We're Back!

Hey everyone! That's right. I finally am getting back into writing some newsletters. Yes, it has been since October on the last one! Like most of you, my winter has been fairly busy. I’m glad to have the chance to talk with you some more. We just completed our 2010 Coding Growth Strategies conference tour last weekend, so I should have more time to dedicate to the newsletters.

First, let me thank everyone that has purchased Coding Growth Strategies this year. Weather it was the live conference or the DVD/CD kit we appreciate your business. We especially want to thank our repeat customers and welcome the “first timers” to our newsletter community.

We’ve spent a good part of our time over the last several months working on two main projects. First, we have focused our Coding Growth Strategies seminar quite a bit over the last 12 months. I believe we finally have a presentation that combines the right amounts of lecture and hands-on training to maximize retention of the material. Also, we have an improved Coding Growth Strategies audio/video program that addresses several of our previous problems we’ve had with poor audio, lighting, and other issues. It’s truly amazing how many things have to fall into place to have an entire conference captured on film with good audio and video quality.

I’ve uploaded several samples of our new program onto www.vimeo.com. To view these, you will need a (free) vimeo account. Sign up then please watch these and let me know what you think. I’ve also started a Vimeo group for Coding Growth Strategies. This group will give us a place to post more information as well as communicate back and forth. We have had thousands of people view or attend the seminar over the past 7 years and I hope this site will give us a good forum to hold some discussions. To go directly to the group, navigate to www.vimeo.com/groups/cgs/videos.

The other thing we are working on has been Serenity. For those of you that have been following, this is the name of the Electronic Medical Record system that we have been developing. We are very excited about how it is working out in the local offices we have installed in. In the next few weeks, look to our other group for more information especially screen shots and demo videos: www.vimeo.com/groups/serenity.

In the first video, I’ve started the discussion of Patient Centric Coding. I know many of you have heard my take on ‘how to code’ and ‘how to document’ but I hope you take the time to view this and let me know what you think.

Over the next few newsletters I plan on discussing several of the key points we talk about in the Coding Growth Strategies presentation. I am offering a special during the month of March in light of our launching of this web forum. If you have purchased or attended Coding Growth Strategies since February 1st, contact David at mailto:jdavidthompson@sbcglobal.net and request the free upgrade. You will receive all the new audio, video, syllabus, as well as the syllabus on CD and MP3 files if you wish to download them to your iPod or computer.

For those that haven’t recently completed this course, I would like to invite you to try our audio/video program, or watch our newsletters for the 2011 schedule of live conference dates. Contact David or order the program online. Order by the end of April and receive the program for the discounted price of $300. This includes 6 hours of category 1 CME as well as our traditional money back guarantee. If you are unhappy for any reason, we’ll refund your money no questions asked.

If you have any ideas or “hot topic” comments on future newsletters please let me know. One major change in this year’s Coding Growth Strategies program is we now feature hours of practice in ‘auditing’ and then writing notes. Not only will you become an expert on which patients are 99213 vs. 99214 vs. 99215, now we have included in the curriculum the opportunity to practice and write the appropriate notes for that level of service.