Christie Administration Recognizes the Need to Reduce Regulatory Burdens for Medical Practices

This week, in response to the efforts of MSNJ, the Christie Administration acknowledged in a press release the need to reduce regulatory burdens on physicians to bend the cost curve of healthcare delivery in New Jersey. The administration’s Department of Banking & Insurance (DOBI) Commissioner, Tom Considine, and key members of his staff visited the medical practices of five MSNJ members to observe first-hand the challenges of meeting administrative requirements imposed by insurance carriers. MSNJ President Niranjan (Bonki) Rao expressed the thanks of the organization for DOBI’s interest in how physician practices operate and for an ongoing dialogue.

Commissioner Considine indicated that the visits were an “eye opening” learning experience to see the administrative side of medical practices. He further indicated that he felt that improvements could be made. Commissioner Considine stated that:

Our healthcare providers are on the front line of the healthcare system and as such we value them very deeply. . . . My goal is to work with them and our insurance carriers to do whatever we can to bring down the costs of healthcare.  We are all looking for ways to achieve maximum efficiency in the system and that means all parties must work together to eliminate unnecessary steps. 

The DOBI press release noted recent efforts to reduce the administrative burden of medical practices, including: a new regulation allowing obstetricians to elect installment payments instead of a global payment for maternity services; a bulletin to remind insurance carriers that once services are preauthorized they must be paid for except in cases of fraud; and forums on the implementation of exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.

DOBI also noted other areas under review, including: strengthening provider agreements; improving the credentialing system; clarifying the reimbursement system; and improving provider directories. MSNJ has been engaged in ongoing efforts on these issues.

MSNJ’s CEO expressed the organization’s pleasure in coordinating DOBI’s efforts to observe the administrative hurdles that physician practices face on a day-to-day basis. MSNJ appreciates the time and effort expended by the five members who hosted site visits.

PRACTICE MANAGEMENT: New Revenue Management Tool for MSNJ Members

MSNJ, with help from Laura S. Tarlow, MBA, CMPE, developed a new practice management tool for our members. With continual economic pressures on every practice, it is easy to understand that every charge for every service and billable product counts towards the bottom line of your practice. Charge capture is one of the many important steps in managing your practice’s revenue cycle.

Adding a monthly charge capture audit tool to your office routine will assist you in capturing every billable event in a timely manner. With a commitment to the routine audits it will create an awareness and increased accountability by the office staff and providers that charge capture is important to the practice’s bottom line. Automating the tool to the degree your computer systems allow, makes this monthly task easier. Patterns may evolve with repeated use, which give you the opportunity to identify the root causes for the errors and to put into place corrective action. It will also create internal benchmarking statistics of how well you perform charge capture each month. The goal with the tool is to control as much of your practice charge submission operations as is possible to enable you to make the most of this revenue cycle management step.

This tool is free for members and is available for purchase by non-members for $125.00. Members may enter a contest to win a free consultation to set up the tool for your office. Enter by emailing the Member Resource Center at info@msnj.org with subject line “MPMS Tool Contest.” Contest ends November 30, 2011. Read more: [  Members  ]  [ Non-members  ].