Automated data management solutions help labs maximize efficiency and profitability
David Barzillai Founder and President,Advanced Data Systems Corporation
Professional:
“I founded ADS in 1977 with a dedication toward creating the healthcare industry’s most innovative, revenue-enhancing, ROI-producing software.”
Education:
“I studied electrical engineering at the
Israeli Air Force Academy and then was an electrical engineer in the Air Force. When I relocated to New York City, I enrolled at City College of New York (CCNY), from which I obtained a BS degree in electrical engineering, also studying computer programming.”
Personal:
“I’m passionate about programming and enjoy working with the ADS programming team in creating new automation concepts that bring updated levels of efficiency to the company’s clients. Outside of work I enjoy being with my family and travelling to the extent my schedule allows. I’m an NBA fan and an avid jogger.”
If you were explaining Advanced Data Systems (ADS) to someone who is not familiar with the organization, how would you characterize its primary areas of expertise? ADS creates—and has been creating since 1977—automation solutions that help healthcare facilities such as laboratories, medical practices and groups, imaging centers, behavioral health organizations, and medical billing companies to operate more efficiently, and to derive maximized revenue through optimized EDI (electronic data interchange), workflow, and reporting.
Our Medics systems support wide-ranging practice management capabilities on the financial/operational sides, which is of paramount importance to laboratories, and on the medical/clinical sides with electronic health records for dozens of other specialties. They can be deployed in cloud or customer-hosted configurations. MedicsRCM for laboratories is available as a comprehensive service when secure, cloud-based outsourced revenue cycle management (RCM) is preferred, as opposed to having an in-house or cloud-based Medics system. ADS provides system implementation, IT services, and hardware if needed, as well as training, and ongoing support with updates.
You founded ADS in 1977. What were the circumstances of the company’s birth? My wife and I came to the U.S. in the early 1970s from Israel. I was trained as an electrical engineer and served as one in the Israeli Air Force. But I always had an interest in software, which was becoming an emerging industry at that time.
While working as an engineer for a company in New York City called Elcint, I began dabbling in writing software. It was so primitive then. We were doing work for a few radiology practices in NYC. One of the administrators asked me if I could create a simple electronic patient demographics database.
I worked on it nights and weekends. A few weeks later I had it and downloaded it onto the practice’s server, showed practice leaders how it worked, and told them to call me if they had any questions. Other radiology practices heard about it and approached me as well. Before I knew it, I was creating software for probably a dozen radiology practices.
That gave birth to ADS in 1977 and we’ve been creating software continually ever since. Today we have the 15,000 square-foot ADS Building in Paramus, NJ, having evolved from my apartment in New York, to the basement of our house, to a small office in Rochelle Park, NJ, to a much larger space in Maywood, NJ, and finally to our current location.
We have approximately 300 employees with thousands of providers and system operators relying on our Medics systems nationally, and now also using our MedicsRCM service. We continue to be privately held and are very accessible to our clients. Our company name has never changed.
We have a remarkable history of stability and reliability in the industry, and we’re a classic American dream story!
What trends do you see becoming increasingly important in the near future? Telemedicine is now coming into its own, with patients being diagnosed and then getting medical advice remotely. Of course prescriptions can also be transmitted directly to the patient’s pharmacy by the provider.
But what’s interesting is that more and more types of diagnoses are expected to be handled via telemedicine, besides the obvious ones for colds, flu, and skin conditions. For example, we’ve heard that ophthalmology exams are being perfected where the patient, using his or her cellphone from a certain distance, can actually do an eye chart reading, with data going back to the ophthalmologist on the call.
Another trend is bringing information together on a single patient from disparate sources or systems, including laboratories, so that remote diagnostics, including consults and input from specialists and radiologists, can be provided for that patient.
Obviously iPads, iPhones, Androids, and tablet PCs will be drawn more and more into the entire healthcare delivery system as those delivery models evolve. Happily, ADS is taking an active role in all of this.
I won’t ask you how software solutions for healthcare have changed in 40 years; that would require a bookshelf, not a page. But what are some important trends now, and how is ADS responding to them? So true about the bookshelf! There have probably been hundreds and hundreds of governmentally and private payer-required changes over the past forty years. And then the software itself going from DOS (yes, we were in DOS back then) to Windows and cloud-based delivery. There was ICD-10, Meaningful Use Stages 1 and 2…a bookshelf indeed.
