For those nervous types for whom the switch into the new century portends dysfunction and chaos, take heart: It appears that radiology practices will be safe places to be. But you may want to have some extra cash on hand to ride out a delay in Medicare payments that comes with Y2K.
AuntMinnie.com spoke with several practice administrators about how they've prepared for the transition into 2000. Clark Davis outlined the New Year's Eve plans for Medical Center Radiologists in Norfolk, VA, where he is the executive director:
"The main thing we've done is change the holiday. Instead of making January 1st a holiday, we've pushed it to the 2nd so most everyone will be at work on (the 1st)," said Davis.
"We have an (information systems) department that's staffed by four guys. They also handle any billing problems and they'll be on call during New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. As for the doctors, we have what we call the 'night lights.' We have a full staff of nine doctors and one of them will be on duty at all times.
"In terms of the equipment, we do all our own technical support on our own systems. We've gotten Y2K (compliant) letters from the vendors but I don't necessarily believe all of those," Davis added. "Are there going to be power failures? Maybe, but there's nothing I can do about that."
"The other thing we've done is secure an extra line of credit to cover ourselves. Medicare won't be transmitting for 17 days after the 1st so we wanted to make sure we were covered."
(According to the standard Medicare payment schedule, Part B providers, such as physicians and outpatient service suppliers, are paid on January 1 of each year. In an effort to avoid overloading the electronic payment system while it undergoes Y2K testing during the first few days of 2000, the Health Care Financing Administration announced in April 1999 that Part B payments would be paid out on January 17. For more information, see the press release on the HCFA Web site).
Shannon Werb is the director of information services for Suburban Radiologic Consultants of Bloomington, MN, which provides Internet access to healthcare organizations in the Twin Cities for teleradiology, PACS and radiation treatment planning. Werb offered some thoughts on the first few days of the new year:
"Unfortunately, I don't think anyone knows (what will really happen). I think the systems that have been tested and made compliant are going to do just fine for the most part.
"I can offer this one piece of advice: Most calls about Y2K will not be Y2K-related. We think there are going to be false alarms and users are going to blame Y2K when it's just a normal, computer-based mishap," said Werb.
"Also, test, test, test after Y2K. Running the normal procedures, which should flesh out any failures, should test all processes and systems," she added.
For her customers, Werb said, "our staff of 12 information technology professionals from MediLinks.net (which supports SRC) will be on call 24 hours, seven days throughout the holidays. We have a sophisticated network structure and staff to support it, should it fail. If it does fail, we intend to be operational before the open of business on Monday."
Still, despite all the plans laid by others, Stephen Hage, a radiologic technologist and consultant in Los Angeles, questioned whether Y2K preparation was worth all the fuss.
"I think the real danger will be for businesses that have mainframe computers, the ones working with COBOL or other mainframe systems. I would estimate that 95-99% of (radiology practices) are using networks that are PC-based and server-based, not on mainframes. The chance that there is going to be a major glitch is slim to none."
By Shalmali Pal
AuntMinnie.com staff writer
December 29, 1999
Copyright © 1999 AuntMinnie.com
