Midwifery Consultation Topics – Midwifery Business Consultation
Midwifery Business Consultation has been expanding its business consulting team to help meet all the unique needs that midwives need to practice successfully. We have experts that can help with birth centers, home birth practices, women’s health clinics, and niche midwife business ventures. We love helping midwives with not just business support, but personal growth and resources. Our consulting services to midwives ranges from one hour chat to answer very detailed questions about anything with midwifery to full scale support for practices opening up in their communities. Midwifery Business Consultation isn’t just spending time with you and giving guidance, we are also recommended great people to use for business support, great mentors across country to help accelerate your success, and resources like tools, policies, templates, guidelines, and resources for any midwife to save time creating the business backdrop needs for her practice. Whether you are a new midwife looking for tips with interviewing your first job in the hospital and want an expert to review your resume to seasoned midwife that wants to retire soon and sell her practice. We can help with all variations of what midwives are needing to create their dream practice. Take some time to just chat in a free discovery call with one of our amazing consultant team members that are national experts in their fields in midwifery profession and business advocacy. We would love to help you out or just chat so your curiosity can be fulfilled what a midwife business consultant can do for you! https://midwiferybusinessconsultation.com/consultation-services-pages/ https://empoweringmidwiferybusiness.com
Common Midwife Business Consulting Questions Answered
Navigating the business aspects of midwifery practice can be complex and challenging. Here are answers to some of the most common questions midwives have when considering business consulting: 1. How Can Business Consulting Help My Midwifery Practice? Business consulting can provide invaluable support by offering expertise in financial management, operational efficiency, strategic planning, regulatory compliance, and more. Consultants tailor their guidance to the specific needs of midwifery practices, helping them streamline operations, improve patient care, and achieve long-term success. 2. What Should I Expect During a Business Consulting Engagement? During a consulting engagement, expect an initial assessment of your practice’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT analysis). Consultants will work closely with you to identify goals, develop strategies, and implement actionable plans to address challenges and optimize business performance. Regular follow-ups and adjustments ensure progress toward your objectives. 3. How Can Consulting Improve Financial Performance? Consultants analyze financial metrics, review billing and coding practices, assess revenue cycles, and identify opportunities to increase reimbursements and reduce expenses. They help implement financial best practices, negotiate favorable contracts with payers, and improve cash flow management, ultimately enhancing financial health and sustainability. 4. What Regulatory and Compliance Issues Should I Be Aware Of? Consultants keep practices informed about regulatory changes, accreditation standards, and compliance requirements specific to midwifery. They assist in maintaining documentation integrity, ensuring HIPAA compliance, navigating insurance billing complexities, and preparing for audits to mitigate risks and maintain legal and ethical standards. 5. How Can Consulting Support Practice Growth and Expansion? Consultants facilitate strategic planning for practice growth by conducting market analysis, identifying new service opportunities, and developing marketing strategies to attract and retain patients. They advise on operational scalability, staffing needs, technology adoption (e.g., telehealth), and partnerships to support expansion efforts and enhance community outreach. 6. What Training and Development Opportunities Do Consultants Offer? Consultants provide training programs tailored to midwives and staff, covering clinical advancements, leadership skills, patient communication, and compliance training. They promote professional development through workshops, seminars, and online resources to ensure ongoing learning and skill enhancement. 7. How Can Consulting Enhance Patient Experience and Quality of Care? Consultants focus on enhancing patient-centered care by improving workflows, optimizing appointment scheduling, and implementing patient engagement strategies. They help develop patient education materials, gather feedback through surveys, and implement quality improvement initiatives to enhance satisfaction, trust, and health outcomes. 8. What Role Does Technology Play in Consulting Services? Technology integration is crucial in modern midwifery practices. Consultants recommend and implement practice management systems, electronic health records (EHRs), telemedicine platforms, and patient portals to streamline operations, improve communication, and enhance patient access to care while ensuring data security and compliance. Conclusion Business consulting empowers midwives to navigate the complexities of running a successful practice while focusing on delivering high-quality, patient-centered care. By addressing common challenges, providing strategic guidance, and fostering continuous improvement, consultants play a pivotal role in optimizing practice efficiency, financial performance, and overall healthcare delivery. Consulting services are tailored to meet the unique needs of midwifery practices, supporting their growth, sustainability, and commitment to exceptional patient care.
