Pediatrics in a Medicaid environment
A day of a pediatric practice dealing with NJ medicaid HMO's. I have been in practice for 25 years in NJ. I have spoken to numerous physicians, administrators and academicians about practice management. No 2 will give you the same advice, and to top it off all the articles in journals and webinars are relevant to practices that are largely third party payor supported. My practice is a majority medicaid inner city practice. Here are my 2 cents worth on the daily issues in our practice. To start " what was good yesterday is not the same today". When patients show up for their visit you need to check eligibility at that time, invariably that is a 5 min procedure. Then if the dial in verification does not work then you have to call the HMO and get a person on line now its a 15-30 min procedure. Ifs to come another day. Well lets say the patient gets through step 1 and the insurance is certified for this visit. Lets get to step 2. Reviewing chart information for past med...