Status: OR ************************************************************ PRACTICE GUARDIAN NEWS... The Internet & Practice Management. **************************************************************************** ******** Free - Subscribe today Forward a copy to a friend or associate... Submit your www.association site Information today! Issue 11 - November 1, 1999 Main Page http://www.practiceguardian.com Subscribe info@practiceguardian.com To unscribe to this newsletter please forward to consult@ytci.com and include "unscribe" in the text. This newsletter is freely circulated to the health care community. **************************************************** INDEX **************************************************** 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 **************************************************** 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 **************************************************** Practice Management Sites **************************************************** 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 **************************************************************************** ******* 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 insider@scheur.com with subsribe in subject and name, company, email in message http://www.scheur.com ******************************************************************** 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 . webmaster@HMA.com. ******************************************************************** 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 afgnv@erols.com with subscribe in subject **************************************************** PRACTICE TIPS **************************************************** 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 it¹s 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. ******************************** ASSOCIATION UPDATE ********************************** 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: registration@chestnet.org ACCP Web site: http://www.chestnet.org ******************************************************************** 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: psterk@pulmonology.azi.nl 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 latkins@thoracic.org ********************************************************************** HEALTH CARE NEWS ********************************************************************** 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 ChannelHealthís 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 partnersí services will provide significant added value to the ChannelHealth offerings. ìBusy 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,î 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:pantazopoulost@ruderfinn.com TELEPHONE: 212-583-2781 WEB SITE: http://www.channelhealth.com **************************************************** RECOMMENDED NEWSLETTERS & PUBLICATIONS **************************************************** "Managed Care Insider eNews" Published MonthlyFor more information contact: Ms. Nancy Belle, Editor, at nkbelle@erols.comSubscription: Free at insider@scheur.com Focus Point: Managed Care Issues Website: http://www.scheur.com/smghome.nsf/webcontent/ezine.html ³Northwest Physician Magazine² Published Monthly Questions Contact Editor: Ms. Debbie Baldwin 1-800-697-6241 Yearly Subscription: Focus Point- Practice Management & Physician issues. ³The Health Care Collector² 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 ³The Credit Connection² 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. ³American Medical News² 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 ³Physican¹s Marketing & Management² 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 ³In Confidence² 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 **************************************************************************** ** NATIONAL HEALTHCARE ASSOCIATIONS (A TO Z) **************************************************************************** ** Academy of Operative Dentistry Contact: Dr. John Reinhardt john-reinhardt@uiowa.edu 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. marisab@amsus.org http://www.amsus.org Healthcare Financial Management Association (HCFMA) For More Information call: (800)252-HFMA (4362), ext. 362 e-mail tarya@hfma.org.  http://www.hfma.org Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA)(Managed Care) For more information call: (925) 746-5100 Focus Point: Email: bcarter@iha.org. 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: wcurry@acpe.org 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: registration@chestnet.org 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 latkins@thoracic.org http://www.thoracic.org **************************************************** PRACTICE GUARDIAN NEWS Practice Guardian News is published monthly. Send all inquiries to attention editor at (219) 583-4234. E-Mail info@practiceguardian.com 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. **************************************************************************** **