Clear policies a must for Internet use

Practice Management. By Mike Norbut, AMNews staff. Sept. 27, 2004.

Ten minutes on the Anthem Web site, five minutes seeing what's on sale at Target. Twenty minutes to submit electronic claims, 15 minutes to check Orbitz airfares.

The Internet could be the greatest business tool ever invented or the greatest drain on office efficiency ever imagined. And it seems that many businesses have both opinions.

Some practices are beginning to learn this lesson, as offices link up with the great technological frontier. Practices are discovering the convenience and efficiency of being able to submit claims and check patient eligibility with insurers online, but there's always the fear that online access can add distractions to staff members who already are short on time.

The benefits of the Internet certainly outweigh the disadvantages, provided a practice can keep employees on task, health care consultants said.

"Practices aren't generally overstaffed, so there's usually more work in a day than can get done," said Rosemarie Nelson, a Syracuse, N.Y.-based consultant with the Medical Group Management Assn. "I encourage groups to ... manage by benchmarking to keep them motivated."

The duties of keeping track of employee productivity and making sure staff members don't abuse Internet privileges generally fall to the office manager, since doctors are busy tending to patients. The manager doesn't have to spend his or her day looking over shoulders, though.

There is software available that monitors Internet traffic, and some consulting firms will actually track office networks for a fee. Monthly server reports offer administrators a chance to quickly review Web sites to see if any employees spent an exorbitant amount of time surfing or stopped at some inappropriate sites.