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When small data trumps BIG DATA Big Data is a term used to describe large and complex data sets which reveal certain patterns that can help with decision-making. It’s a compelling concept: want to understand patient behaviour; predict the next big global disease; or see which geographical location has the highest cancer diagnosis rate? BigRead more

Cash, card or cheque? A look at payment options With so many options in the marketplace, knowing which payment options to offer patients can seem overwhelming. So we took a look at the most popular payment methods being used by GP medical practices across the country and uncovered a surprising trend. Our graph shows that goodRead more

How quickly is your practice ageing? Collections are one of the most critical functions of any business, yet for many medical practices, it often goes unmeasured. Many medical professionals don’t have a clear picture of how well they are doing in this critical area, and don’t realise the effect on their cashflow and profitability. Fortunately, thereRead more

SA’s Junk Status is the new health scare for medical professionals SA’s Junk Status is the New Health Scare  South Africa’s healthcare is facing tough and complex challenges. This is partly due to an ageing population and the growing prevalence of chronic illnesses. However, another concern is SA’s declining economy, and the likely impact ofRead more

What does ‘big data’ mean for your practice? What Does Big Data Mean for Your Practice? If you want to find out how Big Data is helping businesses, there’s no better example than healthcare. Beyond improving profits and cutting out waste, Big Data in healthcare is predicting epidemics, curing disease, improving quality of life andRead more

To contract in or out? That is the question. Many healthcare professionals have become frustrated with having to deal with multiple medical aids. It costs money in administration and staff, claim submission, processing errors, waiting for payments and, of course, bad debts (exhausted benefits that patients never pay). However, there can be considerable benefits toRead more

Have you ever heard of the term ‘revenue cycle management’? Also called RCM, it is all about how you manage your practice’s claims processing, payment and revenue generation. It includes validating patient information, collecting patient-liable amounts, coding claims correctly, tracking claims, collecting payments and following up on rejected claims.Let’s take a look back at someRead more

Chronic disease is a major problem in South Africa. To try to understand it better, we analysed around 700 000 chronic claims sent by General Practitioners (GPs) and came across an interesting observation: primary hypertension accounted for approximately 40% (or 2 in every 5) of all chronic claims sent. And this is true for allRead more

Patient Co Payments: What is your patient-liable risk? Patient liables – the part of the claim your patient is responsible for paying – have become the norm, and are becoming even more prevalent. In today’s tough economic times, and with the large medial aid contribution increases set for 2017, these amounts will become increasingly moreRead more

It is well known that South Africa doesn’t have enough doctors. What is less known is that the medical specialists are ageing within their field of speciality. Through internal analysis, based on Medpages data, we’ve highlighted the top 10 specialities with the highest percentage of medical specialists over the age of 60 – i.e. those possiblyRead more