With only three months away, specifically on October 1st, there are so many important events taking place that are going to for sure, impact doctors in several ways.
On October 1st, the new coding system (ICD-10) will go into effect with some 140,000 new codes and IT compliance issues to adapt to the new coding system.
Also, there are expected to be almost 100% CMS denial of claims first time around with delayed payments up to three months. As of now, there is only about 20% readiness for that major conversion . ICD-10 was already delayed in implementation from October 1st 2014 to October 1st 2015 and that date is confirmed.
So for certainty, it is coming on October 1st with a majority of providers that are not prepared.
Complicating the already decreased reimbursement to many providers that have forced many small hospitals to shut down ironically in rural areas serving the most vulnerable Americans who need healthcare services the most.
Also on October 1st, current credit card processing for machines have to be changed into a new upgraded version which is more secure due to a new chip being added to new credit cards for added security layer.
Additionally, there are daily automated reminders to be prepared for the cost and the consequences which, if your business is not compliant, this will lead to a phenomenon of (liability shift) which means that the financial institution will shift the liability burden onto the businesses. Rather than being a partnership that is mutually beneficial to the small businesses and financial institutions which is that backbone of the economy.
Coming to us also with the recent supreme court decision to uphold the Affordable Health care Act with expecting more millions of Americans to enroll as the program expands and as recently reported, that the cost of healthcare has exceeded the rates of inflation.
To add to the list of fast-changing events, there is a huge expansion of retail medicine with recent CVS chain-ought Omnicare for 12.7 billion dollars in early June. Then on June 15th, CVS chain has bought Target Pharmacy business for 1.9 billion dollars adding 1700 pharmacies to its chain.
With increasing rivalry among corporate giants (Wal-Mart) moving aggressively into health care market as well, retail clinic hiring mostly nurse practitioners as providers, not doctors. Similarly, hospitals are doing the same as well insurance companies to cut down on overhead and maximize their bottom line profit.
All these changes are happening at the same time and unfortunately affecting doctors and their businesses (mostly small) in adverse ways. Also after stating the facts, now we advocate solution being Concierge Medicine or direct-care medicine is the way to go!
As a matter of fact, July has been named the National month of Concierge Medicine. As the final decision will be made by the consumer, who decides where to go for healthcare, and by whom will be cared for, and how much it will cost for the care.
Over the past two decades, we’ve been advocating for patients, and now for fellow physicians who share similar values of transparency, delivering quality healthcare at low costs, doing the right thing for all patients we serve.
I invite all those who are interested in Concierge Medicine to get involved and take charge of their care and career. I welcome any opportunity to collaborate with anyone interested in pursuing the concierge of medicine as the most dignified way to practice medicine.