optoblog.com

So I got my online access to OptumHealth Vision because starting 1.15.2010 I’ve got to get my own authorization codes for exams (or I can pay Walmart to do this for me). I figured I would do it because it should be quick and easy on their website.

And it is. To get the authorization code. But their website tells me NOTHING about their plan, copays, etc. Seriously, folks, what good is your website when I just have to use the phone tree to get the plan ID code anyway! I want the website to avoid the phone tree!

Please, OptumHealth (and all other vision plan companies), add the “feature” of not only including the exam authorization code online, but also give me the patient’s copay or at least give me the patients plan ID code so that I can go look up the copay in the book!

Seriously!!

E-mail is awesome because you can send notes, pdf’s, and other files quickly and easily- except when you are a doctor. Since any script kiddie can sniff your e-mail inbox, doctors can’t send e-mails of cornea topographies to labs, referrals to colleagues, or special testing results to patients because that would be a breech of patient confidentiality and a violation of that one unnecessary, burdensome law.

I’m sure George Q. Public doesn’t want his K-readings leaked to the press when he decides to run for President someday.

But seriously, sometimes birth dates and stuff are printed on the reports, so if doctors want to use this cool, new thing called “e-mail,” we’ve got to set-up our e-mails to have the capability to send and receive encrypted messages and attachments. What does it look like?
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So your email inbox gets a message that looks like this. You have an e-mail client plugin that you have set up. You input your password, and the message magically translates to:

Dude, isn’t this so cool that not even the government can tell what I’m writing you? Unless…you forward this message to them unencrypted, but I trust you.

You can see this in action on my practice website. To get started and do this you need a few things:

Your practice’s domain name (usually your web host will offer e-mail storage)
or
any e-mail address that you can access via the e-mail client Thunderbird. (ie POP3 or gmail)

Download the following:

• GnuPG– the free, open source engine that runs encryption. The Windows version is found at gpg4win.org.
• Thunderbird– a free, open source e-mail client.
• Enigmail– a free plugin for Thunderbird that makes it easy to make your encryption keys, share your public key, store other people’s public keys, and encrypt/decrypt e-mails. You should read the install instructions for Enigmail.

Make sure when you generate your encryption key password that it is extra long and random. You must assume that anyone could capture it and try to brute force it. If it is long and random, it would be nearly impossible to crack. I suggest keeping your random, long password in a password wallet.

Why not do it?

• You are afraid.
• You don’t get paid to e-mail patients.
• Spam? Some people think that if they share their public key on a key server, spammers will harvest their e-mail address. I’ve had mine there for a couple years and that’s not happening…to me.

Barriers to entry:

• It doesn’t do any good for you to have e-mail encryption if the person to whom you want to e-mail the top-secret K-readings doesn’t have e-mail encryption set up. They must have a public key that they share.
• I’ve just presented a free way (unless you have a paid practice URL/webhost) to do this, but it does require some tech savvy to download, install, and implement the tools. This way requires the Thunderbird e-mail client. If you use Outlook or something, there are paid solutions out there.

Why do it?

If every doctor would just get in gear with e-mail encryption keys, we could send patient referrals with high quality color photos and reports instead of low res, black and white faxes (usually with a few vertical black lines on the page). We could send the lab a topography. We could send a patient a report or copy of their Rx. We could talk about the stupid government and how we all secretly agree with Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Ann Coulter.

Tags: communication, HIPAA, management, optometrist, patients, politics

Apparently I should have gone to the UAB School of Optometry because they research cool stuff about guns. Of course, saying “cool” and “guns” in the same sentence is being redundant.

Hat tip to Maino’s Memos and the UAB Magazine Weekly editor Matt Windsor.

From the link, I can’t tell if it is something like this sight or another variation.

By the way, if a politician won’t trust you with guns and ammo, you shouldn’t trust him/her with your vote.

So, I was transferring some old files onto a new hard drive and rediscovered this lost gem. Pacific University College of Optometry has a talent show called Opto-Rock. In the year 2000, a few of us then first year optometry students got together and performed a “fusion of music and dance” which won first place and $100 prize.

