Posted by: AtlasMD

February 25, 2016

ACH Is Here and It’s Easier Than Ever To Accept Payments

ACH_02

There’s a new way to accept payments through Atlas, and it’s going to make things even better for you and your patients. We’re excited to announce the launch of Atlas.md’s ACH acceptance.

Here’s the scoop. By now you know that you can accept credit and debit payments. And that’s been great. But ACH is a way for you to accept payments directly from your customers’ bank accounts. If you remember, back in November, we lowered your transaction payments from 2.5% to 2.1%, but this new addition makes it even cheaper to accept payments from your patients.

The cool thing about ACH (besides the convenience) is that the charge per transaction is only going to be 25¢, which is less than the current 2.1% + 30¢ per transaction for credit/debit card payments. While it does take about 7 days for your patients’ funds to go through, this can add a bit more flexibility to your payment acceptance options.

Accept Multiple Types of Payment

ACH acceptance is a win-win: it lets your patients send money directly from their bank, so they have less to worry about, and it allows your clinic to accept payments without paying high transaction fees. And it’s a win-win that includes no learning curve.

To accept ACH payments, just follow some simple instructions:

  • Go to the patient billing page, and then add a new bank account.
  • Enter your patient’s name, account number, and routing number.
  • You’ll receive a confirmation message that the bank account has been added and needs to be verified.
  • The customer will get an email with details about the process and a link that they can use to complete the verification.

That’s it! Go ahead and get set up with ACH today or read some more specifics about how ACH works here.

Posted by: AtlasMD

August 7, 2014

Atlas MD Podcast 18 — The State of Specialty Care

Atlas MD Podcast 18 — The State of Specialty Care

STREAM EP. 18 OF THE ATLAS MD PODCAST ON iTUNES

A lot’s been going on! In addition to talking about the state of specialty care with respect to Direct Primary Care, here’s a sneak peek at the latest podcast:

  • We’ve had lots of meetings with insurance companies about how they can create a wrap around product to sell alongside Direct Primary Care, which could help take DPC mainstream even faster.
  • Employers are able to give their employees monetary raises because of their association with Direct Primary Care.
  • The ACO model is struggling to be sustainable due to the high cost of healthcare – Direct Care can help decrease overhead by decreasing waste, and turning that waste into profit.
  • Big updates to the Atlas.md EMR software include more fitness app integration features.

Last but not least, We were honored to have a med student join us for an entire month recently, and we want to make sure the medical community knows they’re more than welcome to stop by and see what we’re all about. Or if we can help make direct care a part of your medical education, conference, personal training experience, please get in touch.

Posted by: AtlasMD

July 26, 2013

Doctors, Let’s Not Forget That Patients Are People

Doctors, Let’s Not Forget That Patients Are People

Have you checked out Mind The Gap yet? It’s a blog written by Stephen Wilkins, MPH. He’s interested in physician-patient communication that’s both personal and professional. His most recent post (Via Health Works Collective) addresses the issue of relevancy, something that you might immediately think, that? Oh, I know that. But the truth is, if you’ve been a healthcare professional running through what Michael Tetreault called the “hamster wheel” then you might have developed some bad communication habits.

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Posted by: AtlasMD

July 23, 2013

Six In 10 Physicians Believe Many Doctors Will Retire Earlier Than Predicted

Six In 10 Physicians Believe Many Doctors Will Retire Earlier Than Predicted

A Deloitte survey reports that a majority of physicians believe many doctors will retire earlier than planned in the next one to three years. The same percentage think medical experts losing control of their clinics will jeopardize the healthcare administration. This group also believes strongly that implementation of the Affordable Health Care for America Act, or Obamacare, will push doctors out of the primary care industry altogether.

A spokeswoman for the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Dr. Jane Orient, was not surprised by the results at all. In a recent WND article, it was reported that she said doctors already have started leaving the profession through early retirement. Of course, some will instead seek alternatives to what they see coming in the federal government’s takeover of health care. And that’s why we’ve been championing our model of direct care. Because the worst outcome is a doctor not practicing at all. And if that’s what an overregulated market will encourage, then we have a serious problem.

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Posted by: AtlasMD

July 23, 2013

LINKS: Will “Federal Data Services Hub” Pose An Obamacare Privacy Risk?

LINKS: Will “Federal Data Services Hub” Pose An Obamacare Privacy Risk?

We came across an opinionated article on Rare.us asking, “Would you trust thousands of low-level Federal bureaucrats and contractors with one-touch access to your private financial and medical information?” Our immediate answer was of course not. But with Obamacare’s enactment, we might not have a choice. That’s because of something called the Federal Data Services Hub. This Data Hub will supposedly be a comprehensive database of personal information established by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to help with the federally facilitated health insurance exchanges.

