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PRACTICE GUARDIAN NEWS...
The Internet & Practice Management.
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Free - Subscribe today
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Issue 11 - November 1, 1999
Main Page
http://www.practiceguardian.com
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INDEX
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PRACTICE MANAGEMENT SITES
.........Healthcare Internet.com
.........Managed Care Insider eNews
.........Healthcare Management Advisors, Strategy Advisor
.........Gerontological Nurse Ventures, P.A.
PRACTICE TIPS
The art of solving mail returns
ASSOCIATION UPDATE
....AMERICAN THORACIC SOCIETY NEWS BRIEF
.American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) Update.
HEALTHCARE NEWS
....Alliances with HealthStream and MD Consult
RECOMMENDED NEWSLETTERS & PUBLICATIONS
NATIONAL HEALTHCARE ASSOCIATIONS (A TO Z)
EDITORIAL INFORMATION
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In 90 Days - In House Collection System
Are you interested in the resources to collect existing practice
delinquencies? Managing receivables is an art form. Using the right tool to
increase patient response can reduce loss cash flow and create positive
results without injuring your patient's pride. Designed to improve patient
relations! Turn loss into cashflow without a third party.
http://www.practiceguardian.com/main.html
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Practice Management Sites
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Healthcare Internet.com
http:www.healthcareinternet.com
Healthcare Internet services provides healthcare organizations consulting
services in the areas
of relationship marketing and sales training, coding and billing
training,executive internet training, marketing and business plan
development, web redesign and consulting.
For more information contact:
Charlotte Piontek, President (972) 393-0867
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Managed Care Insider eNews
http://www.scheur.com
The Managed Care Insider eNews is a
free monthly publication for healthcare professionals and providers
wanting information, insight, and analysis of the managed care industry.To
subscribe,visit the site at
http://www.scheur.com or send
email to
[email protected] with subsribe in subject and name, company,
email in message
http://www.scheur.com
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Healthcare Management Advisors, Strategy Advisor
http://www.HMA.com/sa11/
HMA's team of MD, JD, RN, RRA, CPC, CFE and CPA consultants perform
corporate-wide risk assessments, DRG and CPT benchmark analyses, and focused
compliance audits for hospitals, physicians and attorneys
nationwide. The firm's free Strategy Advisor email newsletter provides
timely news summaries for Practice Managers, CFOs, Compliance Officers and
others involved in healthcare management. To subscribe, go to www.HMA.com
[email protected].
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Gerontological Nurse Ventures, P.A.
http://www.jwger-nurseventures.com
Joanne Wilson's Gerontological Nurse Ventures, P.A. is proud to
sponsor a monthly ezine to express news, views,systems, skills, and tools to
assist any health care provider serving the post-acute arena.Typically the
post-acute arena serves nursing homes,
sub-acute facilities,assisted living, adult day care and any other
service geared toward the continuum of care in elder care. Health care is
constantly changing.Regulations and reimbursements can play havoc on any
health professional/provider servicing this industry.
Geri-Nurse Views provides health care news
updates/summaries,regulatory updates, and discussions on:
PPS (Prospective Payment System),MDS (Minimum Data Set),HCFA Initiatives
Compliance Issues,Restorative Care, Assessing Competencies
Weight Management Programs,Quality Improvement, Management and Leadership
skills,Nursing practice, Assisted Living And other related topics
http://www.jwger-nurseventures.com/scripts/subscribe.cfm to subscribe or
send email to
[email protected] with subscribe in subject
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PRACTICE TIPS
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The art of solving mail returns
Mail returns can be the nemesis of all health care professionals. Finding a
patient who has changed address without notifying the practice can be time
consuming and nonproductive.
Your patient information worksheet can be your best friend or worst enemy.
Often, it is the only feasible avenue for the health care collector. This
data must be complete and provide
the collector with another resource to bill the patient.
Here are a few tips in reorganizing your patient information
worksheet. Your worksheet should contain the following:
1. Emphasize all pertinent patient information including social
security number and date of birth (DOB) .
