Zachary Foundation

Come join Michael Friedberg of HNLY, and other healthcare industry members in support of the Zachary Foundation on October 5, 2011 at the Barry L. Schiff Memorial Healthcare Classic golfing event. 

The Zachary Foundation was founded by the parents and friends of Zachary Friedberg of Morganville, New Jersey who suffers from a rare form of Mitochondrial Disease.

Bring your golf game and come out.

MAS has been in many of The Zachary Foundation golf outings and they have always been a lot of fun. This year they are honoring three of the long time supporters Andrew Goold, VP of The Healthsearch Group, James Y. Lee, FACHE Executive VP and  COO of Lawrence Hospital Center and Adam K. Weinstein, FACHE VP for Regulatory Affairs and Corporate Compliance New York Hospital Queens.

Michael Friedberg who has played an important role in healthcare through the years and deserves our industry’s full support, says “Throughout the years we have been privileged to have support from many people and organizations, it is the commitment of these three individuals that has been the driving force for our success. Their gift to Zachary and children like him who suffer from Mitochondrial Disease has been given not for recognition or personal gain but only due to each of their own selflessness. My family and the entire Mitochondrial Disease community are forever in their debt.”

Registration is still open! I look forward to seeing you there!

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MAS joins Transitional Services for New York, Inc. (TSINY)  in  congratulating our Special Olympian athlete Kellieta Claborn aka “Lenny” for her three 4th place ribbons  in the 2011 World Summer Games in Athens! 

The 13th Special Olympics World Summer Games took  place from June 25th to July 4th 2011,and was the world’s largest sporting event for athletes with intellectual disabilities, drawing 7,000 athletes from more than 180 countries around the world, 3,000 coaches and officials, 25,000 volunteers, 40,000 family members as well as thousands of spectators.

Kellieta finished 4th place in PL Female Dead Lift with a score of 68.977, PL Female Combination Bench and Dead Lift with a score of 101.437 and PL Female Bench Press with a score of 32.460!

Click here to see her full results.

Kellieta’s quest to the Special Olympics continues. To directly support Kellieta contact Terry LoPiano directly to make a donation via phone (718) 746-6647 ext 11 or email at tlopiano@tsiny.org or click here to donate directly to the Special Olympics!

Congratulations again Kellieta, MAS is proud of you!

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The choices that our elected officials make for us have serious long term impact on our lives. When I think of all  the various election ads, propaganda and promises going around, it reminds me of the drama and devastation MAS and others experienced with one decision made by elected officials–the closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital.

When they decided to close St. Vincent’s Hospital, had damaging ripple effects.  To me, seeing the hospital close was painful but maybe there were lessons for us to learn from.

For many years MAS was proud to be one of the hard-working vendors of this caring institution. Our MAS team was honored to be a part of such a pioneering and historic hospital as St Vincent’s, treated not only passengers on the Titanic, but also AIDS victims in the 1980′s when few other facilities would. When they decided to close St. Vincent’s it was like losing a part of the MAS family. Maybe because it was because St Vincent’s was one of MAS’ original clients and we wanted to keep it that way.
While working with the institution through Chapter 11, St Vincent’s management asked its many employees and vendors to tighten their belts to help the hospital through the bankruptcy process. All involved did what they could to help because we thought taking temporary pay cuts would do the trick to put a struggling hospital back on its feet. For a while, it looked as if things were taking a turn for the better. But the one thing we did not count on was that the core was already rotten; like our government has become, it was rife with bureaucracy and corruption.

Behind the scenes a snowball of bad choices had already begun.  Mark Levin, in a recent New York Magazine article entitled “St Vincent’s Is the Lehman Brothers of Hospitals” lays out details that lead to the hospital’s behind the scenes corruption and demise.

Davis writes “St. Vincent’s plight has been portrayed by public officials and the media as a story of local misfortune—a community losing a vital piece of its infrastructure and a centerpiece of its identity to a combination of mismanagement, the recession, and bad luck. The truth, though, is considerably more alarming.  St. Vincent’s collapse is only the most visible symptom of an ongoing financial emergency facing the city’s five dozen remaining hospitals and threatening those they serve.  In a sense, St. Vincent’s is the Lehman Brothers of the local hospital industry: an institution whose dramatic disappearance, once unthinkable, raises dire questions about the viability of the entire system.”
I wonder if our leaders are taking our citizens down a similar path.  As I listen to various campaign speeches, I hear eerie echoes of the bankrupted hospital as our ”wannabe” leaders try to convince us how just one more tax will do the trick!  Or, that this bailout will be the one to build a stronger future!
For MAS the lesson is clear-Let’s fix the core issues first!  Like St Vincent Hospital, our country is more than worth saving from bankruptcy!  When we use tried and true steps, there is no doubt our people will see the logic in it and rally around it.

