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Our TSINY Special Olympian Takes 4th!

Webmaster — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 14:35:18 +0000

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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ACOs-Accountable Care Organizations Part 2- The Cons Against Them

Webmaster — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:45:07 +0000

In our earlier blog ACOs-Accountable Care Organizations Part 2- The Pros for Them I talked about the arguments supporting the creation of ACOs. This blog installment presents arguments against them.

Accountable Care Organizations are a new concept intended to save Medicare dollars provided for in Obamacare. They are also a radical new approach to healthcare that will fundamentally change the relationship between doctors and Medicare patients. Sadly if these ACOs become reality more people will die from treatable conditions.

ACOs sound innocuous enough, they are “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.” Similar to traditional Medicare billing these doctors and hospitals will be paid in a fee for service system funded by Medicare.

The insidiousness of these Accountable Care Organizations arises in the fact that the federal government through the Medicare program would offer bonuses to providers in an ACO who are able to keep down costs while meeting specific standards for quality.

Stated differently, doctors and hospitals will be paid by the government to push patients toward less expensive treatments including President Barack Obama’s example of prescribing the pain pill instead of recommending a pacemaker. This amounts to the government having a serious hand in what treatments people receive, a drastic departure from traditional American healthcare.

What’s worse is that since this is largely behind the scenes, people may not even know their doctor or hospital is part of an ACO and therefore may not question if their doctor is giving them all the options rather than only the cheap ones. While it is true that these doctors and hospitals will need to meet certain standards of care, if public schools are any example of government standards anyone, who plans on getting sick or growing old should be very worried.

The Obama administration’s Health and Human Services department insists the creation of Accountable Care Organizations will incentivize doctors to keep their patients healthy. However, many observers insist the more realistic outcome to expect is patients being denied treatments because of cost considerations as the doctor now has a vested interest in providing as few tests and prescribing the fewest amount of prescriptions and surgeries possible.

Pretty strong arguments against.What do you think? Now’s the time to speak up and let your opinion be heard while ACOs are still taking shape. We’ll be keeping a close eye on things so stay tuned for more ACO related blogs from MAS.

ACOs-Accountable Care Organizations Part 1- The Pros for Them I recently announced that I'd be starting a blog series...
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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Letting Go to Grow

Bill Baylis — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 15:00:57 +0000

Recently I heard someone say that when you’re building a team, in order to grow you have to learn to let go.

Many of us when we start our businesses are used to doing everything by ourselves. We get scared of letting go and delegating to others. Because we’re afraid that things won’t be done right and that our customers are gonna be the ones to suffer.

Doctor’s are no different. Some doctors run their medical offices this way. They are almost too involved in the administrative things and aspects of running their practice and it gets in the way of patient. They are concerned about outsourcing their medical billing or other administrative tasks.

Other doctors, especially those in multi doctor practices hire staff in house to manage the administrative things, but it’s still hard for them to let go and their staff to get overwhelmed with things like following up with patient billing, the back and forth with insurance companies. These time consuming activities–especially those for medical billing–can make it harder to focus on the core functions of their practice–patient care.

But the truth is if we don’t learn to delegate and get the support we need it’s going to be hard for us to grow. So learn to let go and outsource the things that are taking up too much time for your practice.

Outsourcing to me Bill Baylis and my company MAS to manage your accounts and receivables and medical billing will make it easier for you and your staff to focus on the more important aspects of your practice—your patients.

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Medical Account Solutions to Attend the LIASB Anniversary Celebration

Webmaster — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 18:30:43 +0000

Bill Baylis and Susan Baylis of Medical Account Solutions will have a table at the Long Island Advancement of Small Business Anniversary Celebration. This event is open to members and the public. Sign up to attend at http://www.LIASB.com/seminars.php

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Outsourcing: Is it all or nothing? Or is it just Medical Billing?

Bill Baylis — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 14:43:15 +0000

Our recent blog Outsourcing – the Art of Delegation kicked up some debate.

For most of its 24 years in the healthcare field, MAS has focused most of our talents working with hospital and clinics. When MAS decided it was time to lend our talent and expand our client base toward doctor groups and individual practitioners, we knew that there we some misconceptions about outsourcing. We knew we would have to help to change the culture of what outsourcing really does.

