 claims. No longer will Dr. Stenclik have to sign each one of
those claims forms 2 times (152 signatures), and we will no
longer have to wait for him to sign so the paper work can go
out.
Since, I leave nothing to chance I called NYSIF to
see if they received a claim from Wednesday, and it was on there
system in less than a day, with all the supporting documents.
Thank you again for all the hard work.
Testimonial
Rick Shubert
I wanted to get this out to
the folks at iHCFA. The quick turn around on Friday for the
split status is great and has made a vast improvement in our
ability to quickly and correctly manage errors. We appreciate
the quick turn around that iHCFA is providing and the effort on
your part to make this a success. |
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