The important trends now have been related to value-based care, MACRA/MIPS, population health, patient engagement, and super mobility. We’re proud to say ADS has complied with all of them. Our Medics EHR is excellent for the value-based care requirements mentioned above with its MACRA dashboard built-in.
And now we’re into telemedicine—the newest trend hitting the industry.
What are the major categories of solutions that the company provides for the clinical lab? Medicslab for Laboratories is our centerpiece laboratory solution. With its very consistent 99 percent success rate on first-attempt clearinghouse claims, labs can essentially assume their claims will be reimbursed on first submission.
Laboratories also rely on Medicslab for EDI, including eligibility verifications on tests before they’re performed, payer-based authorization alerts, real-time claim tracking to “keep tabs” on their claims as they appear in each payer’s queue, denial management when needed, cascade billing, customized fee schedules by physician/CPT/payer, and statements to patients as balances become their responsibility.
Medicslab provides highly comprehensive, user-defined financial and management reports, analytics, and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), virtually all of which are exportable to Excel. The system will even process laboratory sales reps’ activity reporting.
The demographics database is incredibly powerful in itself, with master patient index (MPI) architecture helping to ensure the correct patient record is found, and for preventing duplicate records from being created. The system supports multiple tax IDs as may be needed, and it’s HL7 compliant, making it easy to integrate with LIS or other systems.
What are the main components of laboratory practice management today? How can clinical labs of any size make improvements in those areas cost-effective? As a general statement on cost-effectiveness for any healthcare scenario, systems that are intelligent and do not need a lot of hands-on human intervention are ideal. Specifically for laboratories, having a system that’s Medicslab that’s “PAMA-friendly”—with an ability to compile and report on the needed PAMA data—is critical.
Another component for laboratories today is an ability to get paid both from insurance payers and patients. Nothing beats getting paid!
The way to improve getting paid for laboratories of any size requires two automation steps: first, ensuring in advance, before they’re performed, that tests will be reimbursed; and second, having those claims go through cleanly the first time. The system or RCM company is obviously the front line on this. Hundreds of pages of denied claims that need to be edited and resubmitted are an absolute drain on resources. In fact, we often see thousands of dollars in unworked denials just languishing.
Not having denials in the first place is ideal, but then having a quick denial manager as in Medicslab that supports on-the-fly-edits and resubmissions is the backup for turning denials into revenue. Everyone is online today, so having an ability to email digital statements to patients with a secure “pay now” feature built in produces instantaneous payments from patients. That makes the entire patient statement and payment process paperless because statements are sent directly to the patient’s or guarantor’s email address. Laboratories can track when they’re emailed, and whether or not they’ve been opened.
If they were opened and responded to either by a payment or a question, that’s good. If there’s no response after being opened, that could be a red flag. And if they’re not opened at all, that’s another possible red flag. Either way, a phone call would be prudent. If you’re not going to be paid, or if there’s any problem, it’s better to know that right now. The Medicslab supports digital e-statements through our clearinghouse.
Besides tools such as these, laboratories of any size would do well to have role-based, audit trail-enabled software to ensure security and system use. Medicslab is role-based as established by the administrator, and has an ever-present audit trail that continually monitors system use by operator. Both of these features are invaluable to laboratories.
What role can improved lab practice management play in outreach efforts? “Outreach” can apply to laboratories in two ways practice management-wise: there’s the patient engagement aspect in outreach, and the marketing aspect. In terms of engagement for laboratories that have patients coming in to be tested, one great capability is texting reminders directly through the appointment scheduler in batch mode. For example, all patients with appointments next Thursday can be texted on the preceding Monday.
Patients are able to reply via text that they’re confirming or need to reschedule. Either response can land directly on the appointment in the scheduler. Those that need to be rescheduled can be called, while other patients with future appointments can be called to see if they’d like to come in sooner.
Text reminders help keep the laboratory operating at peak efficiency, with minimal gaps or with no gaps at all. A portal also helps keep patients connected with the laboratory 24 x 7 x 365. They can enter their demographics and complete questionnaires online prior to their test, at their convenience.
Laboratories today are competitive. So on the marketing side, it’s not unusual to see laboratories advertising in print, online, through social media, and even via local TV or radio spots. Local mailers are also used. Laboratories doing any or all of these need a way to track their marketing efforts. Medicslab has the easy to use MedicsCRM, which is excellent for tracking any laboratory’s marketing efforts.
