Case Study
Mark J. Stenclik, M.D.

An orthopedic practice located in Rochester, New York, Mark J. Stenclik, M.D. provides orthopedic surgery and fracture care to patients ranging in age from four to 100. One full-time physician and a physician’s assistant see approximately 150 patients a week. Total staff size is eight.

“Dealing with numerous insurances with multiple plans is one of the biggest challenges we face,” explains Diane Stenclik, Manager. “Having software from a vendor who is on top of industry changes is critical. Both with Medicare changes several years ago and with New York State’s recent ability to accept Worker’s Comp claims electronically, we’ve been in the forefront. In the first three weeks, we submitted 110 claims. No longer do we need to print, sign, assemble and mail 220 forms -- 110 to the NY Comp Board and 110 to the insurance company. Our practice will save at least four hours each week, and payment is so much faster.”

CHALLENGES
When Mark and Diane Stenclik founded their practice in 1987, they purchased software to submit claims electronically. However, the vendor began to charge additional for each insurer to which claims were submitted. Upon inquiring of a major insurer which vendor was the best at submitting claims, Diane learned about MEDENT from Community Computer Service.

SOLUTION
The Stencliks began using MEDENT Practice Management in 1990 and MEDENT EMR in 1992.

With MEDENT, the Stenclik practice submitted more claims electronically. They began using the Community Computer service for the creation and mailing of patient statements as soon as it was available in 1995. The practice became paperless in 2003. They use e-prescribing and have been using speech recognition for four years. The physician’s assistant uses speech recognition to record all narrative. Dr. Stenclik records notes from initial visits for transcription and uses speech recognition for follow-up visit narrative.

Before MEDENT, Dr. Stenclik hated computers. Diane describes telling him that once he found a valuable use for a computer he would change his mind. She states, “In the early days of the practice, if he needed to find a patient’s chart after hours and it wasn’t in the file, he would look in multiple places – shelves containing charts, the nurses desk, the transcriptionist’s desk. Even if he found the chart, often he couldn’t locate the information he needed. Now with EMR, he has immediate access to the patient’s record whether he is in the office or at home. Specific information is in a consistent location. Now he loves his computer.”

“There’s flexibility as to how the chart is structured,” explains Diane. “If you want to change the way it’s set up, you can make a change, and the change is made across the system. Also, there are many ways to get information in to the system, and it can be tailored to the way the doctor works.”

“With each new version of MEDENT, the software has improved,” states Diane. “I recall when auto-post was first introduced, and it’s fabulous! Before, when payments came in, it would take three hours to post them. With auto-post, it takes five minutes. Also, Community Computer has implemented in new versions specific requests I’ve made.”

“I’ve been pleased with the ease of getting paper work out since we began using MEDENT,” comments Diane. “When there have been changes, such as those which occurred some years ago with Medicare, Community Computer was on top of the changes. They were among the first to re-program their software to handle the changes. They are always up-to-date on what’s going on in the industry. When I first heard about NYS Worker’s Comp electronic submission, I knew they would handle it well.”

The Stenclik practice submits about 130 Worker’s Comp claims each month. They were on the leading edge of submitting claims electronically through the iHCFA clearinghouse. “Any initial kinks were worked out with iHCFA in the first days of April,” states Diane. “Within three weeks, we submitted 110 claims. Typically this would have meant printing, assembling, signing and mailing 220 forms -- 110 to the NY Comp Board and 110 to the insurance company.”

Dr. William DeGasperis, President of iHCFA, describes, “The electronic Worker’s Comp bill is a simpler version, and it includes all of the supporting documentation. In addition, when bills are submitted to the insurance carrier, the Worker’s Comp Board has already authorized the claim. There is confirmation that the bill has been received and no risk of confusion about its receipt. With MEDENT the submission process is completely electronic, including the progress note, and it can be done in one seamless step.”
“Community Computer support has always been excellent,” states Diane. “With the vendor we used before MEDENT, if there was a problem, they would attribute it to hardware or software they didn’t support, even though they had sold us all of the hardware and software we used. Community Computer has never done that to me. Whatever the problem, they fix it. We haven’t been down in the twenty years we’re had MEDENT.”

RESULTS
MEDENT has enabled the Stenclik practice to efficiently submit claims and post payments, basically eliminate paper within the office and access patient information when and where it is needed.

The practice is one of the first to reap the benefits of electronic submission of NYS Worker’s Comp claims, enabling Diane to meet her goal of being on the front-end of new functionality.

The Stenclik practice saves at least four hours per week on the printing, assembling and mailing of Worker’s Comp claims. In addition, there is no longer a need for Dr. Stenclik to sign two copies of the forms, and no need to wait for him to sign for the claim to be submitted. “Once the procedures are in place with iHCFA, it takes only one to two minutes to submit a claim,” describes Diane. “The first claim was paid within three days. In comparison, another claim paid in the same timeframe had been submitted by paper over two months earlier.”

 “CCHITSM” and “CCHIT CertifiedSM” are service marks of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology.
Testimonial
Diane Stenclik

 I want to let you know everything is now successful. My last submissions went without a hitch, and the procedure I need to do is running smoothly and is not time consuming at all.

Thank you and the team for all the hard work in making this happen. Especially Tammy, it was a painful process that we all grew from with each error. And I would like to thank the staff at IHCFA, John in support was always friendly, looked into my questions, and I even spoke to Bob a couple of times to work through the problems.

The cost of processing with IHCFA will be absolutely nothing, compared to the cost of the paper shuffle that goes on in our office. I have always plugged in the charges, and created the C4, but Debbie in our office had the tedious task of assembling all the attachments and getting them out to each insurance company and the board, and since I typed "see attached letter" on every single C4 that was created, that was alot of printing and attaching to the forms. In less than two weeks we sent IHCFA 76 claims. No longer will Dr. Stenclik have to sign each one of those claims forms 2 times (152 signatures), and we will no longer have to wait for him to sign so the paper work can go out.

Since, I leave nothing to chance I called NYSIF to see if they received a claim from Wednesday, and it was on there system in less than a day, with all the supporting documents.

Thank you again for all the hard work.
Testimonial
Rick Shubert

 I wanted to get this out to the folks at iHCFA. The quick turn around on Friday for the split status is great and has made a vast improvement in our ability to quickly and correctly manage errors. We appreciate the quick turn around that iHCFA is providing and the effort on your part to make this a success.