Coming together as Midwives Really Helps your Business
Home Birth Community Being part of a home birth community, it is really important for a midwife to have peer reviews of care. When there is solo practices “doing their own thing,” keeping up with evidence based care and colleague evaluations are very important. Being able to have regular meetings with other midwives in your community helps boost relationships for call coverage, improvement of client outcomes with educational conferences together, and creates a gateway for clear communication and updating other midwives about changes happening locally and nationally. Creating Home Birth Community Having midwives meet together quarterly create a true sense of midwifery home birth community. Have each midwife rotate responsibilities for the meetings: one sets up an educational presentation, peer review on one good and poor outcome that has happened recently, and another brings national and local updates to present. Depending on how large your out of hospital midwifery community it, the meetings can be local or state wide invitation. I have seen best results when 8-12 midwives get together. Larger groups of 30-50 are better for annual meet ups (maybe local chapters come together). ACNM has many state organized events that Certified Nurse Midwives can attend. These small community run meetings can really help keep accountability to your fellow midwife. Reviewing charts together for educational purposes occur in hospitals all the time. Midwives can learn just as much from a book as from learning from each other mistakes and triumphs. Going over transport outcomes, policies, and keeping up with EMS transport collaboration meetings are essential for good outcomes. Sharing Valuable Insights Learning each midwives suggestions of what to try, do, or supplies available to handle similar emergency situations is really helpful in a limited resource setting like home. Your midwife colleagues that do directly what you are doing can give valuable insight to improving processes. Even having discussion of near misses and the good outcomes that occur help newer midwives learn from your personal experience. Newer midwives fresh out of school will have more evidence based styles to try that the seasoned midwives can learn more. Quarterly meetings help create a sense of community among the midwives. Having similar fee schedules, expectations, risk out criteria, and commission rate to cover call for each other really helps strengthen each midwife’s direct practice. If one midwife doesn’t do VBACs and another one takes client’s that have had 3 prior cesarean sections, it will create tension and hesitancy to cover each other for vacation. Personal time is important and having good working relationships with fellow midwives in community really prevents professional burnout. Be a leader in your community and reach out to fellow midwives to get meetings started. Even if it is bi-annually, take the time to coordinate get together. Midwives are busy, but being proactive rather than reactive with your outcomes will benefit everyone’s midwifery businesses. We’ve developed our course, How to Run a Successful Home birth practice, to give you a comprehensive rundown for your practice.
Collaboration Tips for Midwives
Collaboration tips for midwives Collaboration between professional groups is essential for safe and efficient health care. Collaboration improves the way your team works together and problem-solves. This leads to more innovation, efficient processes, increased success, and improved communication. Through listening to and learning from team members, you can help each other reach your goals. Maternity care practice is characterized by close cooperation between obstetricians, midwives, family physicians, and nurses; nevertheless, conflict has been reported between many healthcare professionals. The level of conflict or cooperation between maternity care professionals depends on the organization and culture of the working environment. Collaboration in midwifery terms has been defined as the “exercising of effort by midwives and physicians towards each other for the purposes of sharing functions and rewarding and effecting care for women and their families.” The term collaboration is used with related terms such as cooperation and teamwork. While midwives are centered on promoting and protecting birth as a normal physiological process, for most birthing women, the totality of their care falls within the scope of midwifery practice. There are occasions, however, when the complexity of a woman is inevitable and there is a rising need for collaborative function within another birth expert. The midwifery profession is becoming increasingly involved in building relationships with the professional bodies of other healthcare disciplines. This is to ensure that those involved in the production of clinical guidelines for practice and in policy discussions are aware of the full scope of midwifery practice. If collaboration within your midwifery business and practice happens, here are some great tips you can use. Steps to Improving Collaboration Define Your Collaborative Approach to Health Care A collaborative team is best defined as a group of medical practitioners from different professions who share patient and patient care goals and have responsibilities for complementary tasks on an ongoing basis. Establish what these teams will look like at your organization to begin setting your staff and coworkers up for success. Delegate the Roles of Each Team member; Respect Job Roles The education of a health professional is largely separated by profession, limiting the knowledge one staff member has about the skillset of another and potentially causing future problems. Learning to understand the roles and responsibilities of other professionals is necessary to function effectively on any team, especially in health care, because the team’s success lies in providing quality treatment to patients. Assign Specific Responsibilities and Tasks In a perfect world, midwifery students would learn about the