|
Frequently Asked Questions by Physicians
Concern: I have a working system… why should I make a change?
Answer: At present, 85-90% of medical offices are conducting their overhead operations manually using paper & pen, phone and fax machine. The manual operation has a number of inherent drawbacks and problems such as high labor cost, Human Errors (especially in Billing), in-efficient/time consuming and stressful management control.
P2P Network offers you an Automated Electronic System with 100% accuracy… from Electronic Super bills to Electronic Claims… at a price less than your current manual paper based system!
Concern: I am not ready yet for P2P… or any change in my office.
Answer: This human reaction is called Resistance to Change, which is part of a conservative personality. The more conservative you are, the more you want to delay any change. But eventually, like everybody else, you will make the change. So why do you want to keep on waiting and watch others move ahead of you?
Change is how improvements are made in today’s world.
Concern: What do I loose if I don’t join the P2P network?
Answer: At present, you don’t have much to loose except the benefits offered by P2P network.
| a) |
If you are a Primary Care Physician, you will continue to live with the existing problems caused by in-efficient paper based system and high overhead cost.
|
| b) |
If you are a specialist, you will not be on the Preferred Physician List of your PCPs (who are P2P members). You may start to loose getting referrals from them. |
Cost Related Concerns
Concern: P2P network looks very sophisticated … it must cost me a fortune to join the network.
Answer: P2P network was created to reduce the cost of healthcare industry... not to increase it. Your labor cost savings and new revenue generated through P2P will exceed the cost of P2P software, hardware and services.
Concern: Are there any hidden costs … other than fixed monthly fees?
Answer: MDEC International does not charge you anything other than a fixed monthly fee. However, you may need to buy some 3rd party hardware for your office network.
Concern: I am a solo specialist with one full time office manager (my wife) and one part time employee. We do our own billing. I don’t have room to reduce my labor cost. Why should I join P2P and pay 4% fee?
Answer:
| 1) |
If your part time employee is doing the billing, after joining P2P, you won’t need her/him any more … which results in cost saving.
|
| 2) |
If your wife is doing the billing herself, then P2P will save her the time (which translates to money) she spends everyday manually doing billing, and managing a paper based medical office.
|
| 3) |
As a physician’s wife, her life is already very hectic. P2P will make her life easier. She will not have to double-check all the papers to catch human errors. Remember … she is a human herself. Anybody under pressure is likely to make mistakes.
However, if you still wish, you can continue doing your own billing with P2P software, pay us a reduced monthly fee (only 2.5%) for remaining medical office services, and enjoy all the benefits 2P network has to offer.
|
Concern: I don’t want to pay a fixed monthly fee. Can I just buy P2P software … pay once and then I don’t have to pay again?
Answer: P2P is more than a desktop software program … it is a network for the healthcare industry which offers many services to its members (physicians, patients, research scientists, hospitals etc.). Members pay a monthly fee to receive the on-going services. It is not possible for us to separate the medical office software, as it is not a stand-alone component.
Concern: I have recently bought/upgraded an expensive medical billing system … I want to recover my money before I make a change.
Answer: The money you have spent is gone. Now, you need to compare the monthly cost of using your expensive practice management software, plus the overhead labor cost with that of P2P, and determine if you are recovering your money, or throwing good money after bad. Also, you need to compare your productivity in both cases.
Concern: You are charging only 4% fee for all these medical office services. How would you (MDEC) make any money?
Answer: By automating a large number of overhead tasks currently done manually, we have reduced the total labor cost of a medical office. Our analysis shows that, in long run, we will make reasonable profit.
Billing Related Concerns
Concern: My business depends on insurance billing. I don’t want to take any risks.
Answer: You may not realize, but you are already taking a risk. Your present paper based, manual data entry billing system is less efficient and has much higher risk (due to human errors) than the automated P2P billing system. If you want to reduce your risk, you need to replace your paper-based system (with human errors) with an automated system.
Concern: Billing is very crucial for my business. My employees/billing company is doing a good job. Why should I make a change?
Answer: Whether Your employees are doing the billing, or an outside billing agency, if your current billing system is a paper-based system; it is inefficient and prone to human errors. The loss of revenue due to human errors may not be visible to you. Moreover, the supervision cost of a paper based billing system is much higher than the automated P2P billing system.
Concern: My insurance billing will be done by MDEC International employees. Do they have experience and training to do a good job?
Answer: First of all, P2P software will automate most of the billing related functions performed manually at present. The Electronic Superbill, created by the physician, eliminates the possibility of human errors during manual data entry that currently exist in your system. The only task left to do manually by MDEC employees is payment posting, since insurance companies don’t send electronic EOBs (Explanation Of Benefits).
Our employees have been doing insurance billing for the last 10 years. (At present, we are managing approximately 50,000 insurance claims/year.) Being a Medisoft dealer since 1994, MDEC employees have also been providing Medisoft training (including billing) to its customers’ employees. Obviously, we have given extensive training to our own employees located globally. However, if they are unable to resolve any issues related to insurance billing, our experienced Head Quarter staff can resolve those issues.
P2P Software related Concerns
Concern: P2P software is new… it must have lot of bugs.
Answer: First of all, there is hardly any software application in the world that is bug free, especially when it is new. MDEC International has a very strong Quality Assurance department. (We have built satellites for NASA.) Before releasing our product in the market, we make sure that our software does not have any critical bugs, which could cause any harm. As we continue to develop our sophisticated P2P software, minor bugs will always pop-up (no company in the world can guarantee bug free software), but we can assure you that we will fix any bug as soon as possible.
