Medical Account Solutions » Your Medical Billing Office

Lets Hire America First.

Bill Baylis — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:00:18 +0000

About a year ago MAS wrote a blog post Forget Outsourcing, Try Rural Sourcing. MAS Agrees! about the value of “Rural Sourcing” and the need to keep jobs in the US instead of sending them overseas.

And today… jobs are still the big topic for all of us. In last week’s address to Congress and the country, President Obama laid out his plan for creating jobs. He stated the plan’s core goal: “The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: to put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working.”

The speech made me think of Linda McMahon’s quote on how jobs are created, “It’s very simple how you create jobs. An entrepreneur takes risk. He or she believes that they create a good or service that is sold for more than it costs to create it. If an entrepreneur thinks he can do that he creates a job.”

The heart and soul of the economy is small business. If you want to put Americans to work, it seems like a no brainer to begin with small businesses and entrepreneurs of America! We are standing ready to do whatever it takes to get the job done and start pumping some confidence back into the economy. Confident business owners hire.

Some companies may still have a need to send jobs overseas, but with the amount of people looking for work, MAS thinks it makes sense to hire people right here at home.

Small businesses can be creative in their hiring by focusing on their core expertise and outsourcing other job functions to entrepreneurs and consultants.

We use outsourcing to simplify things and be leaner and it’s been very effective for us. We hire out in key fields like IT, Accounting/CFO and other services for pennies on the dollar–with better results. This lets us focus on what we’re good at–is medical billing and collections.Trusting our expert consultants has paid off for us.

The biggest win of all is that it’s freed us up to hire people to build our core business and create more local jobs for Americans.

So how can outsourcing to experts help you streamline your business and help boost the economy at the same time?

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Have You Checked In on Your SMART Goals This Summer?

Webmaster — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:00:19 +0000

One of our most popular posts of the year was our first blog Are You Setting SMART Goals for Your Medical Billing Office in 2011?. We talked about setting goals for 2011 that were SMART: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, Timely.

We’re more than half way through the year and for most businesses, the summer time is a slow period. Well we think it’s a good time to pull out your SMART goals and do some thinking.

This is our third blog on the subject because we believe that setting SMART Goals is key to business success. We’re not alone. Business coaching experts like entrepreneur mentor Ali Brown who teaches women around the world to grow a profitable business recently wrote a blog post about setting SMART goals

Look at the goals you set in the beginning of the year. How close have you come to hitting them? Did you lay out a clear action plan and are you working that plan?

If you’re year isn’t going the way you’d like, take a look at where you strayed from your plans. Don’t get discouraged. Regroup, and do what you can to get back on track.

If things are going according to plan, let’s look at how you want to close out the year. Read relevant articles, plan meetings for the Fall. Do what you can to end strong.

Now don’t stop there. This is also a good time to get a jump start on setting your goals for next year. What will 2012 hold for you? What are your plans when your current year SMART goals pay off?

Break through, Don’t let the lazy days of summer catch you in its haze.

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Are ACOs already in their Final chapter?

Webmaster — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:24:11 +0000

No sooner than it’s become a major buzz word in the industry, ACO has also become a hot button and trigger for a wide range of reactions.What once was touted as the salvation of the healthcare industry is already in jeopardy. (MAS discussed this in a recent blog)

It seems industry experts are also wondering the same thing. Recently, Karen M. Cheung, editor of the Fierce Healthcare wrote a blog post about “Why ACOs are still a hard sell.”

In the post, Karen shared that at the Second National Accountable Care Organization Summit held in June in Washington, D.C., “many were skeptical, unsure of how accountable care would work at their organization and community and whether the financial and time investment of participating would really produce worthwhile results.”

So MAS asks the question: Are ACOs already in their final chapter, even before they have really gotten started? If that’s the case, what does this mean for next year’e elections?

We’d love to know what you think. Please leave a comment to let us know.

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Have You Heard About the New Medicare Plan that’s Got Hospitals Upset?

Webmaster — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:23:27 +0000

A recent NY Times article by Robert Spears entitled “Medicare Plan for Payments Irks Hospitals” talks about upcoming changes to the way Medicare pays out to hospitals based on performance.

As stated in the article “for the first time in its history, Medicare will soon track spending on millions of individual beneficiaries, reward hospitals that hold down costs and penalize those whose patients prove most expensive.”

