06/19/2015    Dan Klein, DPM

EMR Not Worth It for CA Podiatrist

I have read several commentaries on EMR costs and
requests for medical records for review by
secondary insurance companies. I was in solo
practice for 20 years and I can say I'm glad to
be retired and out of the business. I bought a
software program called DR billing program 20
years ago for $10,000. Subsequent ownerships
resulted in a company, Cerner, buying the rights
to run this program software. I was charged
monthly fees for maintenance and costly updates
for software requiring new hardware.

I didn't have EMR recordkeeping and paid high
fees for transcriptions of records. When Medicare
opened the door to contracted sub companies to
pay for Medicare claims, I started getting
requests for small numbers of records for review
.i.e United Health Care. Then after Medicare went
on a 'witch hunt' for fraud (directed by
Congress), I started getting request for over 20
records at a time. One can just speculate that if
5-6 companies (under Medicare) started performing
audits, I was collecting over 200 records for
reviews. This meant lots of time spent collecting
and faxing records. I even had companies calling
to visit my office for the review to which I
would never submit.

I thought about converting to EMR records and
quotes of $30-40,000 came my way. Naturally, I
couldn't afford this and turned it down. I tried
selling my practice, but young residents chose to
go the group or hospital base route. I concluded
that given overhead, start-up costs, maintenance,
office salaries for personnel, hardware updates,
EMR, battling insurance company for timely
payments, record audits and lots of hidden costs,
I had become a relic. The days of Marcus Welby
are gone forever! Welcome to modern day medical
practice. I loved my career as a podiatrist, but
given all the above, I could have made a good
living as a college professor and avoided the
struggles, sleepless nights, worries, etc., that
go with solo practices.

To the new graduates, my advice is go group or
join a hospital staff practice!

Dan Klein, DPM (Retired), Ft. Smith, AR

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