At last, here is what all the shouting’s about! A new website and a new book all in one day. Just for kicks, I interviewed myself about these changes.
Q: Mary Pat, why all the changes all at once?
A: I didn’t start out to publish a book and redo my website all at once, it just happened that way. My site has been online for almost a year and a half now and after spending lots of time on the web, I knew I wanted to make some changes to my site – clean it up a little, and hopefully make it easier to read and navigate.
Q: What about the book?
A: I’ve been working on the book for about 9 months, and every day I have been reading about practices struggling with less reimbursement and more expense. Medfusion asked me to do a webinar on patient collections and I thought it was a perfect time to get the book completed.
Q: Why an eBook?
A: I decided on an eBook because that’s what I prefer. I like information on a specific topic and I like to be able to get to it immediately. More of a cookie-sized topic, than a cake. I love big business books full of information, but it takes me forever to read them. I wanted something that a manager could see, buy and start using all in the same day.
Q: You mentioned a webinar for Medfusion – when is that happening?
A: The webinar was November 17th and is archived on the Medfusion website so you can listen to it whenever you want.
Q: I see you’ve added a new tab called “Vendor.” What’s that all about?
A: I’ve been wanting to give my readers access to vendor names in categories and now seemed like a good time to do that. Right now there are 6 categories: Employee Background Check, Eligibility Products, External Financing, Creditworthiness Products, Payment Portals, and Special Resources. As time goes on I will add more categories so readers can access vendors in a certain category in one place.
Q: Are these vendors that you are recommending?
A: No, these are vendors that I’ve checked to make sure they have the service or goods that fit in the category, but I’ve not screened the vendors for my readers at all. Maybe down the line I’ll have some sort of feedback on vendors, but for now, I’m just listing them.
Q: Why didn’t you put the vendors in your book?
A: Because the field is always changing and vendors are coming and going all the time. I don’t think that the print medium is the right place for listing vendors for such a fluid and changing market as healthcare.
Click here to view “The Smart Manager’s Guide to Collecting at Check-Out.”
