Corporate Walmart Thinks it’s September 10, 2001
A shoplifter pulls a gun on four Walmart employees in a small room. The four employees heroically bring him to the ground. Walmart fires all four a week later because as the full story at KSL.com explains:
AP09 is Walmart’s policy on dealing with shoplifters. A copy obtained by KSL shows employees are allowed to use “reasonable force” to limit movements of struggling suspects. If a weapon comes out, however, associates must “disengage” and “withdraw,” the policy states.
Imagine you have a Walmart employee who cares more about rules than their own life. In that exact moment, they hesitate because rule AP09 springs into their head. Their hesitation could cost them their life. I applaud these three men and one women. They acted reasonably and rationally. We should throw a parade in their honor.
The pansy lawyers in corporate who wrote AP09 should revise their documentation to say, “However, in a post 9/11 world, if you believe your life is in danger, you should fight like Joshua on the 7th day at Jericho so that your inaction won’t cost you your life and potentially others lives also.”
Agreed, no one thinks a pair of socks or a computer is worth anyone’s life trying to defend it. Criminals don’t care about your life. They kill kids to steal their Nike Air Jordan shoes! They kill to try to stay out of jail. You won’t know if they actually shoot or not until after the fact, but guess what! The very fact they pulled out a deadly weapon means that they are willing to use it! This isn’t about socks or computers anymore. We have to assume that if they pull a gun they are going to shoot! They are willing to…kill…you!
Walmart shouldn’t expect people to play dice with their own life. Those Fabulous Four didn’t allow chance or the crazed mind of a felon to determine whether they went home to their family that day.
Before September 11, 2001 popular belief was that if you give into the demands of evil people, then you would be okay. Apparently corporate Walmart never got the memo that the rest of us received on 9/12.
Tags: off topic, Wal-Mart
Walmart not selling Clear Care now
UPDATE 2-26-2011: Ciba and Walmart came to an agreement, and ClearCare will soon be available at your nearest Walmart very soon if it’s not there already.
Walmart will sell out their existing stock of ClearCare, but won’t be reordering more. Here’s from the memo dated 1-24-2011:
- Jan 1, 2001 Ciba Vision has incorporated a substantial cost increase to their Clear Care items throughout the industry.
- We take any and all cost increases very seriously especially if the supplier is unable to justify the significant increase completely.
- In the interest of our customers, we will not carry Clear Care until this matter is resolved.
They go on to suggest that the V.C. associates can ask the Doctor Partners to recommend a suitable alternative product.
Isn’t this what happened to Rubbermaid?
Tags: CL Solutions, contacts, optometrist, patients, Wal-Mart
Change in CPT Codes for 2011
I noticed the OfficeMate Knowledge Base had this update for us about certain CPT codes:
In the 2011 CPT Coding Manual, which is effective January 1, 2011, CPT code 92135 has been deleted and replaced with the following codes:
- 92132 – Scanning computerized ophthalmic diagnostic imaging, anterior segment, with interpretation and report, unilateral or bilateral (Replaces 0187T)
- 92133 – Scanning computerized ophthalmic diagnostic imaging, posterior segment, with interpretation and report, unilateral or bilateral; optic nerve
- 92134 – Scanning computerized ophthalmic diagnostic imaging, posterior segment, with interpretation and report, unilateral or bilateral; retina
I like that because I hate having to remember modifiers like RT and LT, especially on tests that are most always run bilaterally anyway. I’m sure the insurance companies will like it for stats because it’s more descriptive by differentiating optic nerve vs. anterior segment vs. posterior segment.
UPDATE: Chuck Brownlow has more on this code change along with fiscal impacts.
Tags: coding, HRT2, insurance, OfficeMateComments Off on Change in CPT Codes for 2011
Colorblind? There’s an App for That.
Dan Kaminsky's DanKam
Never Ending EMR Saga
I have previously announced my intention to dump OfficeMate because I didn’t want to spend close to $1000 updating my server software from WSBS2003 to WS2008R2-standard for the version 9 upgrade (and that’s in addition to the painful yearly software agreement fee).
Well, now I’m not so sure. All I need is for something to easily enter data and claims, export an ANSI 837 file, and include a ledger, receipts, and reports system so that I can easily see my accounts recievable.
Well, apparently that’s too much to ask because I have test driven several competitors, and believe it or not, their interfaces are actually worse than OfficeMate’s!. Several of them won’t export a simple ANSI 837 file to upload to a clearing house like Apex. Maybe it’s just because I’m used to the OfficeMate system after four years. I can quickly do all my insurance billing and receipts myself (no paid help) in OM8. Of course, so far this year I only bill insurance for 27% of my exams, which is close to average for my practice profile.
So if I abandon OM for another system, it’s going to take me way more time to process claims and figure out accounts receivable. With Walmart getting into the Medicaid game on glasses, now I’m sure I’ll have even more insurance to bill in 2011. So, as of now, I am leaning towards biting the bullet and doing what it takes to upgrade to OfficeMate 9.
An interesting topic is how many mouse clicks per patient one needs in EHR/PIM software. A doc at EHR Compare forum reports that it takes his office 200 clicks per patient in OfficeMate. Is it any wonder that many docs think EHRs are not ready for prime time? (Example 1, 2, 3)
Why hasn’t someone created a free or cheap, open sourced PIM/EHR that is easily navigable? I tried OpenEMR (which you can install on a windows machine using XAMPP), but it was confusing how to create charges with attached ICD9 and CPT codes, let alone create an ANSI 837 file.
Tags: EHR, EMR, OfficeMate, PMS
