West Hills Allergy & Asthma Associates: Increasing Patient Volume After Switching to ModMed® Allergy

Learn how one allergy practice gained practice efficiency, improved staff and patient communication, and streamlined its revenue cycle.

BACKGROUND

West Hills Allergy & Asthma Associates serves the communities of Portland and Southwest Beaverton, Oregon. Dr. Laurel Rene Anderson-Cowell, who has more than 30 years of expertise in allergy and immunology, is joined by a certified physician assistant and multiple staff members dedicated to providing evidence-based diagnostics and treatment for patients of all ages.

The group’s previous EHR system was cumbersome, and the customer service was lacking. Even though they had an EHR, they were still using a lot of paper and scanning things into the system. The team also had to build templates for everything. The system really wasn’t compatible with an efficient workflow.

Practice Administrator Laina Roberts shares why they chose ModMed^® Allergy and how the allergy-specific software has helped save time, improve collections and increase patient volume.

MEASURABLE SUCCESS

What attracted me the most to ModMed Allergy were the charting features in EMA® and the patient engagement tools. The allergy-specific built-in content in EMA means the tools we need are already there to use. We don’t have to create separate templates. We also appreciated the ability to do voice dictation.

Because of how busy our main physician is, sometimes she’d be at the office until 8:00 PM to finish notes or would arrive at the office early in the morning to catch up, and she was becoming burnt out. When evaluating new solutions, it was really important to our providers to select a system that would enable quicker documentation more efficiently. Since switching to ModMed, Dr. Anderson-Cowell leaves the office on time, saving two, sometimes more, hours a day. Provider burnout was reduced by 75% due to the ease of using EMA.

Another way that we’ve been able to measure our success is by our collections rate. From a payer standpoint, we have an 85% rating for getting claims paid in 30 days or less, which is huge. For most payers, we’re seeing around 26 days of turnaround. For patients, we have the ability to send text messages and emails regarding their bills, and they have the option to pay online. Our overall collections rate is currently 98%, which we never achieved with our old system.

We’ve also seen an increase in our revenue and a 20% increase in patient volume in 2023. We attribute this increase to the ability for patients to self-schedule in addition to our increased marketing efforts. We receive around four to five new patients a week who have scheduled through the self-schedule portal. We’re forecasting a 26% annual revenue increase this year.

XTRACT SOLUTIONS

We use Xtract Solutions which seamlessly interfaces with EMA and helps organize patient care from diagnosis, allergy testing, immunotherapy vial creation and injections. All the data on our allergy shot injections and skin testing flow right into EMA. The integration also streamlines prescriptions and inventory management. It’s wonderful.

GAIN EFFICIENCY FAST

ModMed Kiosk speeds up patient check-in time. Before, check-in took about 15 minutes on the paper-based process. Now that it is digital, check-in takes three to five minutes. For our allergy shot clinic, patients no longer have to form a long line at the front desk to check in. Patients can enter their information at home, check in and pay their copay with ModMed Kiosk.

My experience with ModMed’s PM system has been amazing, and it has made a huge difference in the efficiency of our front office. I love having the Analytics platform and the financial section at my fingertips. I can easily run reports on metrics and present them to our board members. It’s made my job easier.

ModMed Pay has made it easier for patients to make payments. We also like that there is the ability to save a credit card on file so the patients are able to pay quickly. And if we do have a payment plan on file, we have access to their consent to run their credit card monthly.

Having an all-in-one system has increased transparency throughout the practice. We utilize the task system to communicate between our front and back office and our allergy shot clinic. We can easily manage orders that come in for allergy bottles and access information such as when a patient can start their shots. Our biller can access patient notes and add relevant information to a claim if needed. ModMed Allergy has made everything a lot more efficient.

To learn more about the products Laina Roberts discussed, please request a demo at modmed.com/allergy or call 561.235.7506

The statements and conclusions contained herein reflect the opinions of Laina Roberts and not those of ModMed. ModMed makes no representations or warranties as to the accuracy of any such information. Results may vary depending on medical practice size, product usage and other variables.