essential components of collaboration concerning coordination, communication, and shared responsibility. In some cases, this is taught before entering the workforce, and in others, it must be reinforced in the field on an ongoing basis. Effective communication is needed to facilitate coordinated care at all times. An ideal communication system would include a well-designed digital filing system, regularly scheduled meetings to discuss patient care issues around the clock, and a mechanism for communicating with external systems. Practice Collaborating, Handling Conflicts, and Working Towards Improvement Collaboration among team members who have different perspectives and areas of expertise often results in fresh insights and solutions to problems that rarely get achieved by one health professional working in a silo. Each member of the staff should become aware that, because of the professional diversity present on the team, differences of opinion and conflict are not only inevitable but are important for the continued growth of your collaboration; hence, it is so important to practice and educate on how to deal with these types of issues. Successful collaborative practice requires several conditions. First, and most importantly, the woman must remain at the center of the process. In order for her may participate in informed decision-making, information sharing must occur in a context where her values and philosophical beliefs are respected and upheld. Midwives can assist women to critically examine the evidence presented to them and help them make sense of those aspects that appear conflicting or inconclusive. When the woman is central to the collaborative process, her ability to tease out the important elements (to her) of both midwifery and obstetric practice will mean that she can formulate a plan of care that will best meet her needs. Edwards (2000, p 81) uses the phrase ‘a potentially radicalizing effect on the maternity system’ to describe what can happen when the relationships between caregivers and women become the organizing principle around which care is structured. References Behruzi, R., Klam, S., Dehertog, M., Jimenez, V., & Hatem, M. (2017, June 26). Understanding factors affecting collaboration between midwives and other health care professionals in a birth center and its affiliated Quebec Hospital: A case study – BMC pregnancy and childbirth. BioMed Central. Retrieved July 15, 2022, from https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-017-1381-x#:~:text=Collaboration%20in%20midwifery%20terms%20has,operation%20and%20teamwork%20%5B10%5D. Hammer, R. (2021, October 11). 4 ways to improve efficiencies in your healthcare practice. ReferralMD. Retrieved July 14, 2022, fromhttps://getreferralmd.com/2019/03/medical-staff-collaborate-efficiently/ Themes, U. F. O. (2016, June 18). Working in collaboration. Nurse Key. Retrieved July 14, 2022, from https://nursekey.com/working-in-collaboration/
Building Relationships with Collaborating Physicians: Best Practices
Collaboration between midwives and physicians is a cornerstone of safe, integrated maternity care. Whether you operate a home birth practice, birth center, or women’s health clinic, strong relationships with collaborating physicians are essential for smooth referrals, emergency support, and enhanced patient trust. At Midwifery Business Consultation, we guide midwives in building professional networks, fostering collaboration, and creating practices that are both safe and financially sustainable. Here’s a practical guide to establishing and maintaining strong relationships with collaborating physicians. Why Physician Collaboration Matters Patient Safety: Ensures seamless transitions when higher-level medical care is needed. Professional Credibility: Physicians who trust and respect your practice enhance your reputation. Insurance and Credentialing: Many insurers require documented collaborative agreements for midwives. Mutual Learning: Collaboration fosters knowledge-sharing and professional growth. 💡 Tip: Collaboration is not just a requirement—it’s an opportunity to strengthen your practice and provide exceptional care. Best Practices for Building Strong Relationships 1. Approach with Professionalism and Respect Clearly communicate your midwifery model, scope of practice, and philosophy of care. Understand the physician’s expectations and workflow. Treat all interactions as professional collaborations, even if personal rapport develops. 2. Establish Clear Communication Channels Define preferred methods for phone, email, or electronic medical records. Share timely updates about clients who may require consultation or transfer. Create concise, standardized forms for referrals, handoffs, and consultations. 💡 Tip: Consistent, transparent communication builds trust and reduces misunderstandings. 3. Develop Written Collaborative Agreements Outline roles, responsibilities, and consultation protocols. Specify emergency procedures and transfer criteria. Include provisions for periodic review to update practices as regulations or relationships evolve. 💡 Tip: A clear written agreement protects both parties and provides clarity to clients. 4. Foster Mutual Respect for Expertise Recognize the value each provider brings—midwives for holistic, patient-centered care; physicians for medical expertise. Avoid overstepping or undermining the physician’s role; focus on shared goals. Celebrate successes together, such as smooth transfers or positive birth outcomes. 5. Engage in Ongoing Professional Development Attend joint workshops, conferences, or case review meetings. Share updates on guidelines, protocols, and continuing education. Demonstrate commitment to evidence-based practice and lifelong learning. 💡 Tip: Learning together strengthens credibility and fosters mutual respect. 