It’s another take on pay for performance which can leave hospitals responsible for the cost of care rendered not only by them, but also by any doctors the patient sees after they leave the hospital.

We’d love to know what you think about this plan to “pay 4 performance”. Leave us a comment after you’ve read the article.

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Get in on Something that’s Actually Working in Healthcare!

Webmaster — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 20:32:49 +0000

Every once in a while we like to blog about things that are actually working in healthcare. Today we’re spotlighting a great opportunity for those who don’t have health coverage or are in need of a more affordable option. I also love the employers can give this out as an incentive to their staff or even 1099 workers.

I’d like to introduce you to Transparent Health Network. THN provides its members contracted rates for products and services through our network of health care providers.

Right now they are offering an incentive-free membership to any one that joins in the month of June. It’s a great opportunity to take them for a test drive to see if it will work for you.

Just click on this link or the image below to learn more!

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Two Sides of HealthCare Reform. Business vs Obamacare?

Bill Baylis — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:31:54 +0000

I love to see healthcare take a page from business, so the other day I was feeling pretty good after I read a post from Becker’s Hospital Review written by Rachel Fields entitled New Jersey Hospitals Advertise Wait Times to Draw Patient.

The post talks about how several New Jersey hospitals are touting low wait times in an effort to attract patients to their Emergency Departments, according to a Wall Street Journal report (how entrepreneurial !!)

It reads Bayonne (N.J.) Medical Center recently unveiled two billboards in Jersey City that advertise the hospital’s emergency room wait times. The billboards are updated with current wait times several times a day. While Christ Hospital in Jersey City plans to display its wait times on its website.

I am proud of these healthcare institutions for acting on the need in the market to better serve patients (i.e. customers) by streamlining their ED operations, then creating a product to market in an advertising campaign. I am sure a smart phone application is on the way!

Well to the contrary, I had to go and read Branwen Jeffreys’ blog in the BBC health news Kings Fund: Waiting times in England at three-year high. The King’s Fund is an English charity that seeks to understand how the health system in England can be improved. The Kings Fund statistics for February show 15% of patients waited over 18 weeks for treatment, the longest time since April 2008. It argues the shift is due to the financial pressures on the NHS.

So now, I am wondering if Obamacare could stifle the competitive spirit. And could long wait times become a trend in the U.S one day?

Kings Fund chief economist Professor John Appleby said the health service was now operating in a different climate.

“In the past the two things that kept waiting down were targets and extra money. Managers got sacked for not meeting targets. And of course in the future there won’t be the same amount of extra money.”

The official waiting figures are only part of the picture. As the BBC recently found, some parts of the NHS in England have introduced new restrictions on treatment or put routine operations on hold for several months. None of this appears in the statistics as it occurs before the clock starts.

For me this is the frustration of healthcare reform, there is still not enough firm information out there to get our arms around to understand what direction we need to focus on. What I do believe is that solid business ideals are going to make it shine!

I just hope there won’t be too many rules around it to prevent it from doing what is intended to do. Cut costs and deliver excellence in healthcare. What’s your take?

Is big business looking to cash in on ACO and healthcare reform? Check out this post from the latest FierceHealthcare News Brief...
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ACOs-Accountable Care Organizations Part 1- The Pros for Them

Webmaster — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 14:45:24 +0000

I recently announced that I’d be starting a blog series on ACOs-Accountable Care Organizations. Here’s the first part of the blog series presenting an argument for ACOs.

Accountable Care Organizations are a new concept intended to save Medicare dollars provided for in HealthCare Reform. Spokesmen for the Obama administration say these new forms of providing healthcare will be able to save untold amounts in Medicare spending by reducing waste and unnecessary procedures ordered by doctors performing defensive medicine.

The blog post Accountable Care Organizations, Explained by Jenny Gold gives a pretty good overview of ACOs.

In it, she outlines ACOs as simply networks of hospitals and doctors that agree to manage all the medical needs of at least 5,000 Medicare patients for at least three years. Doctors and hospitals participating in Accountable Care Organizations will be paid through a fee for service system similar to traditional Medicare billing. The major difference between an ACO and traditional Medicare lies in the fact that these doctors and hospitals will receive bonuses from Medicare funds if they are able to keep costs down. This will partly be done by sharing services within the ACO according to members of the administration. Since this difference is largely behind the scenes, patients may not even know they are a part of an Accountable Care Organization.

