Atlas.md | EMR Software for Concierge Medicine

Posted by: AtlasMD

June 8, 2015

Direct Care is a Slow Tsunami.

Overwhelming. Unstoppable. Enveloping.
Direct Care is taking the nation by storm, but unlike a tsunami, it’s not of the destructive variety. Rather than water, the country is being steadily blanketed with a refreshing alternative to traditional family medicine. As it slowly (but oh, so surely) spreads from town to town, city to city, more and more people realize how much they truly benefit from the patient-centric healthcare model.

Docs are getting excited, too. Every time they hear from a happy patient they wonder why it took them so long to transition in the first place. But even better, all the great feedback they’re hearing just validates they’ve done the right thing – not only for their patients but for themselves as well. Their quality of life skyrockets and their passion for medicine reignites. Once they’ve transitioned, it’s hard to look back at their old lives and remember how negatively they felt way back when.

Dr. Catherine Krouse has gone Direct Care precisely because of the difficulty of that old life. “You just end up getting drained and drained and drained. And then when your cup is completely empty, then you just get guarded and angry. And then you put up walls, and that really creates barriers.” Read her full story here and learn about the newest Direct Care practice in Falmouth, Maine called Lotus Family Practice.

So as this #slowtsunami continues to commence with many more stories just like Catherine’s, the Direct Care community expands with confidence and the staying power to make patients and physicians happy for the long haul.

Posted by: AtlasMD

June 5, 2015

Direct Primary Care Awareness Happens in December!

Have you heard? Direct Primary Care Awareness now has its own official month, and what better time of year than when we’re already buzzing with love for, well, everything? Bring it on, December!

So, what does that mean for your clinic? It means you get to continue doing what you’ve been doing all year – promoting DPC to everyone you meet on the street, in the grocery store checkout line, and at the car wash. Okay, the car wash might be a bit of a stretch, but you catch the drift. Because Direct Care Awareness now has a month associated with it, that makes it the perfect time to hold community events and staff activities. You still have some time to plan these events and we’ll remind you when it’s not quite so hot outside but it’s never too late to start brainstorming how you can make more of an impact on those around you. The DPC Journal has some ideas to kickstart your creativity.

Here’s something to remind your patients about…

The holidays tend to be absolutely insane. For patients, getting in to see the doc during those busy months can be nearly impossible in a traditional healthcare environment. A trip to the ER could set them back precious shopping hours, not to mention thousands of dollars. Thank goodness there’s an alternative! With many DPC physicians offering 24/7 availability, house calls and the ability to handle most “ER” type visits right in their own clinic (at no extra cost!!!), your patients can check “the possibility of needing to see the doc” right off their list of things to stress about. Make the decision to switch to Direct Care easy for them by presenting sanity during a time when sanity can usually be found flying right out the window.

Posted by: AtlasMD

May 6, 2015

Academic DPC: Where Direct Primary Care and Academics Meet.

As physicians and healthcare providers around the country continue to see success with their Direct Primary Care endeavors, they’re spreading the word. Sometimes it’s through social media. Other times it’s through speaking engagements. And yet other times, as is the case with Dr. James Breen, it’s digging deeper into areas previously untapped by DPC. His new blog explores something called Academic DPC:

Academic DPC is the brainchild of Dr. James Breen, an academic family physician with a clinical background in both rural and urban Federally-Qualified Health Center (FQHC), multi-specialty and academic practices. This site is an attempt to address the ‘blind spot’ that DPC currently holds in the world of academic medicine, offering a host of information, links and resources to help academic physicians and trainees grow in their knowledge of Direct Primary Care.

Thus, the mission of Academic DPC is twofold:

1. To foster awareness of Direct Primary Care in medical education and to support DPC curricular development among academic physicians and learners; and

2. To assemble a community of academic and community physicians and other educators, as well as residents and medical students, who share a common interest in Direct Primary Care.

So let’s cheer Dr. Breen on as he continues to enlighten people in academia about the immense benefits of Direct care!

Posted by: AtlasMD

May 6, 2015

What’s New in the Atlas.md EMR?

This month we’re excited to announce fewer feature updates, but bigger updates. The features below enable you to communicate more easily with your patients, further building your relationship from the ground up.