6. Maintain Positive and Transparent Relationships Address conflicts promptly and professionally. Celebrate achievements, milestones, and successful collaborations. Maintain open dialogue about expectations, concerns, and areas for improvement. How Midwifery Business Consultation Can Help At Midwifery Business Consultation, we help midwives: Draft collaborative agreements aligned with state laws and best practices. Strategize networking with local physicians to build trust and referral pathways. Develop communication systems for smooth patient handoffs. Provide coaching for maintaining professional, respectful relationships. We’ve helped midwives across the U.S. establish strong, effective collaborations that enhance both patient care and business growth. Final Thoughts Strong relationships with collaborating physicians are a key ingredient for a successful, sustainable midwifery practice. By approaching collaboration with professionalism, clear communication, and mutual respect, you can ensure safe care for clients, smooth operations for your practice, and lasting professional partnerships. Ready to Build Strong Collaborations for Your Practice? Schedule a consultation with Midwifery Business Consultation to get personalized guidance on drafting collaborative agreements, networking with physicians, and creating a practice culture that fosters professional respect and patient safety.
Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)
All midwives need to think about clinical laboratory improvement amendments CLIA. It is very important to follow the rules if you are doing urine dipsticks for prenatal visits, lab draws on site versus sending to local resources, doing finger sticks for random glucose levels in office, or performing wet mounts to rule out bacterial vaginosis. All of those lab tests are regulated through the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA). CLIA requires that any facility examining human specimens for diagnosis, prevention, treatment of a disease or for assessment of health must register with the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and obtain CLIA certification. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regulates all laboratory testing (except research) performed on humans in the U.S. through the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA). In total, CLIA covers approximately 260,000 laboratory entities. The Division of Clinical Laboratory Improvement & Quality, within the Quality, Safety & Oversight Group, under the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ) has the responsibility for implementing the CLIA Program. The objective of the CLIA program is to ensure quality laboratory testing. There are federal guidelines, but each state has more specific rules and forms to complete. Please refer to your state Health Department for further instructions. CLIA does refer more to CNMs, but I do recommend Direct Entry Midwives and CPMs to double check their states laws to make sure that they are being compliant. Last thing any midwife business wants to do is have fines or violations on the state’s radar.
Choosing the Right Business Entity for Your Midwifery Practice: Types and Considerations
Selecting the appropriate business entity is a crucial decision for midwives establishing their practice. Here’s a comprehensive guide to types of business entities and what midwives need to consider when picking the best one for their practice: Sole Proprietorship: Overview: A sole proprietorship is the simplest form of business, where the midwife owns and operates the practice alone. Considerations: Easy to set up, minimal paperwork, and direct control over decision-making. However, the midwife is personally liable for business debts and obligations. Partnership: Overview: A partnership involves two or more midwives sharing ownership and responsibilities of the practice. Considerations: Allows for shared decision-making, resources, and workload. Partnerships require a clear partnership agreement outlining roles, responsibilities, profit-sharing, and dispute resolution. Limited Liability Company (LLC): Overview: An LLC provides liability protection for owners (members) while offering flexibility in management and taxation. Considerations: Combines the benefits of limited liability with minimal formalities. Midwives should draft an operating agreement to outline management structure, member roles, and financial contributions. Professional Corporation (PC) or Professional Limited Liability Company (PLLC): Overview: Specifically designed for licensed professionals, such as midwives, who provide services requiring a professional license. Considerations: Offers liability protection for professional malpractice claims. Compliance with state regulations and maintaining corporate formalities are essential. Nonprofit Organization: Overview: Suitable for midwives focusing on community health, education, or charitable services. Considerations: Requires adherence to nonprofit regulations, tax-exempt status application (501(c)(3)), and governance by a board of directors. Cooperative: Overview: A cooperative allows midwives to jointly own and operate the practice, sharing profits and decision-making. Considerations: Encourages collaboration and equal participation among members. Requires cooperative bylaws and a clear structure for governance. Consider these factors when choosing the best business entity for your midwifery practice: Liability Protection: Evaluate the level of personal liability protection needed for your practice. Tax Implications: Understand the tax treatment of each entity type and how it aligns with your financial goals. Operational Flexibility: Consider the administrative requirements, management structure, and scalability of each entity. Regulatory Compliance: Ensure compliance with state licensing requirements, healthcare regulations, and professional practice standards. Long-Term Goals: Align your choice of entity with your practice’s growth plans, partnership opportunities, and succession planning. Consult with legal and financial advisors specializing in healthcare practice to navigate the complexities of entity selection. By choosing the right business entity, midwives can protect their assets, optimize tax advantages, and establish a solid foundation for long-term success in their midwifery practice.
