Family Practice Case Study

Dr. Steven McKenzie Attributes $160,000 Bonus to Praxis EMR

Praxis and Your Bottom Line

You don’t have to wait for ARRA stimulus funding to have your EMR purchase pay off. Just ask Dr. Steven McKenzie of the Valley Medical Family Practice in Hemet, California. In the first half of 2010 alone, he earned a $160,000 bonus for improved coding. And to hear him tell it, this is but the tip of the return-on-investment iceberg.

When he decided to purchase an EMR, he had a twofold purpose in mind: to reduce his practice’s filing space by going paperless and to provide access to information throughout his office. Of course, both goals had to be met while also maintaining his clinic’s level of medical quality.

In the course of Dr. McKenzie’s search, a friend and colleague recommended Praxis. Instantly, Dr. McKenzie appreciated its “blank sheet” approach, realizing that, by eschewing templates and letting doctors practice medicine their own way, Praxis could improve medical quality by preventing human error.

How does Praxis do this? Its unique Concept Processing technology stores every medical encounter the user inputs, and, when a patient presents with a case similar to one already in the database, Praxis pulls the past record for the user’s consideration, thereby reminding the doctor of how he or she has treated a similar patient in the past. This helps ensure that a necessary step isn’t missed. Additionally, if necessary, the doctor can edit the record to refine his or her approach to this type of medical case.

“Praxis is dynamic software,” says Dr. McKenzie. “It grows and learns as you do and as medical literature changes and is updated.”

Praxis has not only met Dr. McKenzie’s initial goals, but has also:

• Eliminated dictation costs.
• Protected him against liability suits.
• Improved his diagnostic and treatment abilities.
• Increased reimbursements.

"I have been most impressed by the increased reimbursements," says Dr. McKenzie. The flexibility Praxis offers has allowed him to code quickly and easily for multiple diagnoses and complications, greatly increasing paybacks.

"For example," explains Dr. McKenzie, "coding for diabetes with narrowing arteries provides greater reimbursement than if I code for diabetes alone. With a template, coding for both takes more time. With Praxis, it is simple and fast."

For Dr. McKenzie, the choice of EMR is a "no-brainer."

"Praxis has improved the quality of medicine I practice while respecting the way I practice," states Dr. McKenzie. "It keeps my practice running more efficiently every day. I estimate small practices will make hundreds of thousands of dollars more if they use Praxis."

Dr. McKenzie on Medical Documentation

In the course of our dialogue, Dr. McKenzie shared with us some interesting thoughts on the future of medical documentation:

"Obama-Care will become even more demanding and exacting in terms of documentation to merit pay. Already it is obvious that without documentation, huge amounts of money will be lost to hospitals, clinics, and individual doctors. Again, Praxis allows the exacting, tedious documentation that is required, and it takes only seconds to develop a note. This already pays huge dividends, and was something I was not thinking about when we first bought Praxis. Back then, it was about litigation protection and patient care. Now, we are seeing substantial payment increases. EMRs will soon become the only way that a doctor will be able to do this. Using another EMR is like racing a functional but slow pickup truck against a turbo charged Porsche. With Praxis, documentation is professional, fast, and individualized. Plus, it is so easy to adjust on the fly. For instance, when I see a senior Medicare patient with 7 to 10 complex medical problems, you can hear the detailed medical note rolling off the printer while the patient is walking out of the exam room!

"Without EMRs, payment will be reduced or taken back. With Praxis, payment will be exacting and individualized, and, beyond that, it will give you the ability to earn more."