Meet our Expert, Kathy Mills Chang

Highlights:

• A lifetime delivering cutting-edge training and curriculum for chiropractors
• 40 years of dedication to the chiropractic industry
• Helping chiros keep up to date with changing rules and regulations
• Providing expertise in billing, coding, and compliance

Kathy Weidner, known professionally as Kathy Mills Chang (or KMC), is one of the chiropractic profession’s leading billing, coding, and compliance experts. Kathy has dedicated her career to ensuring chiropractic is a pillar of modern healthcare, allowing DCs to earn the respect and financial reward they deserve.

The overarching goal of helping DCs earn and keep more revenue, has resonated through Kathy’s boundless contributions to our profession and community. Throughout her 40-year career, Kathy has served the chiropractic profession by providing expert training and implementation. Her track record for delivering cutting-edge training and curriculum is indisputable, and it is no more apparent than in her role as founder and CEO of KMC University.

To celebrate Kathy’s remarkable achievements, we sat down with Kathy to learn how ChiroTouch syncs with Kathy’s expertise.

WHAT FOLLOWS IS AN EXCERPT OF OUR CONVERSATION:

ChiroTouch: How long have you been working with ChiroTouch, and in what capacity?

Kathy :  I have been a formal consultant with ChiroTouch for at least ten years. I assist with billing, coding, documentation, and compliance information. One aspect of my work with ChiroTouch is keeping the ChiroTouch community members updated through educational content, such as  billing and coding webinars. I also worked directly with the team to develop the  Touch macros that are part of the electronic health records (EHR) portion of ChiroTouch.

ChiroTouch: What do you enjoy most about the work you’re doing?

Kathy:  I’m at my best when engaging with providers and team members. I especially enjoy supporting the providers and team members who join the monthly calls. Helping to answer the more challenging questions the participants can’t get answered elsewhere is gratifying.

Another initiative that I enjoyed is working with the ChiroTouch development teams who create the Electronic Health Record (EH) macros. The EHR macros help ensure providers have better guidance with proper documentation regulations through the software.

ChiroTouch: Based on your experience, what are some of today’s top concerns for practices?

Kathy:  The three most common challenge areas I encounter when working with practices are:

• keeping up to date with changing rules and regulations
• staffing affordability
• the implementation of new rules for coding, billing, and compliance

ChiroTouch: Do you mind if we unpack those a little bit?

Kathy:  Sure! The rules and regulations that guide and safeguard our industry change every year. Staying in front of changing rules and requirements is challenging for practices and providers throughout the chiropractic profession. However, no matter what your practice’s size, it’s imperative to stay abreast of regulatory and industry changes, especially concerning coding, compliance, and billing. To ensure you remain aware of what’s new or different, and how that might impact your practice, ChiroTouch brings experts like me to your fingertips.

I also see a lot of practices that struggle to afford staff qualified enough to help run the business. For example, the market for knowledgeable personnel to handle the most critical parts of the business side of a practice, such as billing, is very competitive. Unfortunately, competition means it can be challenging to pay for these vital resources.

Another challenge, and one reason that KMC  University training is in such high demand, is how to make it easier to implement coding, billing, and compliance rule changes.  I’ve spent a career helping practices navigate the complexities in each of these areas.

ChiroTouch: How do you think your partnership with ChiroTouch is helping practices tackle some of these challenges?

Kathy:  Investing in consultants like me gives practices on-demand access to information that can affect their profitability and productivity. It also ensures the practice management solutions they’re using are designed to continue to simplify the documentation process – which keeps providers more compliant with less hassle.

Our work together demonstrates ChiroTouch’s commitment to ensuring their customers have the most up-to-date information to keep their practices running optimally, and within the letter of the law. My organization is here to help achieve that through training webinars that distill complex topics like coding, compliance, and billing into practical knowledge.

ChiroTouch: Can you explain how your organization’s expertise helps chiropractic professionals and practices avoid potential coding errors?

Kathy:  Unfortunately, software isn’t always the answer to avoiding common coding, compliance, and billing pitfalls. Streamlining can make things easier, but it doesn’t replace knowledge or make a practice more aware of regulation changes.

For example, annual updates to ICD-10 codes in the ChiroTouch system are beneficial, but ChiroTouch, as a company, can’t provide this information alone. By partnering with me (and people like me), they bring in experts to highlight these changes and how they might impact a practice’s business.

ChiroTouch: How can ChiroTouch customers benefit from your chiropractic billing and compliance knowledge?

Kathy:  Again, it takes more than software to make the billing process more efficient and productive. Training office staff and providers in how to take advantage of all the capabilities ChiroTouch solutions offer will help. But to really excel, you also need to know the rules of billing. You can’t just install that knowledge in someone’s head. That’s why at KMC University, we conduct a lot of training that covers the rules.

Partnerships like the one between my organization and ChiroTouch are essential. Leaning into partners with niche expertise in billing means ChiroTouch users can gain the knowledge and assistance they need. I often refer to ChiroTouch as the ‘how’ and KMC University as the ‘why.’ You need both to ensure your billing processes are serving your practice’s and patient’s needs effectively.

In the case of compliance, documentation is everything. ChiroTouch brings knowledge and functionality together. For instance, when using ChiroTouch, macros guided by our documentation experts prompt you to include the correct information in your notes. Using the software in this way can help to mitigate risk. Having your documentation in order is critical if audited too. Here again, ChiroTouch is the how, and KMC University is the why.

ChiroTouch: What are some of the capabilities or features in ChiroTouch that can help chiropractic practices?

Kathy:  Practices can benefit from using ChiroTouch in many ways. Let’s take a closer look at how your practice, providers, and patients might benefit from a few essential features, including:

• Fee schedules
• Compliant chart note macros
• Electronic intake forms
• Patient billing profiles

Fee schedules help practices keep track of their accounts receivable and collect the appropriate amount of money from the patient at the time of service. When practices use the fee schedule feature properly, they will be able to know the approximate amount due from a patient.

Compliant chart note macros help providers prove to insurance that the care