We know healthcare needs a way to exchange information and transfer documents. Ten years ago, we pioneered a way to do it better and give providers a more efficient, secure, paperless way to communicate.

DUBLIN, Ohio (PRWEB)
December 03, 2019

In August 2018, CMS Administrator Seema Verma imagined a bold vision of healthcare that would transform patient care by improving communication and data exchange – with no place left for antiquated fax machines in the future. The head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services further challenged the industry to make doctors’ offices “a fax-free zone by 2020.”    

With 2020 less than a month away, Updox is pleased to report that it has helped more than 420,000 Updox users answer Administrator Verma’s call. In 2019 alone, Updox eliminated almost 300 million fax pages to push healthcare into a fax-free environment and reduce overall paper usage through its electronic fax, direct secure email, document management and inter-office messenger solutions. Updox also supports additional benefits that increase efficiencies and eliminate redundant administrative tasks.

However, more than 9 billion faxes are still sent every year in healthcare, according to DirectTrust, and 30% of tests are ordered due to lost or missing fax communications. In addition, research says fax still accounts for 75% of all medical communication.

“We know healthcare needs a way to exchange information and transfer documents. Ten years ago, we pioneered a way to do it better and give providers a more efficient, secure, paperless way to communicate,” said Michael Morgan, CEO of Updox. “Healthcare providers cling to fax because it’s what they’ve always used. Not only does this cost them time and money, but it frustrates staff and can leave patient information exposed. Updox eliminates the problems that paper causes.”

In recent years, researchers have discovered security flaws that can leave entire networks vulnerable from malicious faxes. Meanwhile, manual errors can result in protected patient information getting sent to the wrong number, leading to HIPAA violations that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Benefits of Going Electronic

With Updox’s electronic document management tools, providers have the opportunity to eliminate waste while saving time and money. On average, providers spend upwards of 55 hours manually faxing every month, and for every 5,000 fax pages sent or received, a practice spends an average of $155 in supplies. Since 2009, Updox has helped providers save approximately 1 billion pages of paper through paperless fax – the equivalent of almost 16,000 trees.

“We started with document management from Updox as we were looking for the easiest and cheapest way to eliminate paper from our office. We now electronically process more than 20,000 fax pages a month through Updox,” says Luke Anders, who manages IT for a small practice in Atlanta. “We’re saving hundreds on the paper, toner, fax line and shredding expenses that we would have been paying if that was actual paper, let alone the expenses of paying a staff member to scan all those documents into our system to file in charts.” The practice also uses Updox Messenger, an inter-office communications tool to further increase efficiency.

Across practice size and specialty, redundant work process like fax are a drain on provider productivity and profitability. Prior to Updox, Tom Ryan, MD, of Pediatric Medicine of Cartersville, used to spend an hour or more every evening managing documents, reviewing results or signing off on items. Now, he does that all easily and efficiently during his workday through the Updox collaboration platform, where he can access documents from his computer, tablet or mobile device.

“Going paperless with electronic document management is great. We can review results immediately, drag and drop items to patient charts, sign forms electronically, confirm appointments through text, answer questions quickly and respond to appointment requests. It frees up a lot of time.”

Efficient Businesses Drive More Effective Care

The security and time- and cost-savings that electronic document management offers is just a first step for healthcare to realize the benefits of more efficient workflows.

The Updox Collaboration Hub provides one central location to collect and review all practice messages, including faxes, texts, referrals, refill requests, Direct emails, results, reports and more, from one platform without needing to log in or out of different systems throughout the day. Updox also offers Secure Text and Video Chat, to further streamline the ways providers connect with patients and each other.

“Eliminating paper was just the start for Updox. We’re driven to facilitate stronger, more efficient connections between patients and providers. Just as we’re at the forefront of getting rid of paper, we’re now focused on eradicating phone calls. Phone tag – or that unending process of leaving voice mail after voice mail because no one answers the phone anymore – is just as ineffective and costly as fax,” says Morgan. “In order to engage patients efficiently and give time back to providers and staff who are pushed to do more and more, we have to do things differently. That’s the change Updox is driving for our customers.”

To learn more about Updox and its solutions for a more efficient and effective fax-free healthcare future, visit http://www.updox.com

About Updox:

Committed to simplifying the business of healthcare, Updox is a single collaboration platform for out-of-hospital healthcare providers. Named for the past five years to the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies, Updox is integrated with more than 100 electronic health records (EHR) and pharmacy management systems and serves more than 350,000 users and 125 million patients.

Updox offers a broad set of capabilities for patient engagement, provider communications and internal productivity that work together in a secure, easy-to-use collaboration platform. Updox was created specifically for the out-of-hospital market and gives customers access to a growing platform that focuses on solutions and services to make everyone delivering healthcare happy. Learn more at http://www.updox.com or follow the company on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

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ChenMed will open 20 new medical practices in the coming year, adding Cincinnati, Cleveland, Memphis, Orlando, and St. Louis

MIAMI (PRWEB)
December 03, 2019

Having sustained average annual growth exceeding 35 percent since 2010, ChenMed today announced plans to establish multiple Dedicated Senior Medical Centers in each of five new cities, and to substantively grow its current 14 markets. ChenMed will open 20 new medical practices in the coming year, adding Cincinnati, Cleveland, Memphis, Orlando, and St. Louis to transform primary care for tens of thousands of presently underserved seniors. With these openings, ChenMed will have almost 80 centers in 10 states.

