Daniel Salvatto is a healthcare expert who manages several clinical sites and develops procedures and policies to help healthcare professionals meet federal regulations. He also provides project management for the implementation of EHRs and PMS. Apart from providing revenue cycle management support he also brings to the table strong negotiation skills for clinical acquisitions and better yielding payer contracts. He conducts thorough and accurate market analysis that support practice expansions.
Daniel also has deep experience in implementing and managing the telemedicine department of healthcare organizations. As a skilled healthcare marketing professional, he also has in-depth experience in offering statistical and analytical reports for the perusal of the board of directors of healthcare systems. BillingParadise recently interviewed Daniel Salvatto. In this insightful interview with us, he shares strategies and tips on a wide spectrum of topics ranging from value-based care to managing and mitigating cybersecurity risks.
What are the challenges of a practice manager/administrator of a practice in the current value based environment?
How well can practice managers get prepared for value-based reimbursements?
To be strong financially, physicians and your people should understand the bigger picture. You should give freedom to the physician, and allow them to practice medicine as per their desire.
At the same time, you should balance the desire with reimbursement policies. You should empower your organization with a clear, concise knowledge management system. Your providers should understand the system they work with. Look at the whole picture of vendors, labor inputs, and outcomes and then strategically plan to deliver the highest quality product to them. If the goal is to lower costs, value-based billing methodologies certainly help steer the ship in the right direction. It simplifies the process, almost like capitated payments. Don’t give up one service for the sake of another, when negotiating with your payer. So you won’t end up marginalizing it. Adaptability plays a huge role in reimbursement. You should be communicating daily, weekly, monthly or as long as it takes.
What is your tip for practice managers to face cyber security and disaster recovery threats?
It is always important to audit security periodically. Every organization is conducting annual security risk assessment in the threat environment. However, conduct third-party audits quarterly to ensure you’re updated on the latest requirements. Consistently conduct a weekly audit on your EM and PM. Monitor for changes and communicate with all staff members about the importance of network security.
Always use cloud-based platforms to remain extremely mobile in the event of disasters like Hurricane Harvey or emergency shutdowns.
Also, it will help to save on IT costs, which sometimes become nightmarish.
What are your recommendations for practice managers to meet or exceed quality measure guidelines?
1) Using a Certified EHR
2) Delegating to the right people/company (Choosing the right talent with expertise on your EHR to utilize it to its fullest potential.)
3) Understanding compliance guidelines and ensure you’re compliant (Weekly, Monthly, Yearly audits on EHR, PMS, HIPAA etc)
4) Training (Consistent training to manage quality measures)
5) Monitoring and Review (Constantly monitor and advise to keep them on right track)
Why do you think practice managers should establish revenue integrity programs?
It is important to let the patients know what they owe and what services they are receiving. So revenue integrity becomes inevitable.
In clinics, every patient knows what they owe at the time of service and whether the provider is an in-network or out of network provider. Hospitals should be more accountable in establishing revenue integrity programs. Fees need to be made transparent for the services they are about to receive. If hospitals adopted this hands-on approach to customer service and transparency it would be a game changer.
Outsourcing revenue cycle became inevitable, what is your suggestion if practice managers prefer outsourcing?
Yes, outsourcing is now become the need of the hour. It is advisable to go with co-managed revenue cycle outsourcing.
That way you can play it safe and secure. All billing services are not equal. Remember. You get what you paid for. Always choose HIT-enabled third-party revenue cycle vendor. Make sure they are easy to communicate with and are accountable.