CHARTING PLATFORMS FOR MIDWIVES
CHARTING PLATFORMS FOR MIDWIVES Providing an effective and efficient care service to our patients requires record keeping. It is very important as it provides detailed information of the patient’s medical records such as history, medications, allergies, procedures required, and so on. It provides accessible information whenever you need it. There are a couple of ways on how you can do your patient’s charting. Traditional Paper Charting Electronic Health Records (EHR) Traditional Paper Charting This method involves creating your patients medical record using paper, films, discs and keeping it in an area or a storage facility that you can have access whenever you need it. Paper charting method is note-taking method that uses charts to organize information of each patients and being documented into several columns and rows. Paper charting method enables you to save for upfront costs of record keeping. Since that all you need to have is a paper, folder and an empty small space to keep your documents. It also allows you to be familiar with the format and gives you an ease in pulling up information from a file, examine previous notes and medical charts and record new information. With the physical form of all the previous records, charts and medical history, you do not need to worry about emergencies and you can access to the necessary information at any time. Electronic Health Records (EHR) EHR or Electronic Health Record Software is the digital version of a patient’s paper charts. The previously paper-based information about individuals has been replaced with the digital format. EHR are sought after as they provide real time, accurate, and quick access to patient data regardless of location. Armed with latest technologies and tools, Web based electronic health records software offers permanent solutions to various challenges in personal health care service. It is a patient-centric and real-time digital version of the paper charts describing in detail the patient data. This way of furnishing data enables information exchange in a quick, reliable, and accurate manner to the destination in a secure way. The ability of EHRs to provide information exchange in an efficient manner facilitates medical service providers to offer high quality treatment as well as more secure health care for patients. ClientCare Clientcare is an EHR developed to be the most complete EHR and practice management system for birth care professionals. It has extensively worked with hundreds of midwives in various birth settings to bring a software that is truly comprehensive and intuitive. Features Charting System Scheduling Reports Client Portal Billing Practice Management Pricing $55 month per user Simple Practice Simple Practice is the only Cloud-Based EHR Platform in Its Category to Obtain Certification. HITRUST CSF Certified status demonstrates that an organization has met key regulations and industry-defined requirements and is appropriately managing risk. Features Website Scheduling Telehealth Documentation Client Portal Billing Insurance Mobile Security Support Pricing . Essential ($39/month) – Unlimited Clients, Client Portal, Paperless Intakes, Diagnosis and treatment plans, Free Appointment Reminders, Online payments . Professional ($59/month) – Custom templates, Custom appointment reminders, appointment request widget, claim filing and payment reports, secure messaging, administrative notes, Free billers and schedulers, Monarch directory listing, Professional website, Add-on: Telehealth, Add-on: Wiley Planners. Mobile Midwife Mobile Midwife EHR is the premier electronic charting and patient health records software for the iPad and Mac. Features Client List Adding a Client Document Signing and Templates Prenatal Appointment scheduling Client data sharing iPhone Contacts Integration Labor and Delivery Signing off Charts and Change History Birth Summary Postpartum Print Fax Email Client Records Tasks and Notes Feature Client Billing and Invoices Insurance Billing Lactation Client Feature Gynecological and Primary Care Client Portal Client Messaging and Chat Pricing .$39 month per user Maternity Neighborhood Maternity Neighborhood is a company that was founded and led by a midwife. More than a company, it is a community. HIPAA compliant tools support midwives, obstetricians, doulas, childbirth educators, lactation consultants, and community based health programs. Maternity Neighborhood are supported in the delivery of relationship-based care, focused on shared-decision making and education relevant for the communities of families they serve. Features Track Visits Track Payments Education and Engagement Libraries Email Support Complete electronic health record for maternity and well-woman care Coding and Claim Creation Scheduling Quests Labs and Concord EFax available Unlimited Care Providers Custom Reporting File Storage Implementation Support Virtual webinars and in-person training Pricing . Yearly rate based on how many clients you will be having in the EHR system (example 25 clients at $30 per client per year would be $750 year or $62.50 monthly) Athena Health Athena Health delivers exceptional care while staying ahead of industry change with our easy-to-use EHR. Athena clinical is designed to help you document more efficiently and accurately while making it easier for you to provide high-quality care. Athena Health’s EHR software license