Concern: Can this new software damage my existing patient data? I am afraid … the P2P software may crash.
Answer: No … not at all. We have thoroughly tested our P2P software before its release. MDEC International has a very strong Quality Assurance department. We have developed software (and hardware) for NASA’s satellites, which has worked very well for years.
Concern: The P2P software may not fit my specific needs … I do many things that are unique.
Answer: The P2P software is still under development. We are adding new features as we get feedback from our customers. We will be glad to customize the software to fit your specific needs.
Concerns about the company … MDEC International
Concern-: I don’t know anything about MDEC International. Can I depend on the company?
Answer: MDEC International has been in business since 1990. MDEC is an Information Technology and Electronic Engineering company providing services to customers like NASA. (We have built satellites for NASA.) We have been providing technical services (software, hardware and networking) to medical practices since 1994. For further information about MDEC, please visit www.mdecinternational.com.
Concern: Are there other networks similar to P2P in the healthcare industry?
Answer: At present no other company in the United States is offering the comprehensive products, services and benefits offered by P2P network … and it is likely that no company will offer in the future. MDEC International has a pending patent on P2P technology. However, there are a number of companies that offer partial solutions to the healthcare industry such as practice management software, billing services, EMR software, EMC services etc.
Concern: MDEC International is a small company … can I depend on it? I feel safe with a large company like WebMD.
Answer: The names of large companies may give you a sense of security, but their brand names do come with a high price tag. Moreover, they may not offer an integrated solution similar to P2P network. MDEC International has provided products and services to customers like NASA since 1990. NASA has depended on us for years… and so can you.
Concern: What is your competition offering to physicians?
Answer: Many companies in the US are offering products and services to medical practices, but all of them have one common business objective – offer sophisticated services and make higher profits. A high upfront cost is another major issue. P2P network’s business objective is very different. There is no upfront cost to you, and we make money only if you save money.
Transition-to-P2P Related Concerns
Concern: Would it be a lot of hassle to make a transition from my existing system to P2P network?
Answer: Fortunately, transition to P2P network will not involve much hassle. MDEC staff will help you to make this transition as smooth as possible. Your efforts will definitely bring you long-term rewards of P2P. Please contact MDEC to have an evaluation done for your medical office.
Concern: We have thousands of existing charts. How would you convert those papers to electronic charts? And how would we search them?
Answer: Converting thousands of paper charts to electronic form is a big and time-consuming task. However, using a high-speed scanner with auto-feeder, this task becomes manageable. Patient paper charts are scanned and stored in P2P database. All scanned pages are linked to rest of the records of the patient. You can select and view any page simply by searching the patient name.
Concern: At present, we are overloaded with work. We don’t have time, or extra people to make any transition.
Answer: Transition from your existing system to P2P will not increase your workload. Instead, it will reduce your workload from day one. The transition will take place in 2 phases. During 1st Phase, your manual billing process will be replaced by P2P automated process. This will result in saving the time of your employees currently being spent on billing related tasks. During 2nd phase, the EMR (Electronic Medical Records) related functions will be implemented. During initial few months, all existing paper charts will need to be scanned. Since your staff does not have billing related tasks any more, they can spend their time scanning those charts. This 2-phase implementation plan will result in smooth transition to P2P system.
Concern: Would I have to re-train my employees to learn new system?
Answer: Since most of the tasks requiring skilled workers have been automated by P2P, you won’t need to re-train your staff. A new worker with basic office skills (answering telephone, making appointments, scanning documents etc.) can learn to use P2P software system within 1 to 2 hours.
Concern: Like all other EMR systems available in the market, would P2P based EMR would slow me down? Would I be able to see the same number of patients/hour as I am seeing now?
Answer: The P2P EMR is neither template based system, nor voice to text conversion type. It is as efficient as writing notes on paper.
Concerns about Patient Acceptance of P2P
Concern: Why would patients adopt P2P network?
Answer: The P2P network provides a number of services to the patients that are beneficial to them. For example, a patient has to fill Registration forms only once by visiting P2P website. His information will automatically get transferred to any medical office computer anytime in the future when he selects a (P2P member) physician for service. For details, please visit our website www.physician2patient.com, and click on the Patients link.
Concern: Not all patients have Internet access. How would P2P work for those patients?
Answer: The patients without the Internet access at home or office can fill-out the registration forms and medical history forms in the waiting room. We highly recommend you to have a basic computer in your waiting room.
Concerns related to Insurance Companies
Concern: My contract with insurance companies does not allow me to charge more than what insurance companies pay. How can I collect the P2P Co-Pay from the patients?
Answer: P2P Co-pay is not a requirement imposed on the patient. They volunteer to choose this service. In return, they get better quality service. More over, they make this payment to MDEC International, and not to the medical practice. MDEC issues a discount to the medical practice for each co-payment received from the patient.
Legal Concerns
Concern: Won’t it be illegal for a Primary Care Physician to charge a Referral fee from specialists?
Answer: The PCP does not charge a referral fee to the specialist. The referral fee is paid to MDEC International for providing P2P services to the specialists. MDEC gives a discount to the PCP for depositing a referral in P2P Referral Pool.
Concern: Won’t it be illegal for a Physician to charge P2P co-pay to the patients?
Answer: The patients make co-payment to MDEC International, and not to the medical practice. MDEC issues a discount to the medical practice for each co-payment received from the patient.
|
