Advancements in health IT have come to encompass a wide range of specialized EHR functionalities, including tools designed to address various specialty-specific documentation needs. However, many EHR and Practice Management (PM) solutions remain limited in this regard. A 2015 survey found that 77 percent of respondents were working with EHR solutions that were not designed for, or suited to, their specialties. The same study also found that 80 percent of physicians at the time were dissatisfied with their current EHR solutions. How things have changed in just five short years.

Welcome to the second half of our two-part blog series on Boling Vision Center (BVC), and how their practice not only survived but thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Part 1, we focused on how they created a safe and enjoyable patient experience by developing new processes and services in addition to modifying old ones. In this blog, we will examine how they were able to cost-effectively achieve record numbers by executing an aggressive social media and community outreach initiative during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The COVID-19 outbreak caught many in the healthcare community off guard. In very short order, many practices found themselves scrambling to adjust to new protocols, processes and regulations. Some succeeded more than others, of course. At Nextech, we closely monitored the impact of the pandemic on our practices to gain as much insight as possible and to learn how to meet the changing needs of our users. For months, we have been conducting interviews, insight surveys and case studies with our clients to gain an understanding of which tactics are working, as well as which ones are not and we are doing our best to share these findings with our readers.

With EHR systems on the rise, the need for medical scribes has rocketed to an all time high. While some providers feel comfortable documenting their own medical encounters, the majority have incorporated medical scribes to document while they tend to patients, allowing for more face time. This rise in demand has left practices scrambling to acquire or train more scribes. Yet another element of difficulty, in the current healthcare landscape, is that many practices are also still struggling with staffing issues as a result of furloughs brought on by COVID-19. Training and promoting in-house seems like the clear solution, but it is often a difficult task due to the amount of time required to train each individual, as well as the lack of organization and consistency behind the training.

We are now three-quarters of the way through 2020, and I think most of us can agree it’s been a doozy of a year so far. While the COVID-19 pandemic has received the lion’s share of attention over the last six months or so, there is another widespread threat that many have neglected to notice—a surge in cyberattacks. Many of these attacks have been aimed at various organizations in the healthcare industry, making an already rough situation even worse for many practices and hospitals.

Last year, we posted a blog to discuss how the right EHR software can and should reduce physician and staff burnout. The world has changed a lot since then, needless to say. However, burnout among healthcare providers is still a very serious issue. According to a 2020 Medscape report on Physician Suicide & Burnout, 42 percent of responding physicians reported feelings of burnout. While this is a 4 percent overall drop from five years ago, it is still a fairly high amount. Of the physicians who participated, the highest levels of burnout were seen among specialty providers.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released its proposed 2021 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. Among the proposed items are a number of significant changes to the Quality Payment Program (QPP) for next year. To make sure your practice knows what to expect with these new changes, here is a list of just some of the more notable items:

Starting today, August 3, 2020, CMS is resuming suspended medical reviews as well as initiating new audits. While this should merely be a return to business as usual for MIPS providers, it is important to note that this resumption of CMS audits will now continue regardless of the status of the current public health emergency. To help our readers get ready, we thought this would be a good time to offer a quick refresher on preparing for and surviving a MIPS audit. For reference, check out our new eBook Winning the Game: Surviving a MIPS Audit.