Finding Freedom to Focus
2020 ICD-10 Changes Are Coming
Happy ICD-10 Day! OK…that’s not an official holiday. But it’s important to remember that the ICD-10 code set is updated each year and with those updates come changes that eye care providers and their teams need to know about. Thus,...
20 Ideas to Delight Patients and Staff with Your Practice Reopening
The reopening of your practice presents an opportunity to welcome back employees and patients in an enjoyable way, even in the midst of fulfilling cumbersome processes due to COVID-19 guidelines. On our recent webinar, When Life Gives Yo...
Emergency Telehealth Coding Changes Preview the Evaluation and Management Guidance for 2021
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said “Change is the only constant in life.” While he didn’t have coding for telehealth in mind during the 6th century BCE, it seems the coding guidance for these visits changes every few days. ...
Is Your Practice Ready to See Me?
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, I have three healthcare appointments to reschedule when practices in my home state reopen. And I’d like to share a secret with you: I’m not looking forward to it. It’s natural to think patrons of a ...
Paycheck Protection Program Loan Forgiveness Application Released
On May 15, 2020, The Small Business Administration (SBA) and Treasury Department released an application for business owners to fill out in order to have their Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans forgiven. Click here here for more in...
Heightened Scrutiny Against Phishing Attempts During COVID-19
The ongoing pandemic has presented an opportunity for cybercriminals to deploy phishing attacks, preying on the public’s fears and increased frequency of communicating on digital channels. It is important to treat each email, text or c...
Top 10 Ways to Stay Healthy, for You and Your Patients
Canton, GA If you've never heard of the “Freshman 15”, it refers to gaining weight (15 lbs.) during one’s freshman year of college due to bad habits of eating, drinking, sleeping, partying, and well...almost everything. These last ...
Reopen with Renewed Focus on Protecting Patient Privacy
RevolutionEHR Director of ECP Services Have you ever gone to an appointment of your own as a patient and observed a number of things that made you uncomfortable? Perhaps when you checked in you didn’t like the idea of writing your name...
New Round of SBA Bank Funding Available!
Updated: 04/27/2020 Rebooted with an additional $310 billion in funding, the SBA resumed accepting Paycheck Protection Program applications from participating lenders as of Monday, April 27, 2020 at 10:30am EDT. For more on this news and...
Medicare Accelerated and Advance Payments Program
In order to increase cash flow to providers of services impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, CMS has expanded the Accelerated and Advance Payments Program for the duration of the public health emergency. This program is available now, and ...
MIPS Tips: A Checklist for 2020 Success
RevolutionEHR Director of ECP Services The start of a new year is often a time to reset mentally, personally, professionally, and beyond. On the professional front, one thing that many optometrists have come to expect as the calendar fli...
Top 5 Fears of Switching Optometry EHR Software
VP of Business Development, RevolutionEHR If you’re like 70% of optometry practices, you have software in your office that encompasses everything an eye care business needs, from scheduling and billing, to optical and exams. Likewise, ...
3 Common Misconceptions About Patient Engagement
Director of ECP Services, RevolutionEHR Creating bonds between your practice and your patients has never been more important than it is today. Local competition has always been a consideration, but today’s eye care consumer is subjecte...
What Do BTS, Parkways, and ICD-10 Have in Common?
Director of ECP Services, RevolutionEHR If you’re anything like me, you’re wondering three things right now: 1) Who is BTS and why are they so popular, 2) Why do we park on a driveway and drive on a parkway, and 3) What changes might...
The 3 Critical Elements You Must Consider When Choosing Your EHR
Choosing an EHR software is one of the most important decisions you’ll make for your eye care practice. To ensure your EHR will serve you well for years to come, pay close attention to these critical elements: Industry - New rules and ...
How to Start an Eye Care Practice from Scratch – Part 3
Dr. Courtney Dryer shares her step-by-step approach to a successful cold start. Dr. Courtney Dryer began her own practice in Charlotte, NC after deciding that working for someone else was not her dream. With her Autarchic Spec Shop, she ...
How to Start an Eye Care Practice from Scratch – Part 2
Dr. Courtney Dryer shares her step-by-step approach to a successful cold start. Dr. Courtney Dryer may well be the poster child for the DIY start-up. “I wasn’t really mentored,” said Dryer in an interview at Autarchic Spec Shop, he...
How to Start an Eye Care Practice from Scratch – Part 1
Dr. Courtney Dryer shares her step-by-step approach to a successful cold start. Dr. Courtney Dryer began her independent practice, Autarchic Spec Shop, six years ago in Charlotte, NC after realizing she wanted more control over day-to-da...
CPT and HCPCS Updates for 2019
Director of ECP Services, RevolutionEHR We’ve all heard the story of the ICD-10 fairy. As lore has it, each year she sneaks into EHR databases, adds a bunch of new codes, renames others, and even deletes a few with hopes of making our ...
3 Keys to a Successful Optometry EHR Switch
Wichita Optometry, PA, Wichita, KS At some point in our lives, we all have to make a decision to end something – whether it’s good or bad. In his book, Necessary Endings: The Employees, Businesses, and Relationships That All of Us Ha...
4 Successful Examples of Cause Marketing to Inspire Your Practice
EyeBridge Consulting Associates Cause marketing, which is when a for-profit business and a non-profit organization align for mutual benefit, not only aids the cause you support, but also adds value to your business. Research has found th...
Cause Marketing – A Smart Strategy for Your Practice
We’ve all been there…a patient asks you to sponsor the upcoming 5K and put your logo on the event t-shirt or place an ad in the yearbook or the homecoming program. Why do we say yes when we really want to say no? What if we could say...
