Six Sigma Blogs

If you are looking for the perfect home organization plan, consider starting small and working your way up to the larger projects. A few simple tips will get you on the way to home organization at its finest.

Tip 1: The organizing of the house starts in the kitchen

The cutlery and utensil drawer should at the very least have a plastic tray in there to help organize and protect everything. These liners cost no more than ten dollars and will help keep your utensils, cutlery, and even your tools more organized and in much better condition

Tip 2: You are going to need more shelves. The best way to give yourself this extra storage and space is to install shelves yourself. These are inexpensive and most hardware stores sell them in prefabricated packs so that all you need to do is get your 18v cordless drill (a necessity in every home) There is nearly always somewhere to place the shelves in the house.

Shelves provide the added bonus of giving you somewhere to place the extra items that do not fit. Any organization task is not complete until you are left with a whole lot of random items, some of which you can never bring yourself to throw out. It’s OK - this is normal

Tip 3: Organize your books and stop keeping that which you are not using or reading or referencing. Space is a commodity so use it wisely.

DVD towers are a great addition to any loungeroom and the range of styles and colors make it easy to keep your collection organized and still look great.

Tip 4: You always need space, not just for storage so think wisely about what you keep and what you don’t.

When storing away your seasonal clothes, don’t just hang them in the closet until next year. Instead, purchase a large plastic lidded storage tub and place your seasonal clothes neatly inside. It will save a lot of space. Place the storage tub in the floor of your closet and label the tub according to the clothing inside.

Tip 5: Using your power tools to create more space is essential, as is owning your own 18v cordless drill.

Are you always losing pens and/or pencils? If so, consider using a coffee mug for neat and easy storage of your pens and/or pencils. Everyone has a coffee mug and this is a much more whimsy way of storing your writing utensils rather than a typical pen/pencil holder.

Tip 6: be smart about your organization and do it for what is going to work in your life, not the average person - as most tip books are written for.

You need to throw away old magazine and newspapers, as well as give to charity any books you no longer read. They take up a lot of space!

Tip 7: space and your organized home

Keep your legal documents together, organized and in a safe place - preferably somewhere under lock and key

Tip 8:

If you have any items that you no longer want, consider donating them to a local non-profit agency. This will save space and you will be doing a good deed.

Tip 9:

In order to avoid clutter, it may be necessary to throw away certain types of mail. This may include credit card offers, but don’t just throw them out without first shredding the letters.

Tip 10:

Show some common sense and keep your power chords organised and well away from children etc. Not only is it a tripping and safety hazard, it also just looks messy and takes away from everything we have done so far.

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With the Holiday Season being full of shopping, house cleaning, attending parties, hosting parties, family needs and more, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. While everyone seems to love the festivities, I’m sure most of us are glad they are over and we can finally breath.

Actually, I think most people feel overwhelmed a good majority of the time, regardless of the time of year. There is so much commanding our attention that it can be extremely difficult to stay focused and get things done.

It’s been said that over 3,000 advertising messages are brought to our attention a day. With all of these messages comes the skill of tuning things out around us, which we have perfected.

We communicate faster than ever. Our inboxes are constantly at full capacity. Our cell phones constantly chirping breaking our focus. You may have said “The check is in the mail,” but not in today’s world! It barely means a thing now. In fact, newer generations might not even know what that means.

Because this this lightening fast lifestyle, you indefinitely have customers, patients or clients who want things done instantly. Not tomorrow or the next day, but this minute. This type of service is expected in this life and it’s also expected that we can provide it.

It’s no wonder we feel like we can’t keep up! We can’t!

Luckily, our clients seem to be in the same boat and can’t get their work load completed on time either. When our clients initially call us, it’s because they are looking for a quick fix to their problems. They want a solution to their marketing woes so they can focus on what’s really important to them, which is whatever is what they do best and that’s not necessarily marketing. They want to be able to pass on the work and have someone else take charge and get it done. Our customers want their marketing strategy to be stress-free, cost effective and easy. They don’t want any worry, hassles or excuses.

This is something all clients want, even yours. Provide an EASY solution to your clients hurdles. Show your clients how you can save them money, worry, time, stress, blood, sweat and tears with whatever it is you specialize in. We make our clients’ lives EASIER with our Ready2Go Client Contact. We can also provide EXTREME EASE to their marketing with our one-on-one consulting.

