Dr. Mike Rothwell and Dr. Lawrence Earl
- When should blended clinics be considered? Opportunities differ in every market. Careful market analysis is recommended to identify opportunities for the blended model either OHP and UC, OHP and Primary Health, OHP and women’s health, and OHP and rehab are examples of the blended models.
- What are the administrative processes that will remain the same? Operational efficiencies are the same for the models. Human resources processes, charging, and collections are all similar. Documentation standards differ with the products for the blended model.
- How do you orient the staff to the blended model? Provider and staff orientation is essential to success. The definition of the model, performance expectations, and standards of care all need to be discussed and shared with providers and staff.
- What pricing structure is appropriate, UC or OHS? UC is insurance-based with personnel health and workers’ compensation insurance. OHP is the same workers’ compensation and retail billing to client companies.
- Do you have one medical director or two? Why? Most programs have one medical director, but if the network is very large, two directors are used to working in partnership.
- What standards are followed? The ACOEM and NAOHP for OHP and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP)
How can you combine the OHP and UC yet possibly keep separate IT systems? The best model is to combine under one system. If not possible, you can bridge the systems, so once registered separate systems are used for documentation.
