It's already started out to be very busy week. From preparing my guys (and gals) for accreditation, to my staff and myself going to seminars out of town. There are a few seminars in Phoenix and Tucson this week that look to be beneficial. Denice and Patti will be heading to Phoenix tonight for a seminar on Billing and Coding, then Keith and I will be heading to Tucson on Wednesday evening. Our seminar is going to cover a ton of things from audits, collections, accreditation and so on. Being that I haven't been to Tuscon is several years, Ryan (my 12yo) is going with me and Friday were going to ride Mt. Lemmon on our bikes.
So of course I feel the need to address that final comment. Oxygen Concentrators and CPAP do actually cap. With Medicare, a patient owns their cpap machine after 13 months of rental payments. With Oxygen, we are paid a monthly rental for 3 years and then for two more years we are required to care for the patient and the machine at no cost. Now I'm sure there are those that think DME companies are a fleecing of the system. Used to maybe. In the 90's, DME companies were making money hand over fist. There was no cap on oxygen. You could bill for oxygen forever. But in today's world of almost constant medicare cuts, for what we are required to do, we are reimbursed very little. When a Blue Cross patient gets a cpap machine. It takes 9 months worth of payments just to pay for the machine.
In an effort to keep up on service, my drivers are in almost every town in two counties twice a week. This includes Cibecue, Holbrook, and Concho as well. No other company up here can guarantee a St Johns patient two oxygen deliveries a week. Sure we lose money when it comes to driving and delivering, but our patients rarely have to wait very long for any product. So when it comes to reimbursement........after filling our tanks (oxygen and vehicle), vehicle wear and tear, buying the product, paying my staff.......we make very little. On top of that, never will one of our patients have to decide between paying their utilities or paying for their oxygen. We make it work. There's no way I'm going to ask someone on a fixed income, to go broke in order to breathe.
Finally, here's one thing to think about. Thanks to HIPPA I can't use any names but I was fortunate to do an oxygen set up this past weekend on a physician. I say fortunate because the talk we had was so meaningful. This guy has one of the biggest hearts (no physically) I 've ever seen. We talked about the importance of listening, raising kids, treating patients, work ethic and so on. I loved listening to this guy. He had so much to share and sure seemed willing to talk so I soaked it all in.
He asked me, "Do you know the average time a doctor listens to his patients then finally interrupts and starts writing?"
I had no idea what the answer was. He told me that he once had a patient bring him a reader's digest article on the very subject. The article stated that on average, a patient gets to talk to a doctor for 18 seconds before the doctor starts writing. From that day on, he said he never had a pen in hand while talking to his patients. Isn't that just friggin awesome!!!
Ok, now to the Challenge. I'm still holding at 177 and had a pretty decent weekend. I rode the trainer for an hour on Sunday and did ok with the diet. I had hoped to be a little more strict, but when you have two really close football games, ya gotta eat a little:).
I see the lovely Farrah Fawcett has finally blessed us with a number. And look at Super X!! 8.42%!! Dang!! I'm impressed
My goal for the week is to be 174 by Friday. We shall see. I'll be in Tucson so I won't be able to weigh in until Saturday, but I of course will let you know.
So for now. You all have a super day. It's gosh darn cold outside!!!
I don't think I've ridden this road since visiting a friend in college. All I remember is that it goes up and up and it's a kick in the butt when coming down. The weather is supposed to be beautiful so I'm really looking forward to a good day riding with Ry.
I mentioned last week how some of our surveys have started to arrive. Just wanted to share a few of the comments sent, remember these are all sent without patient names so we have no clue who returns them to us.
"You've done a great job! Everyone on your staff has always been helpful and pleasant. I hope I haven't been discharged as I see myself continuing to need your services"
"I wish all the companies we deal with were as good as you."
"Excellent Company"
"Each of you are true health care professionals. Your service impeccable!!"
"If a patient is a long time customer, concentrators and cpap should be written off after a certain time span. Insurances pay off several times over. "
So of course I feel the need to address that final comment. Oxygen Concentrators and CPAP do actually cap. With Medicare, a patient owns their cpap machine after 13 months of rental payments. With Oxygen, we are paid a monthly rental for 3 years and then for two more years we are required to care for the patient and the machine at no cost. Now I'm sure there are those that think DME companies are a fleecing of the system. Used to maybe. In the 90's, DME companies were making money hand over fist. There was no cap on oxygen. You could bill for oxygen forever. But in today's world of almost constant medicare cuts, for what we are required to do, we are reimbursed very little. When a Blue Cross patient gets a cpap machine. It takes 9 months worth of payments just to pay for the machine.
In an effort to keep up on service, my drivers are in almost every town in two counties twice a week. This includes Cibecue, Holbrook, and Concho as well. No other company up here can guarantee a St Johns patient two oxygen deliveries a week. Sure we lose money when it comes to driving and delivering, but our patients rarely have to wait very long for any product. So when it comes to reimbursement........after filling our tanks (oxygen and vehicle), vehicle wear and tear, buying the product, paying my staff.......we make very little. On top of that, never will one of our patients have to decide between paying their utilities or paying for their oxygen. We make it work. There's no way I'm going to ask someone on a fixed income, to go broke in order to breathe.
Finally, here's one thing to think about. Thanks to HIPPA I can't use any names but I was fortunate to do an oxygen set up this past weekend on a physician. I say fortunate because the talk we had was so meaningful. This guy has one of the biggest hearts (no physically) I 've ever seen. We talked about the importance of listening, raising kids, treating patients, work ethic and so on. I loved listening to this guy. He had so much to share and sure seemed willing to talk so I soaked it all in.
He asked me, "Do you know the average time a doctor listens to his patients then finally interrupts and starts writing?"
I had no idea what the answer was. He told me that he once had a patient bring him a reader's digest article on the very subject. The article stated that on average, a patient gets to talk to a doctor for 18 seconds before the doctor starts writing. From that day on, he said he never had a pen in hand while talking to his patients. Isn't that just friggin awesome!!!
Ok, now to the Challenge. I'm still holding at 177 and had a pretty decent weekend. I rode the trainer for an hour on Sunday and did ok with the diet. I had hoped to be a little more strict, but when you have two really close football games, ya gotta eat a little:).
I see the lovely Farrah Fawcett has finally blessed us with a number. And look at Super X!! 8.42%!! Dang!! I'm impressed
My goal for the week is to be 174 by Friday. We shall see. I'll be in Tucson so I won't be able to weigh in until Saturday, but I of course will let you know.
So for now. You all have a super day. It's gosh darn cold outside!!!
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