It’s hurricane season – again! It’s been a few years since we’ve had a major hurricane here in South Florida. Have you and your billing service been lulled back into a false sense of security? Because unless you heed the lessons learned from past disasters, your practice is one power-outage away from thousands of dollars in lost revenues.
True story: Right after Hurricane Wilma struck South Florida in October 2005, one Palm Beach County pediatrician was lucky enough to get his power back just a week after the storm (most of the tri-county area was in the dark for a full two weeks). But the building where his billing service was located had no power and the doors were sealed shut. So the doctor spent a week seeing patients amid chaos and confusion – with no support from his billing service and no real way to reach them.
Following Hurricane Wilma, amid the mess of downed trees and missing traffic lights, I spoke with doctors throughout South Florida who struggled with staff absences, computer troubles, nervous patients and their own personal issues. Unfortunately, many also struggled with their ill-prepared billing services or their sub-par server-based practice management software.
In the years since Wilma, many practices have purchased electronic health records (EHRs), and many of these are Internet-based services. But no matter if your vendor is large or small, local or national unless the company has a well-rehearsed disaster plan, your service could be interrupted following the next storm.
Lessons Learned
There will be another hurricane like Wilma, though hopefully not for a long time. Your practice’s goals following the next storm are clear:
- Establish communication lines for both patients AND staff.
- Get access to your appointment scheduler and get your office back open. The priority in the beginning is seeing patients and not necessarily getting claims out.
- Keep careful records so that you can assemble and submit claims as soon as possible.
- Remember your cash flow! If you don’t submit claims for a week or two after the storm, your revenues will be affected the next month.
How can you plan ahead to reach these goals in the event of a hurricane? Here are a few lessons and tips that should help:
If you’re using a billing service, make sure the company has a clear management hierarchy
Your vendor should have personnel with clear responsibilities to the clients and defined lines of communication. Be wary of vendors where the owner is also your main point of contact within the company – or worse, when that person also seems to be doing most of the work for your practice. After a storm, chances are this person will not be focused on your particular needs – they’ll be focused on theirs.
Make sure your vendor has a business continuity plan
What happens if power returns to your medical office, but your vendor’s place of business is without power for another week? What plans are in place for the company to continue serving you?
The Internet is reliable, and the electricity grid is too
The electricity grid is at greater risk than Internet connectivity, but all the major companies in South Florida (FPL, Bellsouth, Comcast) have made significant investments over the past five years to harden their infrastructure. Are you or your office staff prepared to take advantage of the Internet, perhaps from a remote site like an office manager’s home, to get the practice back up and running? Make a plan now.
Make sure your patient and practice financial data is safe
The fact is that your office is not designed to protect computers or data. Lost financial data will ruin a practice. After Wilma, one doctor told me “I turned off the server before the storm, but when I came back to the office, it wouldn’t turn back on!” Don’t let that happen to you.
Is your vendor set up to help you in the immediate hours after the storm?
After a big hurricane, everyone is focused on “getting back to normal”. Is the vendor’s staff large enough and professional enough to lend your practice a hand?
Make sure your vendor can support the “mission critical” needs for your practice.
In the immediate days following a storm, what’s “mission critical” for your practice are your appointments and patient superbills. Paper printouts will allow you to see patients even without electricity. Doctors can document encounters using charts. How can your vendor help you with these items? Without them, your office can’t run effectively.
How does your practice prep for storm season?
Brian Foster is a Director of Client Solutions at CareCloud with over 20+ years in the healthcare industry. Throughout the 1990s he was the Publisher of a specialized trade paper for healthcare industry professionals. Since 2001, Brian has worked as a senior business development professional, helping medical practices to provide the highest-quality patient care while simultaneously improving revenues. He can be reached at BFoster@carecloud.com or (786) 879-9200.
