Addiction is a pervasive problem across the world, keeping millions of people in its reigns. The effects of addiction can be severe, and their very nature of addiction makes it difficult to shake free. However, there are many resources available to combat addiction, no matter what form it takes. While the road to addiction recovery can be rocky and rough, personal and professional help can be attained at every stage.

The Difficulties of Addiction 

Addiction, at its root, is a chronic and progressive brain disease. It takes many forms, with dependencies on everything from ingestables like drugs and foods to behaviors like gambling. Each addiction response is individual, so the addiction recovery process must also be personally tailored. It is best to seek professional help for guidance through the addiction recovery process.

The Stages of Recovery

The stages of addiction recovery can vary depending on sources of research and the school of thought, however, five essential steps are often defined as Awareness, Consideration, Addiction Treatment, Early Recovery, and Long-Term Recovery.

Awareness: Acknowledge the Addiction 

Sometimes triggered by a “crisis event,” the first step to recovery is for an addict to acknowledge the problem (in fact, this stage may also be referred to as “acknowledgement” or “recognition”). The key to this stage is that the addict—not a family member or friend—must recognize the problem and make the decision to change.

Consideration: Taking the First Step 

The second stage of addiction recovery is highly introspective. At this point, addicts must consider how their behavior has affected those around them, however painful those reflections may be. It is also a time to research the addiction, pondering on how it came to take root and researching what can be done to escape it. With consideration, addicts come to understand they need professional help.

Addiction Treatment: Exploring Addiction Recovery

It is easy to see where the crossovers exist between the second and third stages of recovery. The third stage, also called the preparation phase for recovery, begins the process to actively seek out help. Research continues, and it is recommended that addicts talk with friends and family about getting help. To strengthen their resolve to change, it is wise for addicts to begin setting goals and crafting action plans as they move forward. This stage is critical to shift into more active treatment with sustaining motivation, so addiction recovery professionals recommend that addicts do not rush the process.

Early Recovery 

Early recovery marks the stage when addicts begin putting their recovery plan into action. Here recovery professionals can step in and help individuals determine which kind of recovery program is best for them. There is quite a bit of variety in this decision, and the best choice is dependent on the patient, individual circumstances, and especially the kind of addiction in question. 

Substance Abuse Recovery

Inpatient care is often the most effective kind of recovery program for substance abuse cases. Inpatient care involves the patient residing at a treatment facility while receiving treatment. Insurance can help cover the sometimes substantial cost of attending such facilities. It is crucial to seek early recovery help in a qualified medical setting as the body often reacts very adversely to the process. Residential treatment in such cases involves a detoxification (or detox), in which qualified medical professionals take precise measures to remove all addictive substances from a patient’s body.

In a qualified medical facility, healthcare professionals can mitigate the worst effects of the detoxification process, offering medication and other clinical therapy or even more holistic approaches. As a general rule, the most acute withdrawal symptoms are limited to the first three to four days. After that interval, treatment continues until the physical dependence is broken. Then treatments focused on the underlying mental facets of the addiction can take the fore.

Therapy

After residential treatment, therapy with a qualified therapist can help patients recovering from addiction discover the underlying causes of their dependency and develop skills and habits to employ outside of the treatment setting. In this way, when addicts encounter triggers, they will be equipped to avoid relapse.  

Long-Term Recovery: Active Recovery and Maintenance 

By the time recovering addicts reach stage five, they will have put in a great deal of effort to break free of their addiction. Technically, that effort will last for the rest of their lives. The temptation to relapse may always remain to some degree, so lasting addiction recovery is an active process. 

Former addicts and their loved ones should devise a plan going forward to eschew the substance or behavior that resulted in addiction. The rest of the recovery process is designed to prepare patients to manage temptation and to establish a support system for them, both in good times and the hard ones. Resources to consider include local recovery programs, such as NA or AA; outpatient counseling; and family therapy.

Cash flow is the lifeblood of a medical practice. It allows facilities to be maintained, staff to be retained, and equipment and tests to remain in sufficient supply for patient care. While many factors determine a practice’s cash flow, its necessity remains constant. Fortunately, practices can maximize cash flow by implementing a few well-placed strategies to optimize medical billing.

Strategies to Maximize Cash Flow

A practice’s cash flow is dependent on many factors, i.e. billing, but all these contribute to the practice’s success as a whole. Implementing any of these strategies will help not only with the financial aspect of operating a practice, but with overall performance as well.

Well-managed Accounts Receivable

Accounts receivable describes money owed to a business by another party in exchange for services rendered. In order for an accounts receivable strategy to be successful, it must be well-defined. Patients and practice should always know what to expect from the process. A proactive plan for contacting patients when collections are due keeps them in loop. 

When payments are late, have a script for staff to follow when contacting the patients in question. This should include a discussion of payment options in addition to the opportunity to establish a payment. Train employees thoroughly so all involved personnel have a clear picture of what is expected. A straightforward collection process can maximize cash flow and help practices achieve revenue targets.

Improve Balance Collections

Even before a patient receives care, steps can be taken to prevent hiccups in the billing process, thus helping to maximize cash flow. Optimize your practice to accept multiple kinds of payment methods, including checks, credit cards, and direct deposits from patient bank accounts. Send patient reminders when payment is required or past-due.

Consider implementing a pre-care payment policy. This policy may include increases in bill totals for delays in payment. Other payment plans can also improve patient accessibility and cover a practice’s bases for receiving payments. Offer flexible payment options to ease patients’ minds and help your practice increase collections.

As a precaution, collect patient contact and insurance information before their appointment. Verifying insurance before care is provided can help minimize hiccups and frustrations in the billing process later on.