2. Social Security Number of Spouse (If Married)
3. Employer Information
4. Next of Kin information
5. Emergency contact information
6. Responsible Party Information
7. Insurer Information
8. Insurance assignment
Do not forget to check the form for accuracy and incomplete data
with the patient.
In today's practice, time is money.
Eliminating any financial risk to the business side of the practice is
crucial to cash flow. Practice skiptracing one or hundreds of accounts can
not be financially justified. Eventually, the patient account costs more to
collect than it�s original balance. For example, deducting account
depreciation, lost interest and the internal costs of labor and paper, the
$100 account after nine months turns into the $9.90 delinquency!
The right tool for the right job!
TransUnion Healthcare can provide an instant and professional solution to
skip tracing or credit reporting the patient without
the use of an outside third party collection agency. The process is
fast, easy and justifies your collection efforts.
TRACE SM. is one of TransUnion Healthcare finest skiptracing products. The
process utilizes the patient's social security number to locate and confirm
current or previous addresses. Telephone
information is also provided on the report.
Trace Sm provides six possible names associated with the
social security number, the last known three addresses and the date reported
on the patient's current and first previous address.
Determining good risks from bad!
If you are interested in optimizing your lending and
credit granting policies ScorePlus another product
from TransUnion Healthcare and MediFax Informaiton Network could be your
wisest investment this year. The automated system delivers credit scoring
and customer information on open accounts, update portfolios to reduce
overall writeoffs and your credit decision. This is a new product from the
newly formed partnership with TransUnion Healthcare and MediFax Information
Network.
For more product information contact:
TransUnion Healthcare at
1-888-396-8361
MediFax Information Network at
1-800-444-4336.
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ASSOCIATION UPDATE
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Future sites of CHESTNet ACCP's Annual Meeting and the Clinical World
Congress on Diseases of the Chest
San Francisco, CA October 22-26, 2000
Philadelphia, PA November 4-8, 2001
December 1-3, 1999
Cardiac & General Thoracic Surgery: Update
St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands
CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
You are invited to submit your original investigative work for presentation
at the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) 11th annual update:
Cardiac & General Thoracic Surgery, December 1-3, 1999. This is your
opportunity to present your work to and learn from an international audience
and faculty of cardiac and general thoracic health-care professionals,
including surgeons, physicians, perfusionists, and nurses. Join hundreds of
participants and attendees from around the world at a luxury beach setting
for this essential update.
Abstracts must comply with the directions for preparation. Submission of an
abstract constitutes the author's commitment to present the abstract as
accepted. Expenses associated with the preparation, submission, and
presentation of an abstract are the responsibility of the author/presenter.
For more information about these courses please contact:
The American College of Chest Physicians
Member Services
3300 Dundee Road
Northbrook, Illinois 60062
Phone: 800-343-2227 or 847-498-1400
Fax: 847-498-5460
E-mail:
[email protected]
ACCP Web site:
http://www.chestnet.org
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For release: Thursday, October 21, 1999
AMERICAN THORACIC SOCIETY NEWS BRIEF
Experimental Rhinovirus Infection Causes Asthma Exacerbations
In the first study of its kind, U.S. and Dutch researchers have shown that
asthmatics injected with a cold virus (rhinovirus 16) have increased airway
obstruction. Twenty-seven adult, nonsmoking subjects with mild asthma
participated in the study. Nineteen patients were inoculated with rhinovirus
16 (RV16), while eight participants received a placebo injection. All
subjects recorded their one-second forced expiratory volume (FEV1) test
results at home three times per day, wrote answers to cold symptom
questions, and described symptoms of asthma from four days before
inoculation to 11 days afterwards. The investigators measured airway
sensitivity with a histamine challenge test three times over the study
period.
Writing in the October issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and
Critical Care Medicine, P.J. Sterk, M.D., Ph.D., Departments of Pulmonology
and Virology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands,
together with four associates, said that recorded values for FEV1 decreased
significantly after RV16 injection. From the day of injection to day three,
the lowest FEV1 level showed a significant association with cold symptom and
asthma scores.