From left to right we have:
David Langford, O.D. of VisionHealth EyeCare in North Logan, UT
Jared Walker, O.D. of Drs. Gary and Jared Walker in Twin Falls, ID
Nathan Kohler, O.D. of Parkway Eyecare in Shelley, ID
Ben Marske, O.D. of Eye Center of Northern Colorado in Fort Collins, CO
David Graf, O.D. of Valley Vision Clinic in Richfield, UT
Nate Munson, a (buddy) of mine that I roped into doing it.

There is actually an interesting story behind the routine. I was told its genesis was at Continue Reading »

Has anyone seen this movie? I had a patient recommend it to me, but I’d never heard of it.
A reviewer at IMBD says it’s like a Support Your Local…Optometrist.

My dad is finally cleaning out his garage of old optometry books and stuff- now that he’s been retired for a few years. (Does anyone know of some niche market for old edition optometry books? We’re just planning on giving them to D.I.)

I saw this newspaper clipping tucked in one of his books. It appears to be from the AOA News December 1969. My how things have changed in the last 40 years. Interesting also is how phaco was a new technology.

The Optometric Business Academy (OBA) came out with some statistics regarding Walmart O.D.’s revenue growth in 2008.

Walmart practices grew 10% during 2008, on average, as Sam’s Club practices grew 6%.

Growth also varied depending on years at location.

I’ll be interested to see what 2009 stats will say. Anecdotally, my business was up 8% in 2008 while so far for 2009 I currently forecast it to be down over 8% (so back to 2007 levels). So when you think about it, 2009 could see me be down 16-18% from where I wanted to be.

Thanks Obama. That was such a great idea to spend our way out of a recession and have the government take over several private sector industries. Idiot.

Tags: economy, Obama, Wal-Mart

So Kevin M.D. reports on how the whole send-the-prescription-electronically-to-the-pharmacy thing is going. Apparently ePrescribing is not all that and, to me, not even a bag of chips.

Here’s what clinches it for me:

Furthermore, despite the marketing hype, ePrescribe “provides absolutely no cost or time savings for pharmacies or pharmacists,” since any errors in typing or if a doctor wants to change anything on the refill will cost the pharmacy another 30 cents…
[Doctor Grumpy]…also reports numerous problems about the amount of time it takes to send a prescription over the internet.

So, the only ones getting rich are the vendors. Imagine that. Thank you government for mandating a completely unnecessary and economically burdensome idea that someday we’ll all have to ePrescribe. Idiots.

See what the new Wolfram Alpha computational knowledge engine has to say about “optometrist.”

Our overall average income as a profession of $93.8K seems kind of low compared to our overall average optometry school debt of $112-132K for 2007 averaged for all schools by ASCO.

BTW, the Wolfram Alpha isn’t a search engine, it’s a knowledge engine. Words mean things, you know. From what I can tell, it looks like a new way to get answers for math class and looking up stocks and stuff.

Hey, they list the chemical formula for BAK and Travatan. It’s fun to play.

With Walmart’s announcement of a sweeping change about getting out of the business of billing vision insurance companies for their doctors, a whole new cottage industry has sprung up. Businesses are soliciting Walmart doctors to let them handle all the insurance billing.

Yup, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Ophthalmic vendors think we optometrists are so stupid. Just because we picked this profession, they think we are prone to making poor financial choices just like some people are accident prone.

Any of you vendors seeking to do insurance billing for me are wasting your time. All I need is my practice management software and Apex EDI. It’s as automated as can be. Most of the vision insurances have their own website for authorization and billing, and then I use Apex EDI for my BlueCross, Medicaid, DMBA, and other miscellaneous insurance companies. (You can do Medicare also, but I am disinclined to participate with them.)

Apex EDI works great. It’s fast and easy. And I don’t need no stinking slick Rick to be some unnecessary middle man. It’s cheap too. I pay 43 cents per claim, less than a postage stamp these days. I also pay the extra $20 a month for the ERAs and Electronic Tools which make my life a lot easier, so it’s worth it.

Call up Apex EDI and tell them I sent you. Use my Champions Code (sales code) to get a better deal: Champ148. I use it in my practice (VisionHealth EyeCare PLLC), and you can use it in yours without the growing cottage cheese industry of Walmart insurance billing middle men.

[Note to Slick Ricks: Any more “comments” made by you to advertise your middle man services will be marked as Spam and deleted. Do us all a favor and go con some other profession.]

Tags: Consultants, insurance, management, Wal-Mart