Provide your clients, patients and customers with an EASY solution and show them how EASY you are to work with. You will be their business angel in disguise. This will make your life and their life EASIER and HAPPIER.

Kathy Jiamboi has 14+ years expertise in Relationship and Direct Response Marketing and is CEO of Creativedge Marketing and Ready2Go Client Contact, in Cleveland, Ohio. Ready2Go Client Contact, a done for you program allows her customers to smoothly and swiftly build client affinity. She provides FREE expert marketing tips to anyone looking to get more customers.

Besides a satisfied current customer, the next easiest person to sell your products and services to is a referral. Referrals can be an inexpensive source of new revenue. They come to you pre-qualified and pre-sold, will typically spend more money, and will refer others to you since they were referred.

So how do you get them? The best and easiest way to get a referral is to ask for them when the client is most receptive. Most often this time is when they are “basking in the glory” of their purchase. That sounds simple. Yet many businesses don’t take advantage of this untapped “word of mouth” resource.

The best way to gain referrals is to put a multi-step referral process into place within your business.

First, make a list of all of the ways you can communicate to everyone you are in contact with, ie: friends, family, clients, vendors, competitors, groups you are a member of, etc. Then, devise how you will connect with these groups and ask for referrals. If you can establish a few processes of getting referrals, you will receive far more than you are now. Think about how that might effect your business. Also, think about how much time and money you will save from not having to prospect and market to new clients.

Here are a few ideas to get referrals-

Give something for the referral. If you can’t give something away, offer a free service or offer to make a donation to a their favorite charity in their name.

Give your new referral services or products at discount on behalf of the person who referred them.

After your client has provided you with a specific number of referrals, offer them a special deal or discount.

Have your clients agree that if they are 100% satisfied at the end of their transaction that they will provide you with two referrals. But don’t forget to follow up on their promise!

Create a list of business and/or individuals you may want to do business with and see who among your circle can introduce you to them or better yet refer your services to them.

Ask your clients to pass out cards with their name on it to their friends and family highlighting your services. Each time a card is redeemed, your referrer receives a reward or discount towards their future business with you.

Send your client some type of thank you gift to their office. When others see what they have received, they will inquire, leading to referrals.

Offer a stepping-stone referral plan. The more referrals the client provides, the more rewards they receive. This works well because usually if a client refers once, they will refer again.

There’s a chance a lot of your business is already coming from “word of mouth.” With a referral plan implemented, this gives you the opportunity with a inexpensive, easy way to get new business and increase business and profits.

Is your business utilizing a referral program right now? If it’s bringing you success, we’d love to hear about it.

Kathy Jiamboi has 14+ years expertise in Relationship and Direct Response Marketing and is President of Creativedge Marketing and Ready2Go Client Contact, in Cleveland, Ohio. Ready2Go Client Contact, a done for you program, allows her clients to simply and swiftly boost client affinity. She provides FREE expert marketing tips to anyone looking to gain more clients.

Twitter will be very consuming. Maybe you will have already figured this out? You spend a few hours attempting to try and do some analysis for a replacement website, or want to try and do a report for college, or are trying to discover a product online. However you are finding yourself chatting away on Twitter more than doing anything that you should be doing.

Many high users can call this a “twittiction”. This is often where you are dependent on Twitter and cannot get anything else done as a result of it. Deadlines pass by while not getting completion, school grades fall because you cannot get to bed, or don’t finish your homework. Or you fail to see a superb business deal as you were too involved watching your Twitter stream roll by. A Twitter addiction could roll out of hand if you allow it to .Beat Twitter Addiction With These Easy Plans.

1. Set Sure Times To Tweet By

If you find yourself having to atone for the most recent Twittering occurring, and it’s interfering with your work, then set certain times during the day when you can catch up. Every three hours or approx, you’ll be able to set a point in time of 15 minutes to reply, check DM’s, and add what you are up to. This can help to end the constant craving.

2. Reduce Mobile Tweeting At Home

Several folks take Twitter with them. Portable applications, and sending tweets as text messages, help feed the fuel of your Twitter addiction. Whereas you cannot leave your transportable applications behind, leave it in your purse, laptop bag, or pocket instead of having to look at Twitter all the time. Attempt to keep to the 3 hour rule as much as you could even when you’re mobile.

