AMA launches new online tool to strengthen the financial health of physician practices

The American Medical Association (AMA) today announced a new online tool designed to help physician practices prepare for billing and payment audits by insurers and federal contractors. The AMA’s Practice Analysis Tools for Healthcare (AMA PATH™) puts self-auditing tools in the hands of physicians, allowing them to develop and evaluate fee schedules and billing safeguards without hiring an expensive consultant.

Many physicians cannot afford expert financial advice or access to exclusive market data available to health insurers and the federal government’s recovery audit contractors (RACs), and AMA PATH helps physicians affordably access this information. Physician practices can purchase AMA PATH at a special introductory price until December 31, 2010.

“The AMA can now provide physicians with the advantages they need to prepare for billing audits that are expected to increase in frequency,” said AMA President Cecil B. Wilson, M.D. “AMA PATH can simplify the preparation process and help physicians affordably gauge financial and billing data against market standards that were typically only available to insurers, auditors and consultants.”

AMA PATH offers three independent modules that work as an “online consultant” for physicians helping individual physician practices set fees and identify coding and billing risks by:

• Developing a practice-specific fee schedule that accurately reflects business costs and the value of their medical services;
• Comparing the practice’s fee schedule against national average billed charge amounts and the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule by locality;
• Analyzing coding and billing patterns for individual physicians and comparing them against national averages by specialty;
• Assessing compliance risks and pinpointing areas of potential improvement.

“The AMA is committed to helping physicians take the lead in responding to calls for price transparency in health care,” said Dr. Wilson. “AMA PATH will make it more efficient for physicians to develop and maintain a fee schedule that demonstrates to patients, payers, regulators and auditors that their charges are market sensitive and fiscally responsible.”

For more information about AMA PATH, please visit the AMA website at www.ama-assn.org/go/amapath.