Updated Payor Profiles

NEW (8/1/11) - CMA released new profiles on all the major payors: Aetna, Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield of California, CIGNA, Health Net, and United Healthcare.  These profiles include: key contact names and addresses for medical directors; provider relations and claims inquires; up-to-date information on market penetration; links to reimbursement and medical policies; and instructions for accessing the plan's provider dispute process. Free to members. Request them from SCCMS.

Medical Waste Management

Have you had an inspection by the County of Santa Cruz Health Service Agency Environmental Health office recently? If not, it may be to your advantage to have an inspection done. Celia Brown is the county person is charge of this area. She is very nice & knowlegeable but, most of all, she is out to help you save money! One of our members' office recently had an inspection and was VERY pleased both with Celia and the money she saved the practice.  See these 6 pages of information then call Celia and make an appointment.

CMA's Best Practices Toolkit

This is a wonderful 139 page document aimed at solo/small group practices.  This is a member only benefit.  Any physician member can login to this web site or the CMA web site to download this fantastic toolkit.

Vacation v PTO

Do you understand the difference between vacation/sick leave time and Personal Time Off (PTO)?  Melissa Irwin, from TPO-HR, wrote a 1 page article to explain the differences so you can choose which type of benefit is better for your medical practice to offer the employees.

Vacation PTO article

Records Retention Chart

One member of our Practice Mangers group teaches in the Medical Assistant program at Cabrillo College. This chart is from the program's textbook, Insurance Handbook for the Medical Office. The chart is a guideline; perhaps your physician's specialty organization has more specific information on certain types of files.

Records Retention Chart

Legal Compliance Regulations

Both Federal and State laws require compliance based on employer size. The following list sets forth those laws and the employee level for coverage. In most cases, both full-time and part-time employees should be counted in determining coverage.

Legal Compliance Requirements by Employer Size
Chart is courtesy of Melissa Irwin from TPO-HR.

What is the HITECH Act?

The HITECH Act is the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, and it appropriates approximately $19.2 billion in federal stimulus funds to accelerate the adoption of electronic medical records and the interoperability of health information technology. The federal stimulus funds are to be disbursed throughout the years 2009 through 2013. lt;/p>

This document is a great summary of the Federal HITECH Act
Summary is courtesy of Pacific Medical IT.

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