3. Take A Twitter Leave of Absence

Every once in awhile, to make yourself reacquainted with the big wide world, take a few days, or perhaps a few weeks away. This manner will keep you free from Twitter addiction. Believe me, the globe would still be there once you fire up your Twitter software again. Each once in awhile take a while just to move away from the constant desire to update, reply, keep messages current and making an attempt to stay up with everything going on. Take a while to breathe.Take It One Step At A Time.

A Twitter addiction doesn’t have to be a painful thing. Take your time, drop by drop to curb your addiction and start tweeting normally instead of compulsively. Get pleasure from your Twitter networking and you may soon see it under control once again.

Learn how to grow your business with twitter and other tools with carbon copy pro advice right now.

Neil Ashworth is a successful internet marketer who teaches people How to Get Rich using a fool proof, step-by-step marketing system. Grab a totally unique version of this article from the Uber Article Directory

It’s important to know how many physicians your medical billing company serves, because it gives you an idea of the company’s scale — and in this industry, scale is key.

For instance, If a $150,000 per year billing system administrator is required, then a medical claims billing company with 200 clients only needs each of its client to carry $750 per year of that person’s cost. If a practice of four providers employed this person, then each provider would need to carry $37,500 per year of that person’s cost; this is the value of scale. A medical practice can achieve significant advantages by leveraging the superior scale of a mid- to large-sized medical insurance billing company.

A good medical company uses resources and technology that stand-alone medical practices can’t afford to support. Here are some examples of such resources and technology:

- A state-of-the-art billing system, offering advanced reporting and claim management capabilities. Such systems are often too expensive for a small to medium sized medical practice to afford; so they select a sub-standard system that they can afford.

- A pre-submission claim scrubber that applies the payers’ adjudication rules before the claims ever leave the medical insurance billing services four walls.

- Competent billing system managers, who stay up-to-date with the regularly-changing rules used by payers. A good system manager can help you collect on claims caught up in the system because of changing rules.

- Advanced collection tools, such as predicting payment yields from patients (such as the amount the patient owes times the likelihood they’ll pay).

- Deep rosters that won’t slow down when the company loses a single employee (which most practices are likely to experience).

- A dedicated group of individuals that follow-up on claims that have not had a response from the payer within a reasonable time frame.

These and other advantages show that most medical practices can’t afford the personnel and technology to match the services that a good, properly scaled medical billing company provides.

Most of the costs of maintaining these technologies and procedures are fixed, so medical billing companies tend to distribute the costs among their clients. This is why bigger medical billing companies can afford to serve practices better than smaller ones. Smaller medical billing companies may struggle to simply keep up with developing industry technology.

In conclusion, selecting a medical claims billing company that has the scale to deploy sophisticated technology and processes can provide the average medical practice a huge advantage in terms of their ability to do battle with the payers that are working hard to keep every penny they can.

Copyright 2009 by Carl Mays II

Are you sure your insurance companies are paying you according to your contracts? You may be surprised to know that it’s unlikely that they are. The average medical practice loses approximately five to ten percent of their collections because most insurance underpayments are never pursued or even identified.

A recent National Health Insurer Report Card compiled by the American Medical Association measured payment accuracy of seven major payers: Aetna, Anthem BCBS, Cigna, Coventry, Human, United Healthcare and Medicare. All of these payers to some degree strayed from contracted payment rate.

The worst offender was United (did not pay contracted rate in 38.4% of cases), followed by Cigna (did not pay contracted rate in 33.8% of cases), Aetna (did not pay contracted rate in 29.2% of cases), Anthem BCBS (did not pay contracted rate in 27.9% of cases), Humana (did not pay contracted rate in 15.8% of cases) and Coventry (did not pay contracted rate in 13.3% of cases). Even Medicare missed contracted payment rates in almost 2% of cases.

Tracking these underpayments is tricky. If you watch many different medical practices, you’ll find the same CPTs receiving underpayments, at around the same deficiency, from the same payer, and around the same period of time. But after a month, you may find the payer playing the game with different groups of CPTs to avoid being spotted.