I think this is just what we are waiting for-leaders who are going to take the most basic steps to strengthen our country’s core and put the USA back on firm footing.

There are a few good choices this Election Day; my advice is to check with yourself, think about what you would do to rise out of a possible bankruptcy and vote accordingly.  One smart choice will lead us to fixing our core. Go out and vote and good luck.

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The provisions now effective are:

• Expansion of the dependent age up to 26 years. Until now, dependents were no longer covered by their parents’ or guardians’ insurance after 19 years of age, or if in college, after 23 years.

• No annual or lifetime dollar limits to amount of money spent on health services.

• No denying coverage to children under 19 years of age for preexisting conditions.

• Coverage for all preventative services with no co-pays.

This is according to Kelly McGivern, president and chief executive officer of the Ohio Association of Health Plans, who also said the new rules are expected to increase costs of insurance premiums 5 percent

Are you confused? “I have been in healthcare for 25 years and I am just not sure what it all means.”  But I am looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and working through it.

See our popular blog: (first posted August 8, 2010) below as a reminder of what we might be on for.

When it comes to wading the waters of the “New Health Care System“, to quote Chief  Brody from the movies JAWS “You’re gonna need a bigger boat!”

Check out Congressman Brady’s New Health Care Chart below. If there was ever a time to hire a Medical Billing company like Medical Account Solutions, it’s right about now!

I’m sure you’ll agree that when you’re face to face with a big shark,  it’s no time to go ” Rogue”. Don’t try to do it alone. MAS stands ready to help you navigate your way to firm footing in these uncertain waters.

Let MAS handle the details so your health care organization can stay afloat, because if you don’t move quickly,  this “shark” will swallow you whole.

Congressman Brady Introduces “Your New Health Care System” Chart

July, 28, 2010 — nicedeb

“

A little sunshine goes a long way”.

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60 minutes ran a story Sunday night Aug. 6, 2010 (originally published on Nov. 22, 2009). The Cost of Dying: End-of-Life Care .  It started with the statement “Every medical study ever conducted has concluded that 100 percent of all Americans will eventually die.  This comes as no great surprise, but the amount of money being spent at the very end of people’s lives probably will.” They also reported, that last year, Medicare paid $55 billion just for doctor and hospital bills during the last two months of patients’ lives. That’s more than the budget for the Department of Homeland Security, or the Department of Education.

This piece created a lot of emotions for me.  I don’t think it was an accident that I related to this story, considering that I have been working with colleagues who are experts in the field of eldercare and life coaching.

When I first decided to add this story to my blog;  it seemed like an easy angle to write about our role in the debate as medical billers.  (If you have any thoughts on what role we play, please comment.) After reporter Steve Kroft asked Dr. Elliott Fisher, a researcher at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy “How do so many people end up in the hospital?” and Fisher replied “It’s the path of least resistance”.  I realized I was about to take the same path with this blog–so here goes the harder way.

Perhaps we as a country need to take a step back and as hard as this is to say “decide how we want to die”.

Most Americans don’t like to focus on morbid thing like this, but I have to agree with the point of view held by Dr. Byock who leads a team that treats and counsels patients with advanced illnesses: “This is a hard time in human life. But it’s just a part of life. Collectively, as a culture, we really have to acknowledge that we’re mortal,” Dr. Byock said. “Get over it. And start looking at what a healthy, morally robust way for people to die looks like.”

Dale Carnegie once said “Prepare for the worst that can possibly happen” then “calmly try to improve upon the worst.”

I think that we should put some thought today into how we what to die, to maintain some control of our last days. I have  deeper understanding of how working with my end-of-life colleagues could help us live a better life. Attorney Craig Andreoli an estate planning expert, Stephanie Ethe long term insurance specialist and Jean Summit-Riker life coach can help us plan and ask ourselves the hard questions now so that we’re better prepared for death.

Jean Summit-Riker said “Life is a journey we all travel, but the choice to take the path to peace and happiness is yours alone.”  I think this is our chance to collectively leave a legacy to our children and grandchildren and show them that it is important to prepare for death and that is possible to do it gracefully.

