PROFILE

Dr. David Arnold has been a practicing chiropractor for nearly 35 years. He has six full-time staff members in his Rockingham, North Carolina practice, where he sees 45 to 50 patients each day.

THE CHALLENGE

The software Dr. Arnold had been using was becoming more and more difficult to work with and limited to only billing. With this narrow functionality, his staffs were spending a great deal of time on documentation and record keeping, putting time and resource constraints on the entire practice.

Dr. Arnold was sometimes unable to make enough time to jot down important notes or to give his patients the additional attention they needed. With so many manual processes involved, insurance reimbursement delays were often 60 days and more, with some bills even slipping through the cracks.

As a result, Dr. Arnold started looking for new software about two years ago.

SOLUTION

After much research and product testing, Dr. Arnold and his office manager, Katherine, selected RAPID Complete. She says that the only other product they were considering was QuickCharts™, but, it was like comparing apples to oranges. While QuickCharts™ was good, RAPID was “head and shoulders above it.”

“We reviewed about seven to eight other products and there was just no comparison.” says Katherine. “ACOM Health was the only clear choice for us – it offered the whole package, integrating both record keeping and billing into a single solution.”

Additionally, the practice wanted a product that would provide them with a professional edge in an already competitive industry – a product that would provide a polished and comprehensive end result to insurance companies, personal injury attorneys and more.

Its final decision to select ACOM Health was based on the following:

• Ability to combine billing and record keeping
• Easy to use for doctor and staff
• Exceptional customer service and training
• A checks and balance system that virtually eliminates errors
• Providing polished and comprehensive records to insurance companies, other healthcare professionals and attorneys
• Ability to enable them to easily qualify for the EHR stimulus payments

This product has simply put us way ahead of what other practices are doing and it shows.

EASY IMPLEMENTATION AND PEAK PRACTICE PERFORMANCE

The transition to ACOM Health was nearly effortless. Like using any new product, there was a learning curve, but time spent was minimal. The videos and demos were easy to follow, taking front office staff only a few days to grasp how to use the new software. There was virtually no downtime that affected the daily operation of the practice.

“This product just makes things so much easier with existing patients,” Dr. Arnold says. “The process is much quicker and the end result is so much more polished. And enhancing our professional appearance with insurance companies, other health care professionals, and personal injury attorneys was definitely a goal that we wanted to meet; we have achieved it.”

Dr. Arnold, Katherine and staff have found RAPID delivers a number of big benefits to their practice:

• Time saved: The practice has saved about 2.5 hours of paperwork on each patient record produced for insurance and attorneys, saving a total of 50 to 75 hours monthly.
• No red flags: Many practices complain that its notes are not complete enough and are often red flagged by insurance companies. They found ACOM’s sophisticated drop down menus, interactive visual helpers, intelligent graphics and editing notes a vast improvement in the quality of diagnostic notes. As a result, Dr. Arnold’s practice rarely receives insurance challenges, and can meet them head-on when they occur.
• Faster payments: The practice went from an average payment time of 60 days to under two weeks.
• No paper filing: Not only were time, space and paper saved, nothing is ever misplaced and the ability to instantly access information has increased client response time ten-fold.
• Eliminated billing errors and unbilled treatment: The checks and balances in place between the billing and records systems make it possible to be accurate all the time. All treatment is documented and billed, nothing slips through the cracks.
• Improved patient relations: The implementation of Rapid now allow Dr. Arnold to spend more time achieving his goal of delivering the best patient care possible.
• Better reports and complete documentation. With over 80 on-demand reports and the ability to customize their own, they now have the information they need; extensive information for treatment follow-up and for satisfying insurance claim processing requirements. A win-win for all, with insurance companies commenting they are the best they’ve ever seen… from any provider.
• Improved professional image: Not only have insurance companies and personal injury attorneys been impressed by quality of their documentation, patients are responding positively to the advanced systems as well.
  “This product has simply put us way ahead of what other practices are doing and it shows.”

It has made us money, improved productivity, saved time and improved our overall image. We just can’t ask for anymore than that.

FINAL RESULTS

Dr. Arnold is happy to report that even with the difficult economic times his practice has actually increased its revenue and recently had its best year ever. He attributes a significant portion of this success to RAPID. “This product has simply put us way ahead of what other practices are doing and it shows,” he says.

Katherine agrees, and said that the product has not only improved the practice’s overall professional image, but has provided so many other benefits as well. “Overall, RAPID has helped us to improve our professional image. Patients see how easily their records are updated and insurers and personal injury firms are amazed by how complete and detailed the documentation is.”

“It has made us money, improved productivity, saved time and improved our overall image. We just can’t ask for anymore than that.”

In a nutshell, this product makes you stay on your toes. It’s kind of like your mother telling you to pick up your shoes – you know you have to do it, but you don’t. RAPID ensures you do it. It’s the brain of the practice and every practice should have it. It will make a practice run at its best. It has made us money, improved productivity, saved time and improved our overall image. We just can’t ask for anymore than that.”

AN $18,000 BONUS – THE GOVERNMENT EHR ADOPTION INCENTIVE

Katherine worked closely with ACOM Health to achieve and demonstrate meaningful use needed to collect on the EHR incentive payments from the government. “The training and coaching programs were comprehensive and easy to understand, and the personal support and resources were more than I could have asked for,” explains Katherine.
Katherine was happy the process of achieving meaningful use was not an additional burden and said “meeting the government EHR incentive requirements was simply a non-issue. We just used RAPID as we were trained and the incentive payments followed.”

The practice qualified early for the incentive and has already received its first maximum payment of $18,000. “While receiving this cash was exciting,” says Katherine, “it was not the driving force behind purchasing RAPID. The cash was a terrific bonus – kind of like an awesome Christmas present and it was fun to make it happen.”

When other chiropractors ask Katherine about the EHR incentive program, she recommends ACOM without hesitation because, “The incentive program is great and incentive checks come in quickly with RAPID, but just working with RAPID is even more fun! When you put billing and records together, that’s when the practice runs at its best. But if billing and records don’t interact with each other, then you’re not running an optimized practice. That’s why I think every chiropractor should have ACOM.”

ABOUT ACOM HEALTH

ACOM Health provides chiropractors with comprehensive software and service offerings that enhance efficiency, significantly reduce costs, and increase revenue. Built especially for Chiropractors, ACOM Health’s RAPID Software Suite sets a new standard with Interactive EHR Clinical Notes and Documentation; and Practice Management for workflow automation, patient management and scheduling, financial management, billing and detailed reporting. Practices are also offered the option of outsourced billing and receivables management through ACOM’s Revenue Cycle Management Service. ACOM delivers Total Practice Performance with its suite of solutions; helping chiropractors meet medical necessity, address compliance requirements and accelerate the reimbursement process.

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