The investigators believe the RV16 infection led to an increase in airway
inflammation, as characterized by cellular infiltration of the airway wall.
The inflammation was accompanied by a release of proinflammatory mediators,
which led to airway smooth muscle contraction, widening of the arteries
(vasodilation), and vascular leakage. This development caused an abnormal
collection of fluid in spaces between the cells (edema) and airway wall
swelling.
The researchers also believe that once-per-day use of FEV1 recording in the
home, could be a sensitive, early indicator of virus-induced exacerbations
of asthma. Adopting this procedure would allow patients to start
bronchodilator or anti-inflammatory therapy earlier when a cold strikes.
Contact: Professor P.J. Sterk, M.D., Ph.D., Lung Function Laboratory, C2-P,
Department of Pulmonology, Leiden University Medical Center, P.O. Box 9600,
NL-2300 RC Leiden, Netherlands. Telephone: 31 71 526 3261; Fax: 31 71 515
4691; E-mail:
[email protected]
For the complete text of this article or more information please see the
ATS Journals Online Website at
http://www.atsjournals.org. To request
complimentary journalist access to the articles online, or if you would like
to add your name to the ATS monthly mailing list, please contact Lori Atkins
at (212) 315-6442, by fax at (212) 315-6455, or by e-mail at
[email protected]
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HEALTH CARE NEWS
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Alliances with HealthStream and MD Consult Provide Online Continuing Medical
Education and Medical Information Content
BURLINGTON, VT, October 19, 1999 , ChannelHealth, a subsidiary of IDX
Systems Corporation (Nasdaq:IDXC), today announced the expansion of its
Internet offerings through partnerships with HealthStream, Inc. and MD
Consult. These new alliances will allow physicians to access continuing
medical education (CME) courses and peer-reviewed medical information as
well as practice management and clinical tools directly from their desktops
on ChannelHealth�s Physician Channel. ChannelHealth was organized this year
to provide Internet services to physicians and patients that focus on the
local and personal nature of healthcare.
The Physician Channel provides the tools to incorporate the Internet into
the daily practice of medicine. According to Pamela Pure, Chief Operating
Officer for ChannelHealth, these partners� services will provide significant
added value to the ChannelHealth offerings.
�Busy physicians will no longer have to manually track their CME credits or
launch into various sites for research information. Now, along with the
workflow and productivity tools in the Physician Homebase, the HealthStream
and MD Consult services will be incorporated into one easy-to-access
desktop. We expect the Physician Channel to positively impact both the
quality and efficiency
of the practice of medicine,� said Pure.
For full-text news release, click link below.
PRESS CENTER - TEXT AND HIGH RES PHOTOS:
http://wrtsun03.wrtech.com:8898/ows-bin/owa/pr201?coin=7164&cl=ChannelHealth
Courtesy ChannelHealth
REPLY TO: mailto:
[email protected]
TELEPHONE: 212-583-2781
WEB SITE:
http://www.channelhealth.com
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RECOMMENDED NEWSLETTERS & PUBLICATIONS
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"Managed Care Insider eNews"
Published MonthlyFor more information contact:
Ms. Nancy Belle, Editor,
at
[email protected]: Free at
[email protected]
Focus Point: Managed Care Issues
Website:
http://www.scheur.com/smghome.nsf/webcontent/ezine.html
�Northwest Physician Magazine�
Published Monthly
Questions Contact
Editor: Ms. Debbie Baldwin
1-800-697-6241
Yearly Subscription:
Focus Point- Practice Management
& Physician issues.
