MINNESOTA ACADEMY OF PHYSICIAN ASSISTANTS

     

Current News and Personal Opinion

Hassle Factor Report

 

This column is authored by MAPA President Bev Kimball.

 

The Minnesota Medical Association has a "Hassle Factor Reduction Initiative" which aims to reduce the "hassle factor" experienced by Minnesota physicians through MMA advocacy. Because we experience many of these same "hassles" MMA has agreed to include our experiences in their data base.

Among the top administrative headaches that physicians (and PAs) experience are prompt payment of bills, health care provider service (long telephone hold time, providing incorrect/inconsistent information), payment recoupment (wide open "look back" periods and limited data regarding subject of recoupment), and physician coding integrity (CPT guidelines and interpretation disputes, bundling and downcoding).

The MMA Hassle Factor Surveillance System has been operating for a year and has had more than 174 hassle factor logs submitted and 267 hassles reported.  The top five hassles reported (as percent of total hassles reported):

Incorrect/inconsistent information provided -- 19 percent
Delay in payment -- 18 percent
Excessive telephone hold time -- 18 percent
Denial of claims -- 17 percent
Lost claims or attachments -- 9 percent

 

While MMA cannot investigate and resolve individual concerns our input can be "counted" along with that of our supervising physicians.  The avenue to report such "hassles" is to download a Hassle Factor log from the MMA web site at ..\hfform.pdf.  Be sure to list your name (as opposed to your supervising physician's name) and the fact that you are a PA where they ask for the physician's name on the form.  The completed form can be faxed to MMA at 612-378-3875.
 

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