Bridgewater Goddard Park Medical Associates Inc. (BGPMA) is a multi-site, multi-specialty practice with over 80 providers. Long interested in using technology to enhance workflow, in 2001, BGPMA became interested in improving the condition of their medical records. Inefficiencies related to the transporting of charts, including record loss and "wear," were viewed as an area ripe for automation, prompting a search for an electronic medical records (EMR) solution.

However, during this search, BGPMA learned about MedAptus and was introduced to mobile charge capture. Given the application's documented ability to reduce time-to-billing lag and any potential for lost charges, both byproducts of paper-based charge capture, BGPMA decided to implement, and also viewed the product as an EMR "stepping stone."

BGPMA started its MedAptus implementation with an initial pilot of 24 physicians across nine specialties. After a six-month initial pilot, the practice assessed the benefits of the system in order to determine if a full roll-out would make sense. By comparing data from its paper-based charge capture process with charge data collected using MedAptus, an annual increase of $20,000 in net collections per physician was revealed. This is largely due to increases in the average number of procedure codes and gross charges captured per encounter as well as an almost 12 percent improvement in average net collections.

These early successes led BGPMA to stage a full system roll-out, bringing approximately 12 caregivers live, at a time, until all 83 providers were deployed. Each group was trained for only 30 minutes.

As for its process, each day providers download their schedules and as patients are seen, they "tap" appropriate procedure and diagnosis codes into the system. If coding violations occur, warnings flash to indicate potential reimbursement issues, which can be resolved immediately, or overridden. Once complete, charges are synchronized and then accessed online by coders for review. When approved, charge data is transmitted to BGPMA's billing system with a click of the mouse.

While BGPMA didn't initially seek-out a mobile charge capture system, it didn't take long for the organization to understand its value, in terms of a non-intimidating introduction to technology for physicians, and for its ability to yield revenue cycle improvements. Once BGPMA achieved 100 percent physician adoption, it then provided the application to its mid-level clinicians as well as desktop-based charge capture to its nurses, completely reengineering its billing process.

Read a case study on the MedAptus implementation at BGPMA