Most underpayments aren’t substantial when considered one by one, but they can accumulate to thousands of dollars in the long run for any medical practice. Payers use a combination of switching the CPTs being underpaid every month and keeping underpayment amounts too small to attract notice, which makes these underpayments hard to spot.

Medical billing services may have difficulty finding these underpayments without comparing them with your contracted rates, as well as dealing with multiple procedure complications properly. Dealing with multiple complicated tables can be a challenge.

Billing services (and medical practices with their own in-house billing solutions) need to get and utilize industry technology to identify and correct underpayments. Most systems today are incapable of providing a workable solution.

Despite the complexity, however, it is worth solving this problem. Comparison of payments to allowables can increase a medical practice’s collections by 5 to 10 percent. This of course requires a strong process, powerful reporting technology and ability to track complex procedures methodically-in the end, it can however add thousands of dollars to your bottom line.

2009 copyright by Carl Mays II

Carl Mays is President and CEO of ClaimCare, a medical billing company that services clients across the nation. Carl is an expert in medical billing and physician practice management. He has an MBA from Wharton and a BSE from Princeton University.

A recent Medical Group Management Association survey showed that medical practices utilizing medical billing companies typical see improved performance across multiple dimensions. The survey focused on practices that used medical billing companies instead of in-house billing solutions.

Here are some of the interesting facts that the survey revealed:

- 73 percent of practices using medical billing companies reduce their AR;

- 73 percent also received higher collection rates;

- About three in every five practices have fewer denied or lost claims;

- 59 percent enjoyed significantly better reporting and practice performance insights; and

- Almost half experienced better staff productivity.

The MGMA study found that more than three out of every four practices that employ the services of a good medical billing company enjoy impressive improvements in productivity and performance. This confirms the long-held notion that utilizing a medical billing company improves a medical practice’s performance.

Some of the more obvious benefits of using a medical billing company include the following:

1. Medical billing companies have more scale to purchase and deploy the technologies required to properly submit claims, battle with insurance companies and collect personal balances.

2. A medical billing company can attract a higher caliber of billing specialists and retain these individuals.

3. Medical billing companies keep a deep bench of employees, so their clients don’t have to deal with the risk of losing a key billing employee from an in-house billing solution.

4. Billing companies are better positioned to properly utilize the technology they have.

5. Medical billing companies have a broader view of the medical industry as a whole because they deal with many different medical professionals at the same time. This knowledge helps them deliver better services to their clients.

If you’d like to see the survey for yourself, check the MGMA website.

Copyright 2009 by Carl Mays II

Before deciding upon a medical billing service be sure to visit ClaimCare’s Website. It provides in depth information about outsourcing medical billing. Carl Mays is a national renowned expert on medical billing operations and revenue cycle management.

A recent Medical Group Management Association survey showed that medical practices utilizing medical billing companies typical see improved performance across multiple dimensions. The survey focused on practices that used medical billing companies instead of in-house billing solutions.

The survey found that for practices switching from in-house billing to a medical billing company:

- Almost three in four practices that use medical billing companies reduce their AR;

- 73 percent realized higher collections;

- About three in every five practices have fewer denied or lost claims;

- 59 percent cited improved reporting and practice performance insights; and

- Almost half experienced better staff productivity.

The MGMA study found that more than three out of every four practices that employ the services of a good medical billing company enjoy impressive improvements in productivity and performance. This confirms the long-held notion that utilizing a medical billing company improves a medical practice’s performance.

This is not a surprise since medical billing companies have several advantages over most in-house billing solutions:

1. Medical billing companies are often better-armed to buy and use technology to submit claims properly, deal with insurance companies, and collect on personal balances.

2. A medical billing company can attract a higher caliber of billing specialists and retain these individuals.

3. Billing services keep a deep employee roster, giving medical practices the security that an in-house billing system can’t. For instance, practices using a medical billing company won’t face the risk of losing a key employee in the billing department.

4. Billing companies are better positioned to properly utilize the technology they have.

5. Medical billing companies have a broader view of the medical industry as a whole because they deal with many different medical professionals at the same time. This knowledge helps them deliver better services to their clients.

A copy of the survey is available from the MGMA’s website.

