Clearly everyone is aware of the rapidly changing environment as it pertains to COVID-19 and its impact on businesses across the country.  Our business as well can be impacted substantially with very little notice which could jeopardize our ability to service you the client.

Therefore each week we will be sending out this COVID-19 Update to inform you of changes that need to be taken given the events for that week.  This way you the client will be fully informed on how we are responding to the changes being brought on by the virus itself and or by the State or Federal Government.

FIRST UPDATE March 18, 2020

Following is what has already been done to ensure continuity of our services.

• Our IT department this week has set up backup computers from our office into our employees homes.  These computers using their internet at home, will give access via “Remote desktop” which operates exactly as if they were sitting at their desk.
• Please understand this setup is extremely secure. The computer at home is setup to connect to the employees desktop computer at work which means all of the security, firewalls, virus protections etc. are all in place just as they are when they work from home
• All of our phones are Direct Inward Dial (DID) which means we can program them to automatically transfer to the employee’s cell phone when you the client call. 
• We also have put in place a way for paper documents that come into the office which are needed by our staff to do their job to be scanned into E Bridge so they can access them.
• The patient call center staff will have special phones placed in their homes which will allow them to take patient calls like they do today
• At present our staff are working here at our offices. While they are at the office we have put the following precautions into place to further ensure their safety:
• Every day we have the interior doors disinfected as well as kitchen cabinets and other common areas first thing in the morning.
• Employees are instructed to also disinfect their phones, computer keyboards and other areas at their desk each morning
• We instructed employees not to meet each other in cubicles but for them to call their fellow staff and handle questions and issues in that matter. We are telling everyone that they need to maintain 8 feet distance with everyone during this time.
• If necessary for meetings it’s important that the 8 distance also be maintained.
• Of course the standard procedures whereby if they don’t feel well that they not come to the office until they are able to get a release from their doctor. In the event they are feeling well enough to work while at home the ability to do that is in place.

Our priority each day is to make sure that Charges get entered in and sent out to the payers so that cash flow is not disrupted.  Payment posting as needed is also our next priority as well as working denials etc.

We anticipate that our clients volumes will go down and with that will be the numbers’ of denials we normally see.  This will allow our staff to put more time on working existing denials since we will have more time and resources to do that

STATUS OF OUR INDIA OPERATION

• Certainly India is not immune from this situation and can also be impacted whereby our employees will have to work from home. Following are the things we have put into place to address that situation should the India government demand that all offices close.
• We have taken inventory on how many of our employees have full internet access at home that would allow us to have them work at home. For those that have that access we already have begun to install computers and set them up to continue to perform the required work.  Security and safety of these systems are also being dealt with to protect data and unauthorized access
• In the event that we can’t get 100% of the staff to be able to work from home we will off load that work to the U.S office staff and have them work Overtime to back fill the shortfall of staff.

NEW UPDATES MARCH 27, 2020

So each Friday, beginning with the following Friday  we will send you an update on what changes need to be made to operations and what things have impacted us in the past week. As we all know this is a very fluid situation and therefore we need to react immediately.

If there are no events that impacted operations this memo will NOT HAVE a NEW update section. It will only contain what is provided above.

We take very seriously our responsibility to deliver what you expect from us with handling your billing.  We have the resources, the leadership and the financial strength to weather this difficult time.  We will continue to get the JOB DONE and maintain your business cash flow!

If you have any questions on this please direct them to either Karen Metzler 248-679-1594  and or Melody Jajou 248-679-1768