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Check out Congressman Brady’s New Health Care Chart below. If there was ever a time to hire a Medical Billing company like Medical Account Solutions, it’s right about now!

I’m sure you’ll agree that when you’re face to face with a big shark,  it’s no time to go ” Rogue”. Don’t try to do it alone. MAS stands ready to help you navigate your way to firm footing in these uncertain waters.

Let MAS handle the details so your health care organization can stay afloat, because if you don’t move quickly,  this “shark” will swallow you whole.

Congressman Brady Introduces “Your New Health Care System” Chart

July, 28, 2010 — nicedeb

“

A little sunshine goes a long way”.

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The post highlights a study by a team from Massachusetts General Hospital and its physician’s organization. They examined the time and costs associated with the third-party billing system used in the U.S and calculated that they could save billions by just  streamlining  typical administrative inefficiencies.

The analysis, published in Health Affairs and funded by the Commonwealth Fund and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, looked at a large, multi-specialty group of doctors that uses the typical fee-for-service model. They looked at what might reduce some of the administrative burden – specifically, the time spent by physicians and office staff doing paperwork and going back and forth with payers.

“Achieving these savings would not require restructuring the basic market-system tenets of our complex health care system through, for example, mandating a single-payer approach,” the researchers write.

Medical billing companies like MAS have been on the front line of streamlining costs since the 1970’s and is a major reason why our industry has taken off since. Over the years. many doctor groups and hospital have taken advantage of our expertise to increase cash flow, including niche billing skills delivered by MAS,  such as Workers’ Compensation and No-Fault or Ambulance / Emergency Transport Billing.

Another trend that MAS has seen is for clients to use our billing company on a project basis, as with our Third-Party Follow-Up and Trial Balance Cash Improvement programs.  Our team literally becomes an extension of the client’s back office, benefiting them by keeping their office focused on the day to day’s most pressing needs.

What also works well is a contingency billing scale in which healthcare organizations take advantage of a sliding pay schedule that adjusts with need and patient volume. This becomes a win-win when hospital and physician organizations protect bottom line costs while still having a trained staff  available when they need them the most.

There is no doubt the battle in streamlining costs in healthcare is a challenging one. When I read a report like this one I get energized and it reminds me that success can be ours!  By working together and relying on the various industry segments to do their part,  MAS believes that our healthcare industry can save billions. The model is there for us to follow. We look forward to doing our part to streamlining costs– one doctor office, one clinic, one doctor group and one hospital at a time.

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Nothing is perfect, but if you were to talk to a friend or family member overseas about their universal healthcare system, you realize that we have what people in other countries wish they had!

Of the various clients I have been blessed to have throughout the years, I particularly enjoy doing work for large, inner-city hospitals.   Often times, these clients have a large mental health, obstetrical and renal failure population, among others.  When I see this type of billing, I think of the lives behind it–the mentally ill patients who are able to lead a better life due to the help they receive, the babies who are born healthy because of pre-natal care and the dialysis patients who are buying more time with their families until a kidney becomes available.

Their lives literally depend upon the fiscal stability of their community hospital!  I feel a sense of accomplishment when I get their claims paid because I know that I am helping to keep these hospitals fiscally sound so they can be there for those patients who need them the most!

Recently, we witnessed the closing of a fine institution who served New York City for so many years, that they treated survivors of the Titanic!!  St. Vincent’s Hospital was a beloved fixture in the lower Manhattan community that serviced families from the cradle to the grave.  Its closing left a hole in the healthcare system of New York City that cannot be fixed.  It makes me terribly sad to think there have patients who have suffered, and perhaps even lost their lives, due to the shutdown of this hospital.  Would things have been different if they had properly utilized all available resources?

Numbers don’t lie.  According to a 2006 Newsweek article, there are approximately $60 billion in unpaid medical bills per year! Our work, of supplementing an over-burdened hospital staff, helps to keep hospitals functioning in our communities so they can continue to serve the patients who walk through their doors everyday!

I have watched the struggles of New York’s inner-city hospitals now for many years and have grown increasingly frustrated as they resist outsourcing their medical billing to an agency, such as MAS.  Surely they can do it themselves, why do they need to pay an outside company to do what their internal staff can?  Perhaps because, according to the CDC, in 2006 there were 119.2 million emergency department visits alone.

Yes, we want to be leaders in the medical billing industry but my company and I focus on the bigger picture. We know that our efforts and collections help to secure and  maintain our cutting-edge American healthcare system.  With this in mind, I believe our contributions at MAS could just be a “higher calling”!

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