INTERVIEW WITH CHRIS ACHTIEN
Practice Administrator of Central Indiana Cancer Centers
WORKING TOGETHER FOR MORE THAN FOUR YEARS
Mr. Chris Achtien:
“We actually started working with Pradot™ about four years ago; we originally were introduced to the company as a means to provide our transcription services. Prior to that time, we had used a company—a local company here—and had a lot of problems with the quality, the turnaround time, and also the cost was a factor. So, by using Pradot™, we have actually been able to improve all three of those components, and I believe all the parties—physicians in the group—have been very happy with the quality of the services.”
PROVIDING SAVINGS FOR THE PRADOT™ CUSTOMER
Mr. Chris Achtien:
“When we originally looked at this, we figured there was about a 25% to 30% savings, and that was something that obviously if we can save that money and have the product—the end product—be better, everybody felt that that was a worthwhile than change to make; so, that’s again what our group decided to do.”
Mr. Arun Murali:
“Okay. How much of a factor was turnaround time, and maybe, you can talk a little bit about, you know, the impact you found from that improvement?”
Mr. Chris Achtien:
“The turnaround time was really something that varied with the existing group that we had. We were getting our transcriptions back, some of them were incomplete, and so we would have to follow up on that. The ones that did come back, oftentimes it was about five days’ turnaround time, which, you know, that presents a problem sometimes with our business, trying to see patients in the next couple days. So, you know, that was a huge benefit. We also liked the fact that when we were finished working for the day, the representatives from Pradot™ would actually start working because of the time difference, and if we had any questions, we would get those the very next day and be able to respond back to the appropriate representative at Pradot™.”
SERVING THE CUSTOMER
Mr. Chris Achtien:
“The service again has been very good, very consistent. When there have been some issues—we obviously have a lot of terminology that’s not real familiar to lot of different people—so even when we had transition of transcription over to Pradot™, there were some issues in the very beginning, but they got worked out because of the communication between our group and the folks over doing the transcription.”
ACCESSING PRADOT™ – US AND INDIAN SUPPORT
Mr. Chris Achtien:
“Really, we haven’t had any problems with the, you know, I guess getting hold of anybody. We felt like that has been very good; also, you know we have you here locally if we ever had an issue. So, you know, overall, you know, we have been very satisfied that anytime there has been an issue, it has been resolved very timely and to our satisfaction, so we are very happy with that component.”
Mr. Arun Murali:
“Would you say that the factor of having a person present in the U.S. while dealing with basically an Indian company has been an advantage in that regard? Could you—you know, how would you look at that?”
Mr. Chris Achtien:
“Yeh, I think very much an advantage. We obviously know that we can contact you, you know, any time we have an issue, and as you know that hasn’t been too often. It’s usually when we wanted to look at some different areas that we, you know, aren’t participating in yet, so that’s been probably our biggest area that we have been able to contact you.”
QUALITY OF TRANSCRIPTION
Mr. Chris Achtien:
“I think in dealing with a medical practice, each physician is probably very individual; they have a different way of doing it—each of them—and I think the fact that you have people that can really key in on that individual physician and figure out, you know, his pronunciation of certain words and actually knowing when certain macros needed to be used, that really was helpful for our group. We have sixteen doctors in our group, and all the doctors that I am aware of are very happy with the quality of the service that they get back, and that has been a huge improvement over what we had previously.”
BILLING AND COLLECTIONS
Mr. Chris Achtien:
“This is one of the newer areas that we have worked with Pradot™, and we have given your organization a lot of our harder-to-collect accounts. If you look at our organization here, we have a full billing office, and they take care of printing out the claim, sending it to the third party payer, following up to make sure that they get the payment, and one of the areas that has been very labor-intensive for us is patients that have a self-pay balance that they haven’t paid us yet, and that would be directly with the patient, and that’s where we have utilized your service to actually contact the patients and help collect those accounts, so it’s been a big help so we haven’t had to go out and hire additional staff here in our billing office, and we have been able to utilize, you know, a service that’s more cost-effective that doesn’t necessarily have to be here local to achieve that end result.”
HIPAA
Mr. Chris Achtien:
“We have to be very careful in that area. It’s a new area for any healthcare organization, and we wanted to make sure that we had all the requirements in place in working with Pradot™, and we have achieved that and, you know, as far as we know that’s been achieved very favorably and without any issues.”
THE IMPACT OF EMR
Mr. Chris Achtien:
“You know, we are going to be going to the new EMR package. The product that we are using is called iKnowMed, and we understand that the transcription will be able to be downloaded into the EMR, so we see this probably as a benefit, being able to not have to print out the transcription and then file it, and so we are going to save some money by eliminating that particular responsibility, and then also, hopefully, the accuracy in getting the correct dictation to the correct patient will be achieved more effectively.”
THE STATE OF HEALTH CARE AND THE NEED FOR OUTSOURCING
Mr. Chris Achtien:
“Health care is becoming more difficult each year, and the reimbursement pressures are greater than they have ever been. Next year, with the Medicare Modernization Act of 2005, we will see some changes in reimbursements, some cutbacks, and so we need to be as efficient in our operations as possible, and one of the objectives that we have here at Central Indiana Cancer Centers is to really increase the quality of our service, yet at the same time become more efficient at delivering those services. So, that’s where we are focussing on for the next year. Obviously, outsourcing has a huge role in that process, and we are going to look at every opportunity there is to be more efficient and effective in our operations next year.”
HAPPY FIFTH ANNIVERSARY
Mr. Chris Achtien:
“We just want to wish everybody a great 2005. We have enjoyed working with you over the last four-plus years, and we look forward to, you know, working together closely in the future, and we wish you all the best. Sorry we can’t be at your celebration, but we hope it’s a great one.”
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