At MAS we consider ourselves a “medical billing company”. Medical billing companies do much more then offer the choice of keeping your billing staff in-house or sending your accounts receivable out. Hospitals have been using medical billing agencies since the 1970′s. They have learned to use each agency to complement their own expertise and weaknesses.

For instance, hospitals have reversed the trend of outsourcing all of their in-patient billing so they can put a concentrated effort on receivables by putting their best and brightest to streamline and maximize that part of the A/R.

It’s a good policy because it puts them in control of their own destiny. They can directly manage the bread and butter of how a hospital will pay their payroll and important bills. However, most hospitals are smart enough to know they can’t do it all. For some hospitals, it’s best to send their no-fault billing to a qualified billing company because of the legal knowledge neededd to get these claims paid.

Companies like MAS are looking to change the face of outsourcing to let doctors and doctor groups know that its not all or nothing! We are here to help grow your business.

When you learn to properly delegate the areas that you aren’t strong in, you can focus on your strengths and leverage your team where they can produce the best results for you!

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Outsourcing: The Art of Delegation

Bill Baylis — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 14:20:15 +0000

Time management experts all agree that one of the most important skills needed to manage the non renewing resource of time, is to master the art of delegation.

In order to improve your medical office’s productivity it’s important to learn how to delegate those skills that aren’t your area of expertise. That way you can focus on your core business-seeing patients.

In my opinion the medical offices who successfully delegate or outsource their medical billing are more productive and profitable. These offices are also more profitable because by outsourcing their medical billing to a company like MAS,they are able to benefit from our expertise as profit recovery specialists.

So now you’re thinking “trust someone else to bill my patients?” I ask “Why Not?”

When you “delegate” your medical billing and profit recovery needs to MAS, you are a part of the process all the way.

You always have access to your information, you know where your billing is at all times and because we make sure we understand your specific practice—everything is customized to you. The key is that you won’t be spending your time to do it, we’ll take care of it for you.

Mastering the art of outsourcing or delegation will help you streamline your business and save time and money.

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The Cost of Dying: End-of-Life Care. The path of least resistance for a medical blogger.

Bill Baylis — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:24:00 +0000

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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Medical Billing: A “higher calling”?

Susan Baylis — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 01:25:37 +0000

I found myself heavily entrenched in the news and controversy of the Healthcare Reform Bill for a myriad of reasons. One reason, admittedly, is out of fear. I was, and still am, terribly afraid of dramatic change to our advanced and miraculous healthcare system. Throughout my life, I have watched our healthcare system help save the lives of my premature twin sons, who grew up perfectly healthy, thanks in large part to modern medicine. Conversely, I watched in horror as they treated my father, who had advanced Parkinson’s Disease, with the resources probably used during ancient times.

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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Comparing medical billing companies? If you only focus on price, MAS hopes you don’t get what you pay for.

Bill Baylis — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 22:05:37 +0000

Believe or not on 90% of our sales calls the first question our potential clients ask is “what do you charge?”

I can understand why most medical offices focus on that “pre-programmed answer” they assume that all medical billing offices are the same. Because they do the same things–don’t they?

I’m here to tell you that they don’t. If you’re considering hiring a medical billing company, I’d like to give you a few different questions to ask, because the truth is ALL MEDICAL BILLING OFFICES ARE NOT ALIKE!

Instead of just asking about price, dig deeper.

Ranging from basic to difficult the answers to these questions will help you figure out if they will give you the attention and client service you deserve.

How long have they been in business? Make sure they have the longevity to grow with you.
Who are their clients? You’ll find out if they are experienced in your area of specialty.
Who are the owners? Understand if they share your strategic vision.
How often will you get to meet with the owners? Confirm how accessible they are if you need to reach them.
Are they givers or takers? Givers will help you grow by sharing information and resources that keep you current and ahead of your competitors. Find out if

they will share what billing software they use with you
the data always yours or theirs
what format can the data be exported in.

How am I doing so far? These questions are a lot tougher than just pricing and we haven’t gotten to any performance questions yet! (I suspect I will get to that in another blog soon).

When it comes to finding the right medical billing company for you, do your research and think about what important qualities you need in a billing agency. If they deliver the right answers to the questions above, price won’t the only factor you base your decisions on.

Remember, not all medical billing companies are the same. Demand the best for your practice. But, if you only focus on price, you will get what you pay for.

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