“We’re enjoying a record year at ChenMed,” notes Christopher Chen, M.D., ChenMed CEO. “So, as a mission-driven company long focused on revolutionizing primary care for at-risk seniors, we’re self-funding a record number of new centers in 2020. Our proven and scalable approach to primary care is precisely what Medicare-eligible seniors in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Memphis, Orlando and St. Louis need to thrive.”

Unlike traditional fee-for-service medical practices across America, where it’s frequently hard for patients to schedule timely appointments with their primary care physicians, ChenMed primary care physicians make it easy for patients to stay connected with the doctor who knows them best. They earn trust by providing high-touch personalized primary care and give patients their personal cell phone numbers for timely replies to texts or calls. Plus, they welcome walk-in appointments whenever needed by their patients.

“Our bold 2020 expansion means we’re aggressively recruiting outstanding primary care physicians to help us serve at-risk seniors in 19 markets, with even more hires anticipated in 2021. And, as a physician-led, high-growth medical practice, we are currently offering great careers with a fast track to partnership in 10 states,” explains Gaurov Dayal, M.D., president, new markets and chief growth officer at ChenMed.

“ChenMed has been transforming care for seniors for more than 30 years,” Dayal adds. “Our primary care doctors serve an average of just 400 patients each. That’s less than one-fifth the national average of 2,300 patients per primary doctor, and it’s a real quality of care advantage for our seniors – especially for those living with multiple and major chronic health challenges.” Clinicians can learn more @ http://www.chenmed.com/careers/physicians.

Top clinical leaders at ChenMed are frequent presenters at key industry forums, given the company’s pioneering work, and quick-to-scale leadership as a 100 percent at-risk value-based care provider. Recent examples include: America’s Physician Groups 2019 Colloquium, LAN Summit 2019, NEJM Catalyst Dinner 2019, Cain Brothers’ 2019 Annual Healthcare Innovation Conference, Oliver Wyman Healthcare Summit 2019, SHSMD Connections 2019 Annual Conference, and BMA Medicare Advantage Summit 2019.

Plus, ChenMed continues to educate physicians about the tremendous promise of value- over volume-based primary care. During 2019 alone, ChenMed has hosted or presented at more than 50 invitation only events for primary care doctors interested in learning about the viable pathways to risk as encouraged by Alex Azar, United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HSUS), and by Seema Verma, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

More time with patients means better outcomes

The proven ChenMed approach is simple and vital to Medicare-eligible seniors, many of whom are living with major and multiple chronic health challenges. ChenMed primary care physicians average 10 times more face-to-face time with their patients than a typical physician does. Instead of the national average of just 20.3 minutes of direct time yearly with patients, ChenMed patients in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia benefit from average time with their doctor exceeding 200 minutes annually.

“The more doctors see their patients, the better they know them. And the better they know them, the better chance they have of helping them stay healthy by catching small issues before they turn into big ones,” underscores Dr. Chen.

Important personalized care benefits for ChenMed patients include:

• Door-to-doctor transportation, if necessary.
• Having the cell phone number for his/her ChenMed primary care physician for timely and informed help whenever a health concern might arise.
• Walk-in appointments.
• Unlimited visits.
• On-site cardiology, medication dispensing, imaging, labs, acupuncture, and more.
• Healthy lifestyle classes.
• Almost all costs of care covered by fixed Medicare and/Medicaid reimbursements that are enhanced by Medicare Advantage supplemental insurance.

About ChenMed

For seniors most in need of care, high-quality health care often is beyond reach. ChenMed brings concierge-style medicine — and better health outcomes — to the neediest populations. ChenMed is a privately owned medical, management and technology company that currently operates 59 primary care medical practices for diverse populations of seniors. A provider of choice for some 20 Medicare Advantage health insurance plans, ChenMed brands include Chen Senior Medical Center, Dedicated Senior Medical Center, and JenCare Senior Medical Center.

Results of ChenMed’s high-touch approach to primary care are impressive, as illustrated in the Modern Healthcare cover story (Oct. 20, 2018), which reports, “Indeed, ChenMed’s approach has resulted in 50 percent fewer hospital admissions compared with a standard primary-care practice, 28 percent lower per-member costs and significantly higher use of evidence-based medications.” Inspired by ChenMed Chairman and Founder James Chen, M.D., Ph.D., the company has been serving low-to-moderate-income seniors with multiple complex chronic conditions for over 30 years. The company’s passion for community service was recently underscored when ChenMed invested more than $500,000 to underwrite more than 9,000 employee hours of pre-Thanksgiving volunteer work completed for outstanding community organizations. Learn more about the high-growth company by visiting http://www.ChenMed.com.

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