starts at $140 per provider per month. This means that a practice of 5 physicians would pay $700 per month, minimum ($8400 annually) plus a percentage of income collected for care provided while using the system (speak with local rep to get your customized rate, typically around 5%) Features Enable clinical efficiency – Save time on clinical work with intuitive workflows, and access more complete information during patient encounters. Make documentation more efficient- Spend less time documenting and minimize distractions during patient encounters. Practice on the go- Access patient records and do meaningful work from your mobile device. Improve care coordination – Collaborate on patient care plans with other clinicians directly within the patient chart. Optimize quality performance- Succeed under any reimbursement model. Athenahealth’s quality performance team and flexible technology gets you stay ahead of the industry’s ever-changing regulatory requirement. Improve VBC results- Close more gaps and help you improve your value-based care result with accurate real-time data. Should in this day of age rare used for a very small scale homebirth practice or serve a community where internet access is quite a barrier for care and home visits like the Amish and Mennonite communities (even then a simple wifi hot
Charting Options For Midwives
Record keeping providing an effective and efficient care service to our patients requires. It is very important as it provides detailed information of the patient’s medical records such as history, medications, allergies, procedures required, and so on. It provides accessible information whenever you need it. There are a couple of ways on how you can do your patient’s charting. 1. Traditional Paper Charting 2. Electronic Health Records (EHR) Traditional Paper Charting This method involves creating your patients’ medical records using paper, films, discs and keeping it in an area or a storage facility that you can have access to whenever you need it. Paper charting method is note-taking method that uses charts to organize information of each patients and being documented into several columns and rows. Paper charting method enables you to save for upfront costs of record keeping. Since that all you need to have is a paper, folder and an empty small space to keep your documents. It also allows you to be familiar with the format and gives you an ease in pulling up information from a file, examine previous notes and medical charts and record new information. With the physical form of all the previous records, charts and medical history, you do not need to worry about emergencies and you can access to the necessary information at any time. Electronic Health Records (EHR) EHR or Electronic Health Record Software is the digital version of a patient’s paper charts. The previously paper-based information about individuals has been replaced with the digital format. EHR are sought after as they provide real time, accurate, and quick access to patient data regardless of location. Armed with latest technologies and tools, Web based electronic health records software offers permanent solutions to various challenges in personal health care service. It is a patient-centric and real-time digital version of the paper charts describing in detail the patient data. This way of furnishing data enables information exchange in a quick, reliable, and accurate manner to the destination in a secure way. The ability of EHRs to provide information exchange in an efficient manner facilitates medical service providers to offer high quality treatment as well as more secure health care for patients. 1. ClientCare Clientcare is an EHR developed to be the most complete EHR and practice management system for birth care professionals. It has extensively worked with hundreds of midwives in various birth settings to bring a software that is truly comprehensive and intuitive. Features Charting System Scheduling Reports Client Portal Billing Practice Management Pricing $55 month per user 2. Simple Practice Simple Practice is the only Cloud-Based EHR Platform in Its Category to Obtain Certification. HITRUST CSF Certified status demonstrates that an organization has met key regulations and industry-defined requirements and is appropriately managing risk. Features Website Scheduling Telehealth Documentation Client Portal Billing Insurance Mobile Security Support Pricing . Essential ($39/month) – Unlimited Clients, Client Portal, Paperless Intakes, Diagnosis and treatment plans, Free Appointment Reminders, Online payments . Professional ($59/month) – Custom templates, Custom appointment reminders, appointment request widget, claim filing and payment reports, secure messaging, administrative notes, Free billers and schedulers, Monarch directory listing, Professional website, Add-on: Telehealth, Add-on: Wiley Planners. 