Medical Assistant Motivation

This month I wanted to give a couple aspects to consider in motivating your MA to keep doing CCM. Remind them of the great results CCM gets in patients with chronic conditions. Be sure to congratulate them when the pick up things that need to be addressed between office visits. The other way to help motivate CCM completion is to offer financial incentives based on production.

COVID-19 and CCM

CCM (Chronic Care Management) and RPM (Remote Patient Monitoring) can both be done during COVID-19. This podcast explains that new CMS announcments confirm that the set-up code (G0506) for CCM can be done over the telephone. This allows primary care physicians to set up CCM for monthly services with patients without the patient having to leave their home. This service will both keep patients with chronic conditions managed and provide desperately needed revenue to physician offices affect by low volume during this early social distancing time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Get your CCM templates at CCMPays.com.

CCMarch

We review lessons learned installing the Qardio app on patients’ mobile devices and the latest pricing of Qardio on Amazon.

Review RPM Lessons Learned

Dates on Android: (tap on “Year”) to change year

iPad Mini did not show option to review “Terms and Conditions” while creating new account, so we had to create the account on another device and then log in on the iPad Mini.

PLEASE have iOS users put in their first AND LAST names.  The app only asks for a first name at registration.

Consider requiring patients to come in with the app already installed and registration completed.

Have patients send in readings weekly.  Have your MA copy and paste the data into a phone message for you to review.  Doing this weekly with every patient should cover the 20 minutes for the month, allowing you to still do 20 minutes of CCM each month.

QARDIO

It was on Amazon with Prime for a lower price than we can get it from the company.

On 2/26 it is already back up to $99.  I guess you have to get it using our “drmark” coupon code to get it for $90.  Keep checking Amazon to see if Qardio puts it back for $75.

Remote Patient Monitoring Now

Dr. Mark Vaughan, Cristina, and Ian describe lessons learned in the first month of setting up Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) using the QardioArm wireless blood pressure monitor. An update on January CCM is also discussed.

Download our consent form for RPM.

Use our template for tracking both CCM and RPM with Google Sheets. Be sure to pay for a G-Suite account to get a Business Associate Agreement with Google to maintain HIPAA compliance.

THE CODES

  • 99453 Set Up $21
  • 99454 Supply Device $69
  • 99457 Interactive Communication $54

Remote Patient Monitoring

RPM CPT Codes and Reimbursement:

  • 99453 Set Up $21
  • 99454 Supply Device $69
  • 99457 Interactive Communication $54

Visit Qardio or Omron

Link for Google Sheets Spreadsheet Template

For more information, see Healthcare Law Today

DIY CCM

Dr. Mark Vaughan and Cristina Armacher

This podcast is intended for physicians’ offices who would like to hear about our experience starting our own chronic care management (CCM) program with great success.  Learn from our successes and mistakes to improve the health of your Medicare patients with chronic illness and get the revenue intended to be used for this purpose.

Google Sheets template for tracking CCM

Kevin MD article about using third party CCM services.

Go to CCMPays for our comprehensive DIY Chronic Care Management program.