Even though doctors will be incentivized to keep costs low, these doctors will also need to maintain certain standards of care “as the Secretary [of Health and Human Services] shall determine,” in order to keep their contracts. Further, despite the fact that bonuses will be paid, proponents of ACOs argue that there will still be aggregate savings in the long term.

Among these proponents, the Obama administration’s Health and Human Services department insists this payment of bonuses to doctors and hospitals for reduced billing to Medicare will incentivize doctors to keep their patients healthy by practicing preventative medicine rather than only treating patients when they are already sick. According to the administration, this will save money.

So what do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so please be sure to comment and share this post with others. Stay tuned, the next blog will focus on the argument against ACOs.

MAS takes a closer look at ACOs-Accountable Care Organizations To help educate all of us, this blog will launch...
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MAS takes a closer look at ACOs-Accountable Care Organizations

Webmaster — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 14:45:20 +0000

Recently, Bill Baylis of Medical Account Solutions attended a local event at the Long Island Business News Power Breakfast that focused on the topic “Healthcare on Long Island-Can We Afford It?”

In his blog following the event LIBN breakfast was Powerful but left LI Heathcare Powerless Bill shared his thoughts and disappointment on the lack of knowledge from local “experts” about ACOs. What was surprising was that all the industry experts were unable to say how things are going to turn out since the new lay has been passed.

The definition of an ACO might differ slightly depending on who you talk to. In another MAS blog, the end results and benefits were identified as an ACO being”… technology-dependent, requiring good healthcare data to identify the patients and communities most in need, as well as electronic patient records immediately accessible to all doctors and hospitals treating a patient.”

To help educate all of us, Bill is launching an MAS blog series focusing on ACOs, presenting the pros, cons and some food for thought. We’d love to hear what you think in the process, so be sure to post your comments, ask questions and share with others!

Stay tuned for the first installment “ACOs-Accountable Care Organization’s Part 1- The Pros for Them”

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Get linkedIn to the Turnaround of Healthcare!

Webmaster — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:27:22 +0000

All too often our issues with healthcare revolves around political issues, whether or not we can get access to treatment or coverage under our insurance providers and so on. On the front lines institutions battle with overworked billing departments and indifferences with insurance providers. Thrown in budget cuts and having to do more with less and still provide top care to patients who are dealing with serious health issues is an almost impossible task.

With all that is going on today, rarely is there a place where healthcare’s best and brightest come together to take on the challenges ahead.

We all know there is power in numbers so we’ve launched a group on LinkedIn called Turnaround Healthcare.

Turnaround Healthcare is a professional community for those who are dedicated to improving the wellbeing for today’s American Healthcare system through better management and implementing best practices.

Outside of healthcare, research tells us that teams working together are more successful and make fewer mistakes than do individuals. These studies show a strong relationship between qualities such as flexibility, adaptability, resistance to stress, cohesion, retention and morale with effective team performance.

Join us!! Healthcare experts, providers and networkers, let’s take our business know-how and entrepreneurial spirit to the healthcare world and mentor them to turnaround.

Is big business looking to cash in on ACO and healthcare reform? Check out this post from the latest FierceHealthcare News Brief...
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Bill Baylis is a Basso on Business Guest Blogger: Do You Outsource? Here’s 3 Core Reasons Why You Should Consider It

Webmaster — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 19:02:16 +0000

Bill Baylis is a guest blogger for Rob Basso of Basso on Business. Below is an introduction to the post. Please click through to read the full post and to add your comments and thoughts.

As a decision maker in today’s business climate, it’s more important than ever to know your options for success. One such option is outsourcing. Whether it’s outsourcing a single specific task, such as collecting on an overdue account, or outsourcing your entire accounts receivable function, the possibilities are endless!

To help you determine whether or not outsourcing may be for you, here are 3 core reasons for consideration:

Click here to visit the Basso on Business site and read the full article.

Bill Baylis talks about the state of Medical Billing and Outsourcing In a short video, Medical Account Solutions President, Bill Baylis...
Is big business looking to cash in on ACO and healthcare reform? Check out this post from the latest FierceHealthcare News Brief...
MAS is Proud to Announce the Launch of our Newsletter Your Medical Billing Office News Information is key and at MAS, we're proud to do...

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