Copyright 2009 by Carl Mays II

Before deciding upon a medical billing service be sure to visit ClaimCare’s Website. It provides in depth information about outsourcing medical billing. Carl Mays is a national renowned expert on medical billing operations and revenue cycle management.

Any strong medical billing process and medical billing company must compare insurance payments to your contractual allowables and aggressively pursue underpayments. If this is not happening then most likely 5 to 10% of your practice’s revenue is being lost.

Medical billing services have a number of basic steps they should incorporate into their billing process. These steps should include using a claims scrubber, use of no-response calls, posting zero pays, pursuing underpayments, and using likelihood of payment scores for patient collections.

This article focuses on just one of the key elements you need from your medical billing service: pursuit of underpayments. Pursuit of underpayments starts with a critical step: comparison of EOBs to your contractual allowables (the payment your payers have agreed to make for each CPT code). You cannot count on payment posters to catch underpayments with their naked eye; the comparison must be automated and systematic. It goes without saying that if you do billing in-house the comparison still should be done.

The reason that comparison to allowables must be automated is because of the clever and systematic manner in which payers typically underpay claims. These underpayment patterns can be difficult to spot, but one of the advantages a Medical Insurance Billing Service has is that it sees payment information and patterns across many clients for many payers. This allows medical claims billing services that regularly and systematically compare payments to contractual allowables to spot patterns that a single practice might miss.

A pattern that is often seen by billing companies is one where a payer will underpay the same codes across multiple providers by the same dollar amount in month one. Then in month two, the payer will resume paying the code correctly and will begin to underpay a different code (or codes) across multiple clients.

These underpayments are not huge (5 to 10 percent) but they add up quickly to big dollars for a medical practice. The combination of switching the codes being underpaid from month-to-month and keeping the underpayment amount “under the radar” can make the underpayments difficult for an individual practice to spot.

Needless to say, it would be difficult for a payment poster to remember enough about the allowed amounts across a practice’s tens of payers and dozens of CPTs to spot the underpayment strategy described above. This is why it is critical that automated comparisons be performed by your medical billing service.

What does all of this mean to your top line? A medical insurance billing service that properly implements the pursuit of underpayments can increase your revenue by between 5 and 10 percent - and this is pure profit.

Spotting the underpayment is only part of the battle, of course, the billing service also needs to have a systemic process in place for pursuing the underpayments. It is critical to pursue event the small underpayment amounts. Once a payer sees that their resources are being tied up readjudicating claims because of a $5.00 underpayment, the underpayments will often cease to happen.

Copyright 2008 by Carl Mays II

If your are not aware and prepared for the 2009 cardiology billing and coding changes you may be leaving a lot of money uncollected.

Not since the mid 90’s has cardiology seen such significant coding and billing changes as have been put in place in 2009.

Cardiology practices were hit harder than the average physician by this year’s changes (with a 2% reduction in Medicare fees instead of the 1% increase seen by the average physician) driven in large part by changes that will impact imaging performed in the office.

As a result some cardiology practices will see revenue decreases far exceeding the average 2% (particularly the offices heavily dependent on echo services). Other cardiovascular services may experience increases if properly managed.

Some of the 2009 cardiology coding changes are:

- Sweeping changes in the codes for following up on implanted devices (sweeping as in all of the old codes are gone and the new ones have significant differences). The new codes include such things as specific codes or internet (remote) device checks, codes for devices with leads in 3 chambers, ICM device follow-up codes, and codes for periprocedural checks.

- 30 and 90 day global periods are now in place for follow-up for some devices. Also, the new codes are specific to either an interrogation evaluation or a programming evaluation. The codes are no longer dependent on whether reprogramming occurred.

- 2009 also brings codes specific to a wearable cardiac telemetry device such as a Cardionet type service. This is the end to billing with the unlisted procedure code; but there is a catch here too. These codes also have global days.

- Codes that bundle multiple echo services under a single code have been introduced. Examples include a single CPT for bundling an echo with both a Doppler and color flow and a stress echo CPT that bundles both the stress test and stress echo.

As the examples above demonstrate, the magnitude of this year’s cardiology billing changes are more significant that has been seen in recent years. Without proper education, cardiology billing training, software upgrades and billing resources cardiology practices may see marked reductions in collections and increases in AR.

Copyright 2009 by Carl Mays II