• After performing the in-home Health Risk Assessment for my patient, do you continue seeing my patient?
No, our purpose is to perform an annual health risk assessment to provide you and their insurance carrier an update on the patient's condition. If we find any situations that need your attention, we will note those on a consultation form and send it to you for the patient's medical record along with the results of our health assessment. We also perform any appropriate diagnostic tests and send those results to you, the Primary Care Physician. We do not report the diagnostic tests to the patient nor do we consult with them on the results. Contacting the patient to schedule a follow up visit or discuss the test results is at your discretion.
• What information do you require from physicians?
We work at the direction of the patient's insurance carrier and in conjunction with you. If we have trouble reaching the patient at the phone number and address we have on file, we may contact you for updated information. After the patient visit, in a small percentage of cases, we may need diagnostic results from your medical records to properly recored the patient's condition. If so, we will request the information from your medical records personnel. We also will need your preferred method for receiving HIPAA protected information on your patients so we can send you our record of the visit, testing results and a description of any conditions, health or environmental related, that we feel you should be aware of in your treatment of the patient. As the Primary Care Physician, we depend on you to follow up as necessary with the patient. We will only contact them again for any follow up testing (such as diabetic retinopathy) or for their next annual risk assessment visit.
• How do you typically communicate with physicians?
We communicate with you using your preferred method (i.e. phone call to a staff member, fax, or email). The most common method requested is via fax. We just need a means to send you HIPAA protected information on your patients to add to your medical records. In rare cases, we encounter an emergency situation with your patient. In those cases we will immediately contact your office and make you aware of the nature of the emergency. Our Nurse Practitioners immediately go to "Good Samaritan" status and assist the patient as necessary to get proper care, preferably at your direction.
• Will doctors be paid for working with you?
Depending upon the insurance carrier we are working with, we may be able to pay you a fee to take into account your staff's time for adding the patient's information that we send you to their medical record in your office. More times than not, we are able to pay you for this effort.
• Is Best Practice DM HIPAA compliant?
Yes, Best Practice does not see patients without an appropriate Business Associate Agreement (BAA) in place with the insurance carrier that is our client. Copies of the BAA are available to you upon request.
Physician FAQ