�The Health Care Collector�
Published Monthly by:
Aspen Publishers
Questions contact:
JoAnn Petaschnick , Editor
414-462-0278
FAX 414-462-7547
200 Orchard Ridge Dr.
Gaithersburg, MD 20878
Yearly Subscription: $197
Focus Point: Collections
�The Credit Connection�
Published Quarterly by:
Wisconsin Clinic Credit Managers
Association (WCCMA)
Questions Contact:
Support Services - Deen Clinic
Ms. Teresa Addison, Editor
608-250-1121
1808 W. Beltline Highway
Madison, Wisconsin 53725
Yearly Subscription: $35
Focus Point: Medical Collections, Accounts
Receivables, Federal & State Regulations.
�American Medical News�
Published weekly by:
American Medical Association (A.M.A.)
Questions contact:
A.M.News Staff
312-464-4429
515 North State Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
Yearly Subscription:
(Free with AMA Membership)
Focus Point: All Medical/Socioecomonic Issues.
Web site:
http://www.ama-assn.org/public/journals/AmNews/AmNews.htm
�Physican�s Marketing & Management�
Published monthly by:
American Health Consultants Inc.
Questions contact:
Managing Editor, 404-282-7436
3525 Piedmont Road N.E.
Atlanta, Georgia 30305
Yearly Subscription
Focus Point: Medical Management
�In Confidence�
Published Bimonthly by:
American Health Information
Management Association (AHIMA)
Questions contact:
Ms. Jennifer Carpenter. RRA
Professional Practice
312-787-2672
919 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 1400
Chicago, Illinois 60611-1683
Yearly Subscription: $90
($75 with membership)
Focus Point: Health Information,
Patient Privacy & Information
System Security
Web Site:
http://www.ahima.org
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NATIONAL HEALTHCARE ASSOCIATIONS (A TO Z)
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Academy of Operative Dentistry
Contact: Dr. John Reinhardt
[email protected]
Website :
http://www.uiowa.edu/~aodweb.
American Academy of Family Physicians
For More Information call:
(816) 333-9700
Web Site:
http://www.aafp.org
American Academy of Pediatrics
For More Information call:
(847) 228-5005
Web Site:
http://www.aap.org
American College of Cardiology
For More Information Call:
800-253-4636 ext.697, or 301-897-5400, ext.697)
http://www.acc.org
American Dental Association
For More Information call:
(312) 440-2500
Web Site:
http://www.ada.org
American Medical Association (A.M.A.)
For More Information call:
(312) 464-5000
Web Site:
http://www.ama-assn.org
Association of Managed Care Dentists
For More Information Call:
310-4553-3439
http://www.dentalgroup.com/amcd.
Association of Military Surgeons of the United States (AMSUS)
For more information call:
(301) 897-8800 ext. 20.
[email protected]
http://www.amsus.org
Healthcare Financial Management Association (HCFMA)
For More Information call:
(800)252-HFMA (4362), ext. 362
e-mail
[email protected].�
http://www.hfma.org
Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA)(Managed Care)
For more information call:
(925) 746-5100
Focus Point: Email:
[email protected].
Web Site:
http://www.iha.org
Medical Group Management Association
For More Information Contact:
(303) 799-1111
FAX (303) 643-4427
Web Site:
http://www.mgma.com
The American College of Physician Executives
For More Information Contact:
[email protected]
813-287-2000,
http://www.acpe.org
The American College of Chest Physicians
For more information call:
1-800-343-2227 or 847-498-1400
Fax: 847-498-5460
E-mail:
[email protected]
http://www.chestnet.org
The American Gastroenterlogical Association
For More Information Contact:
http://www.gastro.org
The American Thoracic Society
For More Information call:
212/315-6442
Fax 212/315-6455
[email protected]
http://www.thoracic.org
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PRACTICE GUARDIAN NEWS
Practice Guardian News is published monthly. Send all inquiries to attention
editor at (219) 583-4234. E-Mail
[email protected] The subjects and
written examples in this newsletter are for general use only. The publisher
and author do not accept any responsibility or liability in regards to
misuse or misinterpretation. A qualified attorney should be consulted in all
matters concerning practice management.
Visit Practice Guardian.Com website today at
http://www.practiceguardian.com
Copyright 1999, MJB Consultant.
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