NaturaeSoft is growing and we want your help! This has been a labor of love for myself and I have decided to expand the company to support me in my lone efforts. For many years now we have been operating with limited to no staff and on a shoe string budget.

This trend has to stop and it is being put to an end right now. I take full responsibility for the pains of our past and I ask that we put them behind us and move forward into today with the strength of our experience and greater clarity to our focus.  NaturaeSoft is ready to take the next step forward in its evolution and become a thriving company that can truly support the needs of our customers holistically. At NaturaeSoft we are ready to take things to another level and end the struggle.

In order to do this we will need your support. And what we intend to give you back is a better support experience, a better account management experience, and a better experience with using our software and accessing support information. We have recently dedicated our efforts toward a significant enhancement of our support offerings and account management services. We are actively growing your support resources, creating helpful video tutorials and a ton of fresh knowledge base articles that will help you to get to your answer quickly.  And if our resources cant help or you run into an error we are actively reducing our ticket response times and increasing out customer satisfaction with fewer steps to resolution. This is a long cry away from our recent past in which some tickets would go unanswered for quite sometime as we transitioned between support staff. 

We are pleased to be working with each of you and hope that you find the changes at NaturaeSoft to your liking. 

Sincerely, 

Tucker S Meager, ND

Isn't it time for you to take advantage of what the 21st century can offer your practice?  
Aren't you a cutting edge doctor; would it be nice if your practice could your practice's systems be as advanced and professional as you are.
Many in integrative medicine struggle with the simple infrastructure of their practices. Finding an integrative EMR that meets their robust needs and runs efficiently enough to maintain a lean staff. 
Or, maybe it is time to clean up some of the old ways, bad habits, inefficient processes and systems that may be bogging down your practice or at least your enjoyment of it.
The right systems can free you to focus on providing the best care possible, without losing sight of any aspect of your operations. Cleanse your practice of the old and stagnant ways of the past, invest in the health of your practice and begin to reap the benefits of robust and reliable systems designed for practices just like yours.

The ChartPro EMR software is an integral part of NaturaeSoft's robust suite of practice management tools OfficePro. 

• Configurable to meet the specific and unique needs of your practice and your clinical environment.
• Efficiently coordinates all facets of your practices daily operations
• Manage your patient relationship form end to end, helping you to capture new clients on your website, intake them, and manage all facets of your ongoing care with them. 
• Integrates with your billing to help you making coding decisions based on the content of your documentation. 

Adopting EMR especially in conjuction with an integrated practice management solution can save time, money and headaches and effectively upgrade your practice.  EMR is a valuable part of successful integrative medicine practices.
We have produced several white papers on enhancing your success. 

Read more about how the NaturaeSoft ChartPro EMR can help you upgrade your practice. ​

Thank you to Chris Apgar, CISSP of Apgar and Associates for a comprehensive and effective update on HIPAA and HITECH privacy and security regulations. Mr. Apgar was speaking at the OANP Member Meeting on HIPAA Compliance at Kell's in downtown Portland. 
In general HIPAA and HITECH are extensive laws that were enacted by congress to allow for changes to the practice of health care. First they were intended to help make Insurance coverage portable so patients could move between insurance companies. Second they were intended to simplify healthcare administration, they did this with the creation of the CMS1500 and the development of the NPI database and of course much more. Third they helped to ensure the privacy and security of protected health information (PHI), to ensure that it had integrity, confidentiality and availability. 
We will focus on the Privacy and Security facets of the law as they are likely the most pertinent to your daily operational activities. We will teach you steps to take to secure your HIPAA protected data and the potential consequences if not HIPAA and HITECH rules are not adhered to systematically. Complying with HIPAA and securing your data under HIPAA privacy rules is essential in the digital era of modern medicine. 
HIPAA and HITECH helps to ensure the protection of PHI. PHI includes all health or medical information collected in your clinic that is personally identifiable. Covered Entities, under the privacy rule, must put in place and document reasonable measures to protect and secure the PHI that they collect.  Since health care is so diverse and carried out by all sizes of business, what defines a reasonable measure for one entity may not be reasonable for another. The law allows for some flexibility in defining "reseaonable measures". In general it does not define a set of specific measures that must be implemented, instead it provides a framework that allows entities to develop their own security and privacy protections in light of the specific risks that they may have.  
So, with all of this variability in the application of the law you may ask, "how can I ensure that I am compliant with HIPAA?”. Well let’s discuss a general strategy that will help you to ensure the privacy and security of the PHI you collect as well as protect you from formal enforcement proceedings from the Office of Civil Rights (OCR).  OCR has been empowered under the acts to enforce the privacy rules and is the reporting bureau in the case of a breach in your security or the privacy of your PHI.
The five major standards that your HIPAA policies and procedures should cover include: 