To paraphrase, with Obamacare, each state will need to have a transparent state insurance market (currently not every state has one). If a state creates and operates one themselves, then great. But if they don’t, the government will “run” one for them. And to help “run” this state insurance market, the Obama administration is planning to hire “tens of thousands” of “navigators” earning “$20 an hour or more” to help guide buyers to their taxpayer-funded coverage, according to the Washington Examiner.

Here’s a round-up of articles to give you a more complete picture of the Federal Data Services Hub:

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Posted by: AtlasMD

July 22, 2013

LISTEN: Episode 2 of Atlas MD Podcast Now On iTunes

LISTEN: Episode 2 of Atlas MD Podcast Now On iTunes

Drs. Josh and Doug huddled up for a second taping of the Atlas MD podcast. You can stream it on iTunes. The duo took a moment to discuss HIPAA compliance, HSA spending and Meaningful Use in context with direct care, as well as our new EMR that’s launching next month. And the team announced phenomenal news: Michael Palomino has reached 150 patients in only a couple months, vastly exceeding the predicted 10 patients per month increase.

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Posted by: AtlasMD

June 24, 2013

Running List Of The Best ICD-10 Codes

Running List Of The Best ICD-10 Codes

And if you needed any more reasons to be concerned with the future of health care as it pertains to insurance billing, look no further. We’ve compiled some of our favorite ICD-10 billing gaffs.

Here are some straight-up laugh-worthy ICD-10 codes:
R46.1, “bizarre personal appearance”
R46.0, “very low level of personal hygiene”
W22.02XA, “walked into lamppost, initial encounter”
W22.02XD, “walked into lamppost, subsequent encounter”
V91.07XA, “burn due to water-skis on fire”

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Posted by: AtlasMD

June 24, 2013

The Future of Doctor-Patient Emails Looks Bleak, for Everyone Else

Doug FarragoDoug Farrago’s new post on Kevin MD makes a grim prognosis for docs operating within the insurance system. Looks like they will need to answer emails more promptly or risk diminishing profits.

Farrago’s future of patient emails includes not getting paid for answering them, getting dinged if you lag when responding, possibly getting sued, making bad prognoses based on cryptic messages (which you’re expected to answer or lose patients to doctors who will), and losing money since emailing patients are skipping out on the visit.

However, Farrago mentions that Dr. Josh has solved this quandary by introducing a subscription model and limiting his patient number. As we know, Atlas MD docs take calls and emails 24/7 and as Dr. Doug told CNN Money, “My professional life is better than expected, my family life and personal time is better than expected,” he said. “This is everything I wanted out of family medicine.” In fact, Atlas MD enjoys their work so much, they’re fighting to bring direct care to the masses. It feels good to be recognized as a solution in an industry riddled with incalculable problems.

Doug Farrago is a family physician who blogs at Authentic Medicine.
(Photo courtesy of pressherald.com)

Posted by: AtlasMD

June 24, 2013

LISTEN: Dr. Doug Talks Commonsense Healthcare With Night Talker Radio Network

dougDr. Doug Nunamaker spoke to Michael David McGuire on his Night Talker Radio Network podcast. During the 30-minute interview Doug was met with overwhelming enthusiasm from the host. McGuire extoled our no-nonsense approach to healthcare, celebrated Kansas’ reputation for ingenuity, and had no qualms about asking Doug some personal questions about concierge medicine.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE

We’re grateful for opportunities like this to spread our message to an even wider audience and clear up the preconceived notion that direct care creates a two-tiered system. It’s the red tape that’s expensive, not the healthcare, Doug explains, and the way a greedy, entrenched system fixes it is with red adhesive sticking to more red tape. In our model, Doug’s able to charge a patient who used to pay $75/month for her medication alone now just $50 for unlimited visits, and a buck for her prescription. That means she’s SAVING $24/mo with her Atlas subscription.

Doug also had a chance to share our new campaign I Want Direct Care. McGuire thought it was brilliant that we’re trying to unite patients and doctors in a reasonable one-on-one relationship. And in doing so, motivate doctors who might consider early retirement or abandonment of the profession to join our movement—if only because the people demand it.

Posted by: AtlasMD

June 21, 2013

TEXAS: Dr. Casad Offers Hybrid OBGYN Concierge Model from Concierge Choice Physicians

Concierge Medicine Today (CMT) posted an article announcing the opening of a hybrid concierge medicine practice in Texas. Dr. Connie Casad is the first gynecologist in the nation to provide the hybrid concierge model for enhanced gynecologic procedures. She too is convinced in the merits of our emerging business model, saying, “Like a lot of my patients, I struggled with issues related to my health and well-being as I aged. I felt like the current healthcare model didn’t provide a system that could provide patients with what they wanted and needed. I conducted considerable research and I believe that the concierge model gives the best option possible for my patients who want to take charge of their health and who are interested in prevention and wellness.”

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