New Year's Resolutions: - Michigan Optometric Association ...

Ask the Coding Experts
tion Guidelines.
4. Fourth, it’s time to pull out the your
provider agreements for all the insurers
that you are contracted with. Review them
with all the doctors and key staff in your
practice to see which you want to renew,
which ones you want to cancel, and which
may be worth the effort to negotiate improvements.
Don’t wait for a neighboring
O.D. to tell you about the results of her/
his negotiations. Take action on your own
and see how good it feels to tell a crappy
insurance plan that you won’t accept their
meager payments any more, and/or how
good it feels when they actually offer favorable
changes to keep you as a provider.
None of these activities is painful. They
don’t require that you lose weight, give up
your favorite foods or beverages, or take
night classes at the local tech college. However,
every one of them depends upon the
person in the mirror; you; to take the first
steps to ensure that 2012 truly does represent
the light at the end of the tunnel and
not the headlight of a fast-approaching
diesel locomotive! Who knows, the light
may even represent the dawn of a new day
for your practice; peaceful and tranquil;
free from any unpleasant challenges or
threats…Nah! They’ll be there, but you’ll
be able to handle them better, assuming
you’ve completed steps 1-4 above! Bring
on the New Year!
Dr. Brownlow is a Wisconsin-licensed optometrist
with 20 years experience in private eye care practices,
working with both optometrists and ophthalmologists.
He has presented over 400 lectures on
medical record keeping and other practice management
issues in 50 states and has served as a consultant
for several major health care manufacturers,
consulting groups, and insurers. He is the founder
of PMI, LLC.
Dr. Ames is the managing owner of Northshore
Eye Care, a three doctor, two location practice
in Oshkosh & Omro, Wisconsin. He is the
Medical Records Consultant for PMI, LLC.
November/December, 2011
www.themoa.org
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