Outsource Your Medical Billing

Especially if you find your staff is overwhelmed or managing collections or billing is inhibiting your practice’s ability to offer dedicated care, a third-party billing service can do much toward helping practices maximize cash flow: 

• With professionals dedicated to handling the billing process, the risk of misplacing or mismanaging claims is minimized. 
• Enlisting the help of a billing service can also minimize turnaround times, helping your practice receive reimbursement sooner. 
• A billing service like Aspen Ridge Medical can help your practice set a plan for handling denials so you do not suffer losses in the face of insurance denials or dead claims.
• Outsourced billing services, such as those provided by Aspen Ridge Medical, can maximize cash flow and improve practices’ revenue by 10–20%.

Improving Efficiency in a Medical Practice

Any efforts to improve efficiency in your medical practice are likely to result in maximized cash flow. These can range from technological improvements to innovations in training or practice management. For example, delegation can free up time and resources to provide better care and increase revenue. Optimize patient treatment accessibility through venues like telehealth can make sure that more people are able to receive the care they need.

First impressions matter, and you can make your practice much more streamlined by simplifying your patient check-in and check-out processes. Consider how you can collect patient information in a quicker and more efficient manner, improving patients’ initial experiences and freeing up valuable staff time. Maximize each appointment and make minimizing downtime caused by no-shows a priority. Better still, do what you can to deter no-show appointments, such as utilizing automated systems (texts, emails, your patient portal) to send patient appointment reminders and offering flexible scheduling.  

Capture all medical data through electronic means. This can make measurements more precise and make retrieving information later more streamlined. Ensure that your staff is well-trained on all their responsibilities and on performing them in a timely manner. Take steps to develop a team dynamic that allows the group to work together in tandem. For more information about ways to improve efficiency and maximize cash flow, give Aspen Ridge Medical a call. We offer consulting and utilization management services to help practices identify areas where efficiency can be improved.

In this, the information age, practices rely heavily on the internet and other computer-based strategies for storing and retrieving patient medical information. More than 90% of practices in the United States utilize electronic medical records, and the majority of smartphone and tablet users have downloaded at least one app designed to track their health. 

These technological advances, while improving accessibility, have also made it more difficult to protect patient information. The shift to telehealth has exacerbated the problem. Despite the difficulty, safeguarding medical information is crucial to protect patients from identity theft.

Federal Law

HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, is the defined set of legal requirements to protect patient information. Originally passed in 1996, HIPAA’s privacy and security rules safeguards patient health information at the healthcare-provider level. Organizations acting for practices, including insurance firms, must legally adhere to these federal restrictions.

Precautions Practices Can Take to Protect Patient Information

While patients certainly have a responsibility to use discretion in disclosing or sharing their medical information, healthcare providers must also be vigilant. Not only do they have a legal obligation to protect patient information, it is part of honoring the trust patients put in them.

Have Practice-Specific Policies

Not all healthcare facilities work with the same kind of information or interact with patients or external organizations in the same capacity. The plan for your practice to keep patients’ medical information safe should reflect the work you do and be geared toward the particular data with which your organization transacts. The goal to keep electronic health information secure should be reflected in your practice’s policies, procedures, and systems. Your plan should also include training goals and systems for your employees.

Keep Security Training Current

The people carrying out your security plan will chiefly include the physicians and nurses in your practice. All of your employees should be well-versed, not only the methods of security, but also on its importance. Make sure your team understands how to store and send data securely to protect patient information, using methods we will describe below.

HIPAA regulations are an evolving entity, and as we continue to base more of our information and information-sharing technologies online, the regulations governing those will also adapt. New regulations, beyond HIPAA, may be a thing of the future. For this reason, it is critical that medical staff stay up-to-date on their security training. Anticipating changes can make regulatory adjustments even easier.

While patient error is not the responsibility of a healthcare practice, educating patients on the basics of security protects them and makes a medical facility’s duty easier. Help patients understand the importance of keeping their medical information safe and not sharing it, especially not on social media. They should never assume that any online forum is safe.

Use Encryption

Encryption is a computer data protection strategy that converts information into code. This makes the data less accessible without authorization and is an especially good strategy to protect patient information. All data and especially mobile devices in your facility should be encrypted. 

Other methods available to make storage more secure include passwords, firewalls, and antivirus software. Passwords should be strong, using combinations of letters and numbers that are not easy to identify easily. Staff should log out of networks when they have finished working on them and should refrain from using personal devices to access patient information.

Other strategies practices can employ to protect information while it is stored include using secure hardware and software, vigilantly monitoring online forums and cloud-based services, and destroying information that does not need to be kept.

Be Wary During Remote Handling

Information is at its most vulnerable when it is in transit, either during telehealth sessions or when being transferred between patient and practice. For telehealth work, invest in a secure wifi network, and encourage patients to have the same when accessing their medical information. The video platform used in remote conferencing should also be secure. While they make communicating with patients easy and immediate, be wary in the use of options like texting or private messaging. These platforms have minimal security features and may even violate HIPAA standards. 

Routinely Clean House

In addition to keeping your plan to protect patient information current and in harmony with HIPAA standards, regular housekeeping is an essential part of any good security strategy. Keep your practice’s firewalls and security software up-to-date at all times through updates. Every year, perform a security risk analysis to verify the security of all the storage tools you employ.

Establish a Failsafe

Sometimes the worst does happen. Hacks are sometimes successful, and breaches in security do occur. Before they do, establish a response plan designed to contain damages and mitigate losses. This should include a chain of command, but the response should not be dependent on it since immediate action is the key to minimizing damage. Have corrective methods ready to go in case of an incident, i.e. enable remote wiping or disabling on all your networks and servers.