4 Ways to Increase Your Profits Through Multiple Pair Sales
twelve84 Success Consultant Every person with an optical prescription should have more than one pair of eyewear, whether it's a pair of sunglasses, readers, or a backup pair of glasses. It's easy for eye care providers to identify the ne...
Caring for Patients with Dry Eye: Tips and Tricks
Warren Eye Care, Racine, WI We all know that there are many types of dry eye, from good old evaporative dry eye to dry eye related to poor meibomian gland dysfunction, inflammatory dry eye. The treatment for each is similar but yet sligh...
MIPS 2019 – Your Path to a Raise from Medicare?
Director of ECP Services, RevolutionEHR For many, the end of Meaningful Use (MU) and the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) represented a time to breathe a sigh of relief. “Finally,” many proclaimed, “I can stop worrying abo...
ICD-10 Update: The Year of The Eyelid
Director of ECP Services, RevolutionEHR Ask people here in the northeast part of the country to name their favorite season of the year and you’re likely to hear many pick fall. Something about the leaves changing, the World Series, and...
Optical’s Illusion: The Future of Retail & Medical Eye Care
The eye care industry is currently focused on retail and the optical as the primary drivers of growth. Key players in the market leverage their manufacturing, and supply chain prowess in a race to the bottom. As more and more industry pl...
Maximizing Efficiencies with Multiple Locations
Wichita Optometry, PA, Wichita, KS The mindset of many colleagues who are optometrists first and then business owners, is that adding locations only adds problems and doubles expenses. Conversely, I’ve found that a second location allo...
Don’t Ignore the Needs of a Growing Practice
Wichita Optometry, PA, Wichita, KS One thing I’ve learned as a parent is that you can’t ignore the needs of a growing child. From purchasing bigger shoes and clothing to fit their growing bodies to stocking the fridge and pantry with...
Technology Time Savers
Midwest Vision Care of Columbia, LLC These days the to-do list is never ending. To spend any quality time doing enjoyable things, it is important to be as efficient as possible. Using technology in your practice is one way to shave off t...
Storytelling in the Medical Record
InSight Eye Care, Oshkosh, WI A medical record is intended to be an accurate and complete legal document describing a single patient’s medical history, exam findings, and treatment plan by a provider. We, as the providers, need to unde...
5 Best Practices for Scheduling Patients
Midwest Vision Care of Columbia, LLC As business owners it is easy to spend the day running around being the telephone repairman, janitor, HR department and accountant. With so many hats, small things can slip through the cracks. However...
Back to Basics
InSight Eye Care, Oshkosh, WI Every so often, a wave of letters from insurance companies will show up in doctors’ mail boxes across the country. The intent of these letters is to show doctors their distribution of comprehensive (920x4)...
Top 10 FAQs for Opening a New Optometry Practice
RevolutionEHR Director of Professional Relations Along with the excitement of going into business for yourself, there’s often a bit of apprehension. Sound guidance and tips from someone who's already successfully traveled the journey o...
Strategic Coding
InSight Eye Care, Oshkosh, WI With a new year, we typically find ourselves making commitments to “do better” in life, exercise more, spend more time with our family, etc. Could we maybe add proper coding of our medical records to the...
Who Are You Trying to Impress with All Those Diagnosis Codes?
InSight Eye Care, Osh Kosh, WI As optometry became more advanced and we took on the care of more and more ocular disease, our lists of diagnoses continued to grow…and GROW! As good historians, we seem to feel obligated to list every di...
Starting from the Ground Up
A Guide to Opening a New Optometry Practice Opening a practice cold or buying a practice is a very challenging, yet rewarding adventure. There are many ways to go about this business opportunity, however you must have two key elements to...
5 Reasons Cloud-Based Software is a Perfect Fit for My Busy Life
Complete Eye Care of Medina, Crystal, MN I am a busy mom, practice owner and doctor. One who also works part-time and is constantly evaluating systems that make my life easier. If something can enhance my staff’s abilities and/or make ...
Top 5 Scheduling Tips for a Busy Optometry Practice
Complete Eye Care of Medina, Crystal, MN In practices today, efficiencies must constantly be analyzed for greatest profitability. One of the biggest inefficiencies is the come-and-go of patients. Schedule them too closely and you run the...
Top 5 EHR Efficiencies for an Independent Optometry Practice
Complete Eye Care of Medina, Crystal, MN Electronic health records data entry and management can sometimes place a burdensome load on both staff and doctors. However this issue can be eliminated if time is taken to ensure the EHR is bein...
5 Frequently Asked Questions about EHR Certification in 2018
Director of ECP Services, RevolutionEHR The most recent standard for CEHRT was originally intended to be required for 2015, which means that the most modern CEHRT status attainable is called “2015 Edition CEHRT”. In reality, however,...
3 Steps to Becoming a Practice Leader
The topic of “leadership” has intrigued me for many years, particularly as it relates to eye care practices. Leadership is often thought about in terms of official titles or positions, but I have found that true leadership is a much ...
Don’t Get Bullied
When mail comes from an insurance company, I expect it will be a check and checks make me happy. But when it is something else, it always seems to be something that makes me unhappy. I have found that “news” from a third party payer ...
Is Your EHR Vendor Holding You Hostage?
You’ve done your due diligence, watched videos, sat through a few demos, chatted with existing users and perhaps even done a site visit. Finally, you’re ready to make the move to another EHR/PMS software solution for your practice. T...
Are You Old School?
Vision Source of GVR, Denver, CO “Paper charts? That’s so old school!” is what I often hear when I discuss the benefits of using electronic health records (EHR) with students at private practice club meetings across the country. It...
Are You a Good Doctor?
As an optometrist, I have always thought I do a good job. I listen to my patients' concerns, use high tech equipment, work with a very talented team and make strong recommendations. I have always tried to honor our mission statement by c...
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