3. Mobile Midwife Mobile Midwife EHR is the premier electronic charting and patient health records software for the iPad and Mac. Features Client List Adding a Client Document Signing and Templates Prenatal Appointment scheduling Client data sharing iPhone Contacts Integration Labor and Delivery Signing off Charts and Change History Birth Summary Postpartum Print Fax Email Client Records Tasks and Notes FeatureClient Billing and Invoice Insurance Billing Lactation Client Feature Gynecological and Primary Care Client Portal Client Messaging and Chat Pricing$39 month per user 4. Maternity Neighborhood Maternity Neighborhood is a company that was founded and led by a midwife. More than a company, it is a community. HIPAA compliant tools support midwives, obstetricians, doulas, childbirth educators, lactation consultants, and community based health programs. Maternity Neighborhood are supported in the delivery of relationship-based care, focused on shared-decision making and education relevant for the communities of families they serve. Features Track Visits Track Payments Education and Engagement Libraries Email Support Complete electronic health record for maternity and well-woman care Coding and Claim Creation Scheduling Quests Labs and Concord EFax available Unlimited Care Providers Custom Reporting File StorageImplementation SupportVirtual webinars and in-person training Pricing . Yearly rate based on how many clients you will be having in the EHR system (example 25 clients at $30 per client per year would be $750 year or $62.50 monthly) 5. Athena Health Athena Health delivers exceptional care while staying ahead of industry change with our easy-to-use EHR. Athena clinical is designed to help you document more efficiently and accurately while making it easier for you to provide high-quality care. Athena Health’s EHR software license starts at $140 per provider per month. This means that a practice of 5 physicians would pay $700 per month, minimum ($8400 annually) plus a percentage of income collected for care provided while using the system (speak with local rep to get your customized rate, typically around 5%) Features · Enable clinical efficiency – Save time on clinical work with intuitive workflows, and access more complete information during patient encounters. Make documentation more efficient- Spend less time documenting and minimize distractions during patient encounters. · Practice on the go- Access patient records and do meaningful work from your mobile device. · Improve care coordination – Collaborate on patient care plans with other clinicians directly within the patient chart. · Optimize quality performance- Succeed under any reimbursement model. Athenahealth’s quality performance team and flexible technology gets you stay ahead of the industry’s ever-changing regulatory requirement. · Improve VBC results- Close more gaps and help you improve your value-based care result with accurate real-time data. Should in this day of age rare used for a very small scale homebirth practice or serve a community where internet access is quite a barrier for care and home visits like the Amish and Mennonite
Cash Versus Billing Insurance – MBC
Cash Versus Billing Insurance I have been asked so many times, “Is it better to be a cash-only business or offer insurance coverage for midwifery services?” I wish there was a simple answer to that complicated question. This question usually gets a response to more questions than an answer. What does your business plan look like? What population do you serve? What do your competitors do? If you serve the Amish and do home births, cash would be an easy answer. If you live in an area where all competitors are in the network and covered 100% with their insurance plan, it would be very difficult to survive in your area without accepting insurance. Your services would have to be so much better than other options in the area for families to pay cash versus covered with their insurance plan. Pretty much all hospital-based midwifery practices accept insurance. About half the birth center practices accept insurance. Far fewer home birth practices offer insurance processing. Families tend to have to provide insurance plan with itemized bills of paid services to get reimbursed directly if out-of-network benefits exist. Fewer insurance plans have out-of-network benefits and being in-network usually requires some form of malpractice insurance in place. Few smaller midwifery practices can afford the monthly payments required to have that level of coverage. The larger your practice is or will become, the more likely insurance billing for services will be necessary to be profitable. What Services Will You Offer? If you are doing mostly births versus gynecological services, insurance processing isn’t as necessary. If you running a women’s health clinic, very few practices can compete with specialists in the area offering that similar service. I have seen creative boutique practices offer services with a primary care provider to do a flat monthly family rate to have access to the services within the clinic. That cash subscription model works great for simpler, preventative-style practices. Once you start offering obstetrical care and all the additional support a midwife provides versus a typical medical practice delivering in the hospital, it is hard to keep overhead expenses of the business kept with lower health insurance reimbursement rates. I know these are the answers midwives would like to hear, but you need to look at your specific mission, goals, area, and services you want to provide to the community. Typically care is a hybrid between insurance reimbursement and cash discount prepayment models of payment. It will give families choices that can fit a family that doesn’t have good and poor health insurance coverage. We developed the course, Comprehensive Billing and Coding for Birth Centers and Midwives, to help you understand the crucial elements that enable your practice