News and Press

ATHENAHEALTH FORMS STRATEGIC ALLIANCE WITH LONE STAR MSO TO HELP TEXAS PHYSICIANS BETTER MANAGE THEIR PRACTICES AND IMPROVE COLLECTIONS

athenahealth Offering Provides Complete Solution for Improving Medical Group Performance

WATERTOWN, MA, October 24, 2006 – athenahealth, Inc., the premier provider of web-based services, knowledge, and software for medical practices, and Lone Star MSO, a physician-owned practice management company based in Dallas, Texas, have entered into a strategic alliance to offer physicians in Texas and throughout the Southwest athenahealth’s billing and practice management services to help manage their practices and improve collections.

Under the terms of the agreement, Lone Star MSO will be a value-added reseller of athenahealth’s award-winning revenue-cycle management service, athenaNet®, which will be offered to Lone Star MSO customers at preferred pricing. In addition, Lone Star will offer these medical groups other outsourced practice management services – including managed care contracting, information technology, human resource management, ancillary services development, financial services and reporting, and analyses of staffing, workflow, and scheduling – effectively removing the hassle of practice management.

"athenahealth had already dramatically improved our billing and collections at Texas Medical and Surgical, and we wanted to offer the same advantages to other medical groups,” said Trey Schroeder, vice president of Lone Star MSO and chief operating officer of Texas Medical and Surgical Associates, one of the state’s oldest medical groups and long-term customer of athenahealth. “Like Lone Star, athenahealth is paid for its service-oriented solutions based on collections, so we have a common philosophy of sharing risks and rewards with our customers. Through our combined services, we are taking all the administrative headaches out of the equation so physicians can just focus on caring for their patients.”

For the past ten years, Texas Medical & Surgical has invested the human and financial capital necessary for Lone Star’s infrastructure. Due to its incredible success and performance using athenahealth, Texas Medical and Surgical decided to launch Lone Star MSO in 2006 to offer a comprehensive set of support services. Lone Star MSO fee schedules are customized for every practice, depending on services required and practice resources. With the addition of athenahealth’s web-based revenue cycle management service, medical groups using Lone Star can incorporate billing and accounts receivable management into their overall support services, helping to dramatically improve the overall performance of their practices. “Lone Star will enhance the value and economic performance of client practices,” said Presley M. Mock, MD, president of Lone Star MSO. “Through sophisticated operations management and optimal resource utilization, physicians and practice leadership will be enabled to focus their time, talent, and energy on clinical performance and outcomes as well as practice growth strategies.”

Lone Star and athenahealth are both results-oriented companies who are tackling an expanding but complex market together,” said Derek Hedges, director of channel relations at athenahealth. “By combining our billing and collections expertise with Lone Star’s other practice management capabilities, medical groups in Texas will now experience tremendous improvement to all aspects of their business and get back to focusing on patient care.”

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Lone Star MSO Continues Partnership with Dallas County Medical Society

Circle of Friends Membership Demonstrates Lone Star's Continued Commitment to Dallas Physicians

Dallas, December 7, 2008 - Lone Star MSO continues to deepen and strengthen its presence in Dallas through its ongoing sponsorship affiliation with the Dallas County Medical Society, the second largest medical society in the country.

By sponsoring the DCMS at the elite Circle of Friends donation level, Lone Star MSO continues to solidify its commitment to the physicians of Dallas County through ongoing support of the Dallas County Medical Society.  

As a Circle of Friends member, Lone Star MSO serves as a title sponsor to such DCMS events as the annual Member Roundup, the New President Installation Dinner, Medical Student Dinner, Holiday Happy Hour, and more. In addition, our donations help the medical society sponsor fantastic education events for medical school residents, as well networking events for physicians. 

Lone Star MSO has been a proud member of the Circle of Friends since 2006.

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Practice Viability: Seeking Help to Weather the Storm in Today's Economic Climate

Dallas, January 23, 2009 - The rest of America has officially entered into an economic recession. For today’s physician, however, this is not a new phenomenon. Cash flow issues, decreased reimbursements, ever-increasing costs, and regulatory pressures have threatened the viability of practice for many years. Before Joe the Plumber ever began to feel the strains of our slumping economy, organized medicine was battling against a proposed (and enacted but retroactively “fixed”) 10.6% cut in Medicare reimbursements rates.  We prevailed, but our trophy for winning this fight was nothing. Well, almost nothing.  Instead of huge cut, we now receive a less than 1% increase and the assurance that we will have to do this again in the all too near future.

Each day the health care industry proposes a new hurdle for physicians. Organized medicine will always be there to fight the good fight in the local and national arenas trying to solve the global issues that are threatening to slam shut the doors of your practice. Unfortunately there are many difficulties with the business of medicine that must be addressed at the practice level as well. Many practices are very efficient and successful businesses, but many are not. For those that are not, there are some very good solutions from local companies that can turn your business around.

Recently, I had the pleasure of talking with some of the management team of Lone Star MSO, a Dallas based practice management services company. Lone Star MSO has been a DCMS Circle of Friends member since 2006 and is a strong supporter of organized medicine. Founded by local physicians, Lone Star MSO has been serving the Dallas area for over a decade and offers an intimate understanding of the issues physicians face every day.

Lone Star MSO offers an array of services ranging from general consulting to performing daily business operations. Included in the suite of practice management services are revenue cycle improvements, marketing, human resources, information technology consulting, contracting and more. The key to Lone Star MSO’s success, however, is its ability to seamlessly integrate these strategies into your practice with very limited down time allowing you to keep your doors open and your business running. It is also important to note that Lone Star MSO will not replace your current management structure and will not disrupt your current office environment.

According to some preliminary research, offices contracting with Lone Star MSO have been seeing an average increase in the bottom line of around 13-14% and it was not uncommon to see gains nearing 17%. A large portion of these gains is attributed to these revenue cycle management strategies which often yield a 10.5% increase in charge capture and a significantly reduced accounts receivable timeline.  The process is structured around the ability to get 95% of claims out clean the first time around which reduces the administrative burden as well. As Lone Star MSO’s president, Dr. Presley Mock notes, “We are dedicated to bridging the gap between rising costs and falling reimbursements rates.” The company even has the ability to offer real time claims adjudication for United and Humana patients with negotiations currently in the works with other payors. Lone Star MSO has contracts with a large amount of insurance carriers to bring instant eligibility verification functionality to your front office staff.

The practice analytics services can show you how you compare to local and national averages. This can even help pinpoint where you will see the most benefit and what areas of your practice need improvement. In addition, Lone Star MSO can help you market your practice with website development and traditional physician networking services. The human resources services include payroll management, benefit program management, and vacation coverage. Lone Star MSO will even help you recruit physician partners, analyze merger opportunities, and hire staff.

Companies such as Lone Star MSO usually charge a percentage of collections which can average around 9%, industry wide. In addition, many service companies also charge a nominal flat per-month management fee.

Generally, the tell tale signs of a struggling practice are low collection rates, high bad debt percentages, and high accounts receivables. Even if you are not experiencing significant troubles, you might want to see if you can improve your business. Lone Star MSO will explore some specific strategies with your practice to determine if the services are worth the cost.

There are significant of pressures facing physicians in today’s environment that are making it increasingly difficult to keep the practice doors open. Fortunately, there are people willing to fight for the global victories and companies can offer innovative solutions to help make your business successful. After all Lone Star MSO’s slogan is “keeping practices in practice”.

- Bryan White, Dallas County Medical Society

January 2009 Dallas Medical Journal

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