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With praise from disability groups and business organizations alike, President George W. Bush has signed into law amendments to the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) that will significantly expand the protections afforded to disabled individuals.

The new law, entitled the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (“ADAAA”), expressly overturns several landmark Supreme Court decisions narrowly interpreting the definition of “disability” and will make disposing of ADA cases prior to trial more challenging for employers. The changes to the ADA take effect on January 1, 2009. 

Read the full article by clicking here… 

Betty Ray Mydland
Ashworth Student

Most health care facilities in this country accept responsibility for filing health insurance claims.  This is done either in the office, or forms are sent to a billing company that provides medical billing services for a fee.  Because of the increasing complexity of medical billing and the increased number of managed care insurance programs, the need for additional skilled medical billing specialists is growing rapidly. 

Because billing has become more complex, more training is required than ever before.  Untrained personnel can no longer cope with the myriad of programs, regulations, and updates in the field.  Likewise, medical facilities cannot operate with the loss of revenue resulting from inaccurate billing and inexperienced personnel. This is especially true since carriers, including and especially the government (Medicare), have consistently cut payment amounts over the last 10 years.  It follows that since most health care facilities are dealing with reduced payment revenue, poor billing practices cannot be tolerated. 

In addition to the typical doctor’s office situation, there are opportunities with the health insurance carriers, malpractice and liability insurance companies, state, local, and federal government agencies, medical consulting companies, law offices, private insurance billing companies, hospitals, clinics, schools, computer companies specializing in medical software, and self-employed consulting and/or billing companies. The actual duties may vary from position to position, as we discussed earlier, but the basic knowledge needed is the same. 

A career in medical billing should be considered for many reasons. First, it represents a good, solid, stable job, with varying salary ranges, depending on such variables as specific duties, geographic region, experience, and the company itself.  A medical billing specialist is a respected member of the health care team.  And, as is true of all health care careers, you will be able to help people every day.  It certainly is a career worth working for!

John E. Long
Medical Billing Program Instructor
Ashworth School of Health Care

I wasn’t sure at first if Ashworth was going to be the best school for me to take this program. And I wasn’t sure if the program would be good and really help me in the near future.  I was confused, but I made the best decision. Their program is good and you will learn the program if you really pay attention to it and take every lesson seriously.   

I got my package one week after enrolling.  It was fast and everything was there.  I’m new in the medical field, so I was kind of nervous yet excited at the same time.  I’m now on Lesson 4.  Getting there and loving it!

It’s pretty hard for me, but I am very motivated and looking forward to finishing my program.  I hope to be able to start working in a hospital or home health environment—doing what I love to do.

To all my fellow Medical Billing/Claims students, keep motivating yourself.  

It’s all worth it!  Good Luck!

Amanda
Student
Ashworth Medical Billing/Claims Program 

In my opinion, the ability to maintain positive “human relations” is one of the most important aspects of modern pharmacy.  We are fortunate that the public has always viewed pharmacy as an honorable profession.  I believe we owe this to our ability to serve our customers well, acting always in their best interests.  For one thing, we are much more accessible to the public than any other healthcare professionals.  Therefore, patients trust us with their health concerns and feel comfortable confiding even embarrassing problems with us.  If we maintain a professional attitude and treat our customers with respect, they’ll return and tell us even more about their conditions, which will help the supervising pharmacist advise them and, in some cases, provide vital information to the attending doctors.

While working in retail, I had many opportunities to practice my interpersonal skills.  Remember, when patients come to you, they may already be sick and may have spent time at a doctor’s office that day.  By the time they get to the pharmacy, they may have run out of patience.  I’ve found that greeting patients with a smile and a pleasant manner puts them at ease.  They don’t mind waiting for a prescription if they feel you are taking good care of them.  Be sure to explain what information you need from them to make the process go more quickly and why you need it.  If there’s a delay or if it takes longer than normal to prepare the prescription, give them updates.  For example, you may have to wait for insurance approval, or a suspension might need time to dissolve.  Information lets customers feel they are part of the process.  When they understand what is going on, they usually remain calm.

Tina Boyd Stacy
Pharmacy Technology Instructor
Ashworth University

              
             Thanks to Javier Belmont for permission to use this Photo.

While working as a pharmacy technician, you will see that most muscle relaxants and hormones are available only as prescription (or legend) drugs.  A few years ago, I was working at a retail store late on a Friday evening.  A person walked slowly up to the pharmacy counter and asked me to sell him some carisoprodol (a muscle relaxant).  Being pretty naïve, I asked for his name so I could pull up his refills on the computer.  He replied, “I don’t have a prescription.”  After I informed him that carisoprodol required a prescription, he left the pharmacy.  Without a valid prescription I could neither provide the man with carisoprodol nor appropriately assess his intentions for use.  

Be aware that, even though many muscle relaxants are not controlled substances, they do have the potential for being abused.  You can perform a valuable service by assisting the pharmacist in monitoring the quantity and frequency of refills your customers purchase.  If you notice a possible abuse situation, notify the pharmacist.  If it’s a case of the original prescription being no longer adequate, it may be time for the patient’s doctor to try a higher dose or another medication altogether. 

Tina Boyd Stacy
Pharmacy Technology Instructor
Ashworth University

 
              Thanks to Gisela Giardino for permission to use this Photo.

I enrolled in April of last year, but I had to set my studies aside for a few months due to a sprained left ankle and a fractured right ankle.  It was kind of hard to study when you’re constantly sleeping!

I’m now back to work and studying…

The medical billing course has been extremely helpful in my present job working for the “Insurance” company.  It has really opened my eyes to the health-care industry as a whole. I can now see why doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies do what they do—not saying that either side is right or wrong.  I have worked both sides of the fence. 

However; I now have a greater understanding of the whole concept and I really do think that Ashworth has been my greatest teacher EVER!!

I highly recommend that all who are studying this course to not get discouraged. There is light (and a great job) at the end of the tunnel!!

Good Luck and Be Blessed…

Dani
Medical Billing Student
Ashworth University School of Health Care

Let’s face it, not everyone is an effective communicator.  Some people are more reserved and must put forth a great deal of effort to be sociable and interact with others on a daily basis.  For other people, it’s not difficult at all to put on a smile, chat with, and listen to others. And although sometimes it’s tough to listen to the problems of others, especially when we’re distracted by our own troubles, the bottom line is that as health care workers, our own needs and desires take a back seat to those of our patients.  Put yourself in their shoes:  When we’re not feeling well, or must have a procedure performed, we certainly don’t want to encounter a grumpy, rude, or disinterested medical office employee.  We want to be considered important, and we want to be able to interact  with caring medical staff members who act as though they truly are concerned with our well-being.  Therefore, as a medical assistant, it is imperative that you keep your own expectations and requirements in mind when you are dealing with patients.  Remember, you represent the physicians and the entire office staff.  The attention and impression you give will improve or detract from the quality of the patient’s encounter, as well as the overall success of the health-care facility.

As the key link between the office and the patient, you must learn to give patients the individual care that they require and deserve.  You must learn to assess a patient’s needs quickly so that you can address their problems and concerns effectively. Part of this process is being able to tailor your response to each individual.  For example, you certainly would not communicate with a sick child the same way you communicate with an 80-year-old patient.  Think about how would you deal with a patient who speaks little or no English.  Would you greet a patient coming to the office for an immunization shot differently than you would treat a patient coming in to be treated for HIV?  Throughout your Medical Office Assisting program, we’ll consider the answers to these critical questions.

In learning how to individualize your approach to helping each patient, you will also learn about Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in this program.  As well as being able to assess the needs of a patient, you must also understand how those needs can be met.  To determine this, you must decide where you perceive those needs falls in the hierarchy of needs.  Maslow believed that basic, physiological needs must be met before higher goals can be reached.  For example, if a patient is homeless, his primary concern will be that he has something to eat and a place to sleep tonight, not that his blood pressure is elevated and he may have a stroke someday.

With respect to terminally ill patients, we will focus a lot on Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s five Stages of Dying.  You should take note of her highly insightful theories.  The chances are very good that you will at some point manage patients who are terminally ill (these five stages also apply to patients suffering from grief).  Knowing the emotional state of the patient makes empathy and communication easier.  The stages also explain why a patient might be cooperative and pleasant one day and angry and combative another day. 

Remember, it’s a privilege to work in a medical office.  I never take this privilege for granted and encourage you to demonstrate the same kind of pride when dealing with your patients.  At the end of the day, we’re here for the patients and are held to standards of excellence that should never be compromised.

John E. Long
Medical Office Assisting Program Instructor
Ashworth University School of Health Care

          Thanks to Lorianne DiSabato for permission to use this Photo. 

It is time, I think, to face the realpolitik of health care reform. That means asking a question few reformers dare to discuss:  How will we win the Congressional votes needed to pass serious health care reform? The American Prospect’s Ezra Klein put this question on the table at the “Take Back America” conference last week.  A pragmatic progressive (in the best sense), Klein pulled no punches:  “There are so many people in this town [D.C.] who do such smart policy thinking,” he observed. But “what we don’t give enough thought to is the politics of reform. This is a political problem. Until we have the votes in the Senate, we can’t get anything done.”Without the votes, Klein told reformers, “you don’t have a plan; you have a position.”

Some assume that, if we elect a progressive president, he will “put the votes together” to achieve reform. But the fact is that even an optimistic, charismatic JFK wasn’t able to persuade Congress to unite behind healthcare for the elderly in the early 1960s—a time when seniors were the poorest group in America. It was only after Kennedy was assassinated that a wily LBJ (who had grown up in Congress and knew where all of the bodies were buried on the Hill) was able to leverage a martyred president’s last wishes to help pass Medicare in 1965. The fact that LBJ had won by a landslide sealed the deal.

This time around, nailing the votes that would secure something like “Medicare for Everyone Who Wants It” will be much tougher. As I noted in my first post in this series, “Obstacles to Health Care Reform,” the lobbyists representing the for-profit health care industry enjoy enormous power. The money at stake in the health care industry has grown exponentially since 1965. And thanks to generous campaign contributions, the industry’s lobbyists wield great influence, even among liberal politicians.                  

Who can counter that kind of power?  Citizens who vote.  Lobbyists have dollars, but a billion dollars won’t help a politician if his constituency has made it clear that it won’t re-elect him unless he passes a particular piece of legislation that voters want. Nevertheless, any hope that pressure from voters will give Congressmen the spine to stand up to the lobbyists turns on the assumption that voters share common goals. With that assumption in mind, I decided to take a hard look at where most voters stand on health care reform. Polls show that the majority of Americans say that they want universal healthcare—but drill a little deeper, and you’ll find that different groups have very different priorities.

(more…)

              Thanks to Tahoe Sunsets for permission to use this Photo.

The Center for Public Integrity, a public interest investigative journalism organization, has obtained copies of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study of environmental and health data in eight Great Lakes states that was scheduled for publication in July 2007.

The report, which pointed to elevated rates of lung, colon, and breast cancer; low birth weight; and infant mortality in several of the geographical areas of concern has not yet been made public. A few days before the report was slated to be released, it was pulled. Meanwhile, at precisely the same time, its lead author, Christopher De Rosa, has been removed from the position he held since 1992.  The Center for Public Integrity is asking why.

The study, “Public Health Implications of Hazardous Substances in Twenty-Six U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern” was developed by the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) at the request of the International Joint Commission, an independent U.S-Canadian organization that monitors and advises both governments on the use and quality of boundary waters. The CDC report brings together two sets of data: environmental data on known “areas of concern” — including superfund sites and hazardous waste dumps — and separate health data collected by county or, in some cases, smaller geographical regions. The study does not try to prove cause and effect. Instead, it outlines areas for further study and data collection on the link between pollution and health.”Let’s say we have a superfund site and we also find elevated risk of leukemia in the county — is that related? We don’t know, but people living in the area can logically argue that we ought to find out,” Dr. Peter Orris, a professor at the University of Illinois School of Public Health and one of the peer reviewers of the study told Oneworld.net. (more…)

 
             Thanks to Scarlett Q  for permission to use this Photo.

Many physicians have the medical assistant write out the prescription, and then the physician signs it.  This practice places a significant responsibility on the medical assistant.  My opinion is that it is not good policy to have the medical assistant write out prescriptions.  If the physician in your office does follow this procedure, be absolutely sure that the physician reads what you have written prior to signing the prescription.  This applies especially to prescriptions that are called into the pharmacy.  If the physician has not reviewed the prescription and signed it, then you have just prescribed medications on your own.  Such a situation would have drastic legal and ethical implications for both you and the physician.  Always follow procedures carefully.  If you have concerns about procedures in your office, discuss them with your physician. 

Loretta Maples
Medical Office Assisting Instructor
Ashworth University