1. Administrative Safeguards
2. Physical Safeguards
3. Technical Safeguards
4. Organizational Safeguards
5. Policies and Procedures

Administrative Safeguards:
        This involves the people part of your privacy policies. Questions that need to be answered here include: Can my staff be trusted with the Information? Do I have the ability to give them specific Authorization to access certain data? Are they able to access only the data that is necessary for their tasks and duties? How can I ensure that they will not be able to access data after their termination? 
        Administrative safeguards will include policies and procedures for workforce authorization, supervision, clearance, and termination. 
Physical Safeguards:
        This involves questions about the physical risks to your PHI and may involve questions like: Is the data physically secured (Locks on Doors, Locks on computers)? Is the PHI at risk of any potential loss from fire, flood, or theft? What happens to my data when the power goes out?
        Physical safeguard policies and procedures will include contingency planning, facility security assessment and plans, access control and validation procedures, device and media controls. 
Technical Safeguards:
          This involves questions about the security of your data. Are my computers password protected? How easy would it be for those passwords to be broken or discovered? If the computer is stolen is the data accessible?
        Technical safeguards could include access controls, audit controls, Integrity controls, Personal Authentication.
 Organizational Safeguards:
          This involves having proper processes and staff to manage the security and privacy of your PHI. Organizations should have policies and procedures that define training protocols, risk analysis, sanctions, and information system audits. 
        Organizational Safeguards involve covered entities having a Privacy Officer, and a Security Officer dedicated to enforcing, auditing and refining the policies and procedures of the business.  
In general to stay in compliance with HIPAA and HITECH you will need to carry out an exhaustive risk analysis for your practice and define and document policies and procedures to ensure sufficient safeguards under each of the five categories discussed above.  Although this may seem daunting to some of us in modern digital medicine it is a necessary task in the operation of successful integrative medicine practices,  not just to maintain compliance with the law but also to provide the best service to our patients.
 In the coming posts, I will layout additional information on specific strategies that can be put into play in your policies to ensure the privacy and security of your practice's PHI.  
NaturaeSoft’s services can help you ensure the privacy and protection of your PHI… Find out how by clicking here.

Are you tired of spending hours logging charts after work, thumbing through paperwork, and writing out detailed notes after patient visits? Does managing your workflow leave you stressed, working late, or disorganized? Integrative medicine software can help you reclaim your work time for yourself, help you juggle patient management, and even save you money in the long run. There are all different kinds of medical billing software and medical practice management software that can simplify your work routine, and most of these are so intuitive that you won’t need to spend hours learning how to use them. 

Save time 
Electronic charting and billing software allows you to use templates and forms to zip through a major workload. This software takes all of the files and folders in your medical office and turns them into online documents. Not only does this help reclaim office space, it allows staff to quickly and easily locate, update, and manage files. Your electronic medical records software can retrieve a patient file much faster than most people could find the same file in a filing cabinet or on a shelf. Over time, this translates to major savings in time. 

Integrative medicine software lets you say goodbye to time spent note taking by hand, then translating scribbles and notes to text. You can type notes into the software after a patient consult, then quickly move on to the next patient in your schedule. Or you can use a speech-to-text software program and deliver your notes verbally, on the go. 

Save money 
All of those time savings translate directly to cost savings. Sure, you will have to make an initial investment on integrative medicine software, but you’ll recoup this money when you and your staff find more time to do the work you love. By streamlining workflow and increasing productivity, you’ll be able to get more done, relieving stress and increasing revenue. You’ll also simplify workflow for others, as lab reports and test requests can be routed through the system. Additionally, electronic records management software keeps track of prescriptions and prevents unwanted parties from making off with prescription pads. 

Additional Benefits 
Safety and security are also increased by switching to electronic charting and records management software. Store digital backups off site with a few mouse clicks and rest assured your assets are covered in case of a system error.

Success in any profession is defined by the value derived from your efforts. To date the pressures of maintaining a successful Naturopathic practice have been great and many of us struggle to get our practices to thrive. It has often been said that to be a naturopathic physician you must have a "fire in the belly" implying the ambition that it takes to persevere in the profession. 

​So why do we stick with it?
For most of us this is simple, we take pride in our ability to provide health to our patients. To assist them in taking responsibility for their imbalance and we are grateful to watch as the healing power of nature takes over and magically transforms their suffering. Who wouldn't be intrigued by the the privilege to witness the power of the vital force at work transforming our patients and returning balance.
In the past this pleasure has outweighed the stresses and difficulties of becoming a Naturopathic Physician. But these days the costs of our medical education has been increasing significantly and this leaves many of us with an overwhelming burden of debt as we enter our practices and insufficient resources to help us to thrive in our profession when we are set free to not only care for our patients but also for our practices administrative and cash flow burdens. 

Do we really need to struggle?
Although I personally have struggled getting my practice established. It is my belief that no naturopathic doctor has to suffer any further.  Our path has been illuminated and it is no longer necessary to blaze the trail and learn from the error of our trials. 
No longer does our the value our profession brings to our doctors need to be limited to the pleasure of our clinical successes. It is time that Naturopathic Medicine and its faithful practitioners thrive. This is only achieved when achieve the financial compensation required to live our lives in the fashion that we deserve. When we are properly reimbursed for our care, we are able to expand the reach of our efforts to effect the healing of our community our nation and our world. 

How do we create greater success in Naturopathic Medicine?
Over the next few days I will be releasing blog posts on the top mistakes made when entering practice and solutions for each.  
I look forward to supporting the success of your practice!
Check out NaturaeSoft's comprehensive line of practice management software services or read our white paper on thebenefits of practice management software in your practice

Do you practice in an integrative medical practice that is looking to get better reimbursement for your services. Insurance billing for integrative medicine practices can be difficult, but it doesn't have to be. 
Actually Integrative medical practices because of their diligent focus on the details of their patients concerns often have a better oppurtunity to obtain reimbursement for their evaluation and management services. Diligent charting techniques can easily have insurers assisting your reimbursement with proper payment for higher level codes than have previously been thought to be accessible. As well, the implementation of simple procedures to compliment your care can easily help you increase your billable amounts and enhance your capacity to get paid appropriately. 
Many integrative medical providers fall into the trap classifying all of their services as E&M (evaluation and management) when in actuality much of the visit is spent doing counseling and even natural health procedures.  Once proper coding is used much better reimbursement can be generated. 
If you want to make sure you get the most from your billing the best thinkg that you can do s chart everything that you do with your patients. If you find that tedious you may need to invest in a system or service that will assist you to create comprehensive chart notes at a fraction of the time that it could take to manually jot down the notes in your likely not so pretty hand writing.  
NaturaeSoft can help with our free comprehensive EMR, ChartPro. Read more online at www.NaturaeSoft.com/ChartPro/  or schedule a demo by clicking here. 

NaturaeSoft provides powerful software services that helps your practice easily manage all aspects of your clinics operations. Patient Management is a central focus allowing you to rapidly assess all patient history in one easy and functional interface designed for and by practicin health professionals. 
The OfficePro service helps you to schedule patient appointments, manage their invoices, track their product purchases, evaluate their chart, and process billing and statements from the all inclusive and efficient patient detail page. 
OfficePro also assists in schedule management with email visit reminders, and online scheduling access for all of you providers and staff. 

The Five Keys to a Profitable Practice conference in Scottsdale, Arizona was a success despite its low turnout. Although the information provided is not rocket science or brain surgery, it was needed information for our profession and I do believe it benefited each of the participants significantly.

Dr. Michael Smith of NDcoach.com, a business consultant explained how the simple statement, "I am an expert in ..." will allow whomever you are speaking with to relate to what you do and visualize how to refer to you.
Too often we explain to people that we can help him with anything and for any concern, leaving them no real way of understanding how to relate to what we do. Dr. Smith also explained how to avoid the trap of saying that you're an expert in Naturopathic medicine as our medicine and the words naturopathic medicine usually do not have meaning to the majority of people.

Dr. Ofer, a naturopathic physician, spoke of charging more for your services in order to gain greater respect from those who pay for them. He spoke eloquently about the process we all must go through in finding confidence in what we charge and how we feel about the value of our medicine. One of the most valuable statements referred to the understanding that, "The more that you have, the more that you can give."

Overall the NDNR provided a valuable service to our profession and the allied integrative health professions as a whole by providing this lecture series. I do hope the limited attendance was accounted for by conflicting conventions as I know this information is needed for the majority of us.
Please look to an upcoming issue of the NDNR for valuable information about the speakers and events at the five Keys to practice profitability convention