Medicare Annual Wellness Visits, Better Than EMR? Yes!

Most providers use their EMR to perform their Medicare Annual Wellness Visits.  Doing what everyone else is doing should be an alert to take another look why your practice is using your EMR.  Using your Annual Wellness Visit in your EMR is not free-it is costing the practice money – the question is, is it worth it?

Provider Costs

The provider typically is short-changed when using the EMR.   Once the HRA is collected, the provider sifts through the EMR grid to see how to counsel the patient. The EMR  requires providers to understand what the score on every validated assessment means.  Is a 5 on the PHQ-9 high or low?  The EMR doesn’t generate a patient care plan.  Providers must take time to write up the patient care plan in addition to adding notes and approving scripts and services.  Unfortunately, providers can only do one thing at a time.  These inefficiencies eat away at clinic profitability, slow the provider from seeing more patients in a day, and require your clinic as a whole to work harder.

Billing Costs

The lost revenue in the billing department often signals the clinic to reevaluate the meaning of ‘free’. When performing the Annual Wellness Visit within your EMR there are many compatible billing opportunities your practice misses.  The revenue margins for the AWV are slim.  So, by not adding CPT codes, your clinic is most likely losing money with every patient as well as any HEDIS/MIPS benchmark penalties.  If incurred there will be an additional 9% off the top of the risk of payers rejecting your claims.  With an EMR, benchmarks gaps are known after running a report – after the patient has left the building.

ThoughtSwift Difference

ThoughtSwift’s color-coded report is evaluated by the provider in 2 minutes or less.  Providers quickly know what needs to be discussed in the exam.  And more importantly, what doesn’t need to be discussed, saving the provider’s time.  ThoughtSwift provides an automatically generated HRA and Patient Care Plan removing the burden and time of writing the care plan.  Our patient care plan speeds the process of patient notes.  All these little efficiencies add up to seeing more patients.  One additional patient per day can bring $26,000 by the end of the year to one provider.  Not only more capacity but more billing per exam.  ThoughtSwift adds multiple compatible codes so your practice earns more with every visit. Care gaps are revealed when the patient is in front of the provider protecting your benchmark scores.  All reports are delivered in the EMR inside the patient’s chart.  ThoughtSwift provides a free evaluation.  If we can’t help your practice, we won’t start.

If you want to evaluate whether or not ThoughtSwift is good fit for your practice, contact us at www.thoughtswift.com.  ThoughtSwift Annual Wellness Visits can provide many advantages over your EMR we are happy to answer your questions.