Top 3 administrative burdens in dermatology and how to tackle them!
Answers in Practice
By Faiza Wasif and Swapna Pachauri, AADA Practice Management, December 1, 2021
Each month, DermWorld tackles issues “in practice” for dermatologists. This month, practice management staff offer tips on managing the top three administrative burdens.
A successful dermatology office is established not only on optimal patient care but also efficient administrative practices. Administrative tasks consume a significant amount of time and resources thereby causing a sense of burden and perhaps even burnout. What further contributes to this sense of burden is a lack of access to resources that can help educate and support you and your team. As a member of the Academy, you have access to the AADA Practice Management Center (PMC), which offers simplified, timely, and practical resources to quickly get you up to speed on how to stay compliant, minimize burden, and increase efficiency. Check out the PMC.
Each practice is unique with individual challenges; however, there are some common administrative tasks that plague nearly all dermatology practices. Results from Academy member surveys, conducted between 2016-2020, indicate that the administrative burdens that impact dermatology practices the most include: electronic health record (EHR) documentation, prior authorization/insurance interference of treatment, and Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)/MACRA requirements.
According to the surveys, EHR documentation burden adds approximately six additional hours to the average dermatologist’s work week, followed by three hours of office administration and prior authorization burden collectively. Prior authorization requirements have increased dermatologist office costs. For example, specific staffers are hired to solely manage the process at an average cost of $40K per practice. Lastly, complying with MIPS occupies more than 75% of a practice manager/administrator’s primary or supplementary responsibility.
By arming yourself with the right education and resources, you can make these tasks more efficient and reduce their negative impact on productivity and morale. The AADA PMC offers the following resources to address the top three burdens.
EHR documentation
This section of the PMC is dedicated to optimizing your EHR, offering tips on using patient portals in your practice, employing useful apps or scribes to reduce documentation burden, and more.
Prior authorizations
The robust prior authorization section features one of the most popular tools — a letter generator tool for denials for over 50 common dermatologic drugs and 11 dermatologic diseases. It offers resources for physicians, staff, and patients on how to reduce burdens. Also, listen to two dermatologists’ perspective of prior authorizations in their practice setting: Prior authorization: What a pain!, a Practice Management Dialogues in Dermatology podcast.
MIPS/MACRA
This section offers a step-by-step guide to help you decide how to participate in MIPS, and how to avoid a penalty or earn an incentive. It includes a helpful snapshot of reporting options specific to dermatology to ensure you report the right number of measures and activities to reach the outcome you desire. And, make reporting seamless by enrolling with DataDerm™ — a clinical registry developed by dermatologists for dermatologists.
These are just the resources for the top three burdens, but the PMC does not stop there. It also houses resources for compliance (HIPAA, OSHA, CLIA), coding, scope of practice, private payers, teledermatology, staffing, optimizing your practice, combating burnout, connecting with preferred vendors, and so much more! In addition to this, the practice management staff are available for questions via practicecenter@aad.org for general practice management questions, coding@aad.org for coding and reimbursement questions, macra@aad.org for MIPS/MACRA questions, and priorauth@aad.org for inquiries related to prior authorizations. Members receive expert staff support on inquiries within 48 business hours. This does not replace a consultative service or provide legal advice but can answer simple queries you may have or connect you with other experts in the field.
Administrative tasks are unavoidable, but they do not have to feel like insurmountable obstacles that you have to navigate daily. Equipped with some education and support provided by the AADA, you can efficiently get through these essential tasks and add value back to your practice operations and patient care.
Want more tips?
Check out more DermWorld articles on practice management.
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