Client Success Stories
Dunbar Medical Associates, PLLC
The Challenge
- Tedious documentation and time-tracking requirements
- Lack of EHR functionality for patient-centered care planning
- Manual processes taking up 20-30 hours each month
Dunbar Medical Associates, PLLC, a large primary care practice in West Virginia, was unsure how to implement Medicare’s CCM program. Nancee Barnette, the practice administrator, knew that their clinical staff was already providing many of the services that qualify for reimbursement but recognized that their EHR did not have an efficient way to document or track the required information: patient enrollment, care planning, and the number of minutes spent on non-face-to-face care coordination services.
Regardless of these administrative obstacles, Dunbar’s leadership team recognized the significant value CCM could bring to their patients and the practice’s financial health and decided to jump right into the CCM program. They hired a full-time nurse to provide proactive outreach to help patients stay healthy in between office visits. The practice decided to start with one CCM nurse who used Microsoft Excel to track CCM time spent with each patient. Frustration set in six months into the program because they had enrolled 300+ patients but were only achieving 20+ minutes of time for a fraction of the patients each month. Since there was no way to track CCM from the patient chart, the CCM nurse had to toggle between the EHR and Excel, which proved extremely inefficient.
The Solution
- EHR-integrated care management platform
- Automatic time tracking from the patient chart
- Automated billing reports at the end of each month
Barnett was looking for an easier way for her clinical staff and CCM nurse to document time and engage patients. They were impressed by TimeDoc’s EHR-integrated CCM solution because it allowed their team to track CCM minutes inside the patient’s chart and automatically aggregate CCM minutes, removing the need for their nurse to go into each patient’s chart and transfer the CCM minutes from Excel.
In addition to time tracking, Barnett and her team were excited about the automated billing report that TimeDoc generated at the end of the month. The CCM nurse no longer had to manually figure out which patients were over 20 minutes and dig through the chart to find the billing team’s information. TimeDoc trained their entire clinical staff on using the platform in one 45-minute session and provided the CCM nurse with additional training sessions on how to provide consistent, quality CCM services using TimeDoc’s care plan templates and care modules.
Closing Care Gaps in Colorectal Screenings
The Challenge
A large community health center based in the Chicago area contracted with TimeDoc Health to virtually deliver chronic care management and remote patient monitoring. While managing these patients, it was noticed that 10% of the patient population had an open gap for colorectal cancer screening. Colorectal cancer screenings have proven critical for early identification. In fact, over the past 15 years, both the incidence and mortality rates for colorectal cancer have dropped by more than 30%, with a substantial portion of the improvements attributable to widespread screening programs.
The Solution
TimeDoc Health had been working on a new care management module for closing care gaps and saw this as an opportunity to pilot the module while driving value to the client’s patients and practice. The goal of this program was to get the colorectal cancer care gaps closed and make sure the patients had their screenings scheduled or FIT tests ordered.
In a matter of four weeks, the TimeDoc team was able to close over 70% of colorectal cancer screening gaps by leveraging a new platform capability and care management workflow designed to support patient care gap closure. This new feature enables care coordinators to easily identify open gaps in care and get them closed quickly with focused patient outreach and engagement.
Patient Success Stories
Improving Quality of Life
During their monthly engagement, a patient reported to our care manager that she had over 20 falls in her bathroom over the past six months but was embarrassed to tell her primary care provider since she could not afford the supplies to prevent this.
After the care manager notified the primary care physician, she found a medical supplier who could assist in getting the patient’s grab bars covered through insurance if she was able to provide proper documentation. The care manager worked with the physician’s office to obtain paperwork and get the vital safety equipment within that month. The patient has reported a huge increase in quality of life since she no longer has to live in fear.
Reducing Hospitalizations
During a routine care call, a patient mentioned to our care manager that he couldn’t take oxygen for over 48 hours because his concentrator was broken. He mentioned that his BiPAP machine was also not working properly, causing him to wake up feeling suffocated in the middle of the night.
Our care manager quickly arranged a temporary concentrator to be delivered to him within a few hours to start oxygen treatments immediately. She also worked with his primary care team to order him a new concentrator and BiPAP machine, covered under his insurance, so he did not have to pay out of pocket.