***NEW!!***
RubiconMD Integration
Request feedback from a specialist right from the app using the RubiconMD. When you enable RubiconMD integration to your Atlas.md account, you’ll be able to request direct (and remote!) feedback from a specialist about a particular client case. Read more about how RubiconMD works.

Introducing Growth Charts
Now you can track your patients’ growth from right inside the vitals and stats section. Find out more about how growth charts use height, weight and BMI information to plot the charts over here.

Newly Redesigned Patient Invoice
Introducing a completely redesigned invoice! Its new features improve clarity and aim to make everyone’s lives easier by helping patients understanding their invoices in a more timely fashion. Oh, and Atlas.md now uses a new PDF rendering engine that will result in much sharper invoices with improved typography. See the breakdown of all your patient’s invoice features here.

Non-NDC Inventory Tracking
This feature has been requested by many of you, and we’re thrilled to announce its launch! Now you’ll have a handle on your non-NDC inventory inside your account. You can track and sell supplements, vitamins or even fitness tracking devices right from your clinic inventory. Read on here about how you have more control over those non-FDA-controlled meds.

Easier Credit Card Updating Process
Now you can easily ask your patients for updated credit card information with just one click. When a patient’s card expires, or doesn’t work properly, you can send them an email which allows them to handle the information update on their own.

Appointment Change Notifications
In addition to appointment confirmation notifications, your patients will also receive a notification if their appointment has been updated. Everyone’s on the same page!

New Date and Time Macro!
Introducing simpler date and time entry for you busy docs. Enter #time for mm:hh, enter #date for mm/dd/yyyy, or simply use #now for a combination of both formats. View all available macros here.

Smarter Family Details Editing
Keep family information synced and as up-to-date as possible. Now if you edit an address or a phone number for a patient who’s part of a family, you’ll have the option to update that data for the other family members as well.

We can’t wait to hear what you think of these new features, and hope they do indeed make your life, and your patient relationships better. Send us a note over at support@atlas.md, or just reply to this email!

Posted by: AtlasMD

May 4, 2015

What if Restaurants, like Hospitals, Refused to Share Their Prices?

Remember that post about what would happen if restaurants billed like hospitals? Well, in another similar yet oh-so-different comparison, we see what happens when the billing process is stuck under the table like gum. In “What if Restaurants, like Hospitals, Refused to Share Their Prices?” by KQED, we learn that Americans hold a serious grudge against the hospital billing process. There’s seemingly no better way to express our frustration than putting our angst side by side with something we love – food.

It all started with this analogy shared on Twitter:

Christina Farr, the author of the post (and this article) said she was “floored by the volume and breadth of responses, which ranged from laugh-out-loud funny to downright depressing.” At the end of the day, though, it lights a fire under our… well, you know, to tell more people about DPC. Because as incredible as it sounds, DPC docs (and patients!) don’t have to worry about wonky billing practices, misleading costs, networks, or any other billing shenanigans for that matter.

Billing with DPC is structured just like the rest of of the model – it’s based on an open patient-doctor relationship built on trust. Patients know what they’re being charged before they’re charged. Not only is it a totally transparent process, but it’s reliable and consistent.

We’re not ones to walk away from a problem, but this is one issue we’re thrilled to sidestep in lieu of something better.

Posted by: AtlasMD

April 20, 2015

The Truth in Numbers. It’s a DPC Thing.

We talk a lot about the services Direct Care practices offer. We also talk a lot about how DPC docs have the time and resources to put their patients first. And then there’s the ever present mantra of how DPC cuts out the middle man, taking healthcare back to two key embodiments: quality and simplicity.

That’s all well and good, but it’s time we talked more about the numbers. They don’t get nearly enough attention, and they’re starting to feel left out. And they definitely deserve it.

Dr. Josh of Atlas MD recently talked to the Vermont Watchdog about some of the savings his clinic is able to pass along to their patients:

“I just stitched up a kid, one of our patients, who fell at the ice rink and needed six stitches in the chin. That could be $2,000 in an emergency room or $500 at an urgent care center. But I can do it for free.”

Beyond that, though, there are savings around nearly every corner.

“MRIs cost about 80 percent less than what hospitals charge. Blood tests costs $3, not the hundreds of dollars charged in the hospital system. Migraine medicines that cost more than $100 per month at a pharmacy cost just $6 at Atlas MD.”

The savings extend to companies, too. Dr. Josh explains:

“We have an employer with 17 employees in a local company. In 2013, they paid $98,000 for their health insurance. By the end of 2014, they were paying $48,000 because of how we helped restructure their plan in combination with us.”

Of course Atlas MD isn’t the only clinic who can offer these types of savings – it’s a DPC thing. Dr. Ryan Neuhofel of Neucare gives an example of the savings his Direct Care practice can offer in the way of affordability.

“I also recently managed a forearm fracture in an uninsured patient for a total cost of $45 ($10 for a splint, $25 for an X-ray, and $10 for cast a few days later).”

The savings are everywhere – even in prescription medications. We talked about that a while back, remember? Many Direct Care clinics have an in-house pharmacy which not only makes things incredibly convenient for the patient, but brings wholesale prices to the forefront. That’s right – prescription medications at wholesale prices. Oh, and if the DPC clinic can’t offer you the prescription in-house, they’ll probably send you out the door with a @GoodRx coupon for additional savings at the pharmacy.

They say there is strength in numbers. With Direct Primary Care, we also find the truth.

Posted by: AtlasMD

April 15, 2015

What Matters More Than Features?

You can boast about features till you turn blue in the face. And you’ll probably get conversions from it. It’s important to tell your patients what you offer, but that’s not what they really want.

Truth be told, they want the same thing you do. They want the Direct Care lifestyle.

Sure, they like that you’re available 24/7, but what they really care about is that you’ll answer their text at 2 a.m. when their baby spikes a high fever. They like extended appointments, but they truly value being heard. They appreciate wholesale medication prices, but they tell their friends how their doc just keeps on trying to save them money.

So tell your patients about the features you offer. But sell them on the benefits. Luckily for Direct Care docs, backing up feature claims is built right into the business model. When you and your patient act as a team, your vision for your practice can really come to life.

Posted by: AtlasMD

April 13, 2015

We Should Aim for “Crazy and Oldschool”

If being crazy means we know our patients backwards and forwards, show up at the hospital when they’re admitted, and help fill in the blanks of their medical history when our patient is unable, then sign us up.

If being old school means our doctor-patient relationships are rock solid, cradled in trust, and wrapped in endless care, then we’re on board.

Like the experience in this story told by Dr. Dhand over at KevinMD, we’re totally up for letting DPC take us back to basics.

A couple of weeks ago I was on-call and had to go down to the emergency room to see a patient. Before I entered the room, I was told that the patient was accompanied by her long-time physician who was a bit “crazy and old school.”

“Hmm … that’s strange … why would her physician be in the room with her?” I thought to myself. When I went in to introduce myself, sure enough sat next to her was an elderly physician probably in his late 70s or early 80s. After he greeted me with a warm and friendly handshake, he told me that he had practiced medicine in the local area for the last several decades. I still continued to wonder exactly what he was doing there, and this thought persisted for the next few minutes.

However, as I got further into the interview, I quickly realized just why he was sitting by his patient’s side. This doctor had cared for the patient for at least the last 30 years, was in the process of winding down his practice, but felt compelled to come and visit his patient (with no financial incentive to do so) as soon as he heard she was being admitted to the hospital. The patient — elderly herself and hard of hearing — wasn’t able to give me a complete history. But that was OK, because her doctor knew her inside out. Every little detail.

Read the full story over here and after you do, a little personal reflection of your own might be just what the doctor ordered.

Posted by: AtlasMD

April 10, 2015

Selling Your Vision

Are you starting your own Direct Care practice? Maybe just thinking about it? Either way, if you’re interested in Direct Care you have a vision in mind, right? The big picture, the overarching purpose, the ultimate goal.

Then there’s the part where you lose sight of that goal and get lost in the details. That’s okay, too… to a point.

Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, has some invaluable advice on aligning the details with your vision – and what can happen when your entire team is on board.

A team aligned behind a vision will move mountains. Sell them on your roadmap and don’t compromise — care about the details, the fit and finish. Only work with those that have (as Larry Page puts it) “a healthy disregard for the impossible,” and push everyone on your team until it’s uncomfortable.

So go. Start your Direct Care practice and do your part to change the face of healthcare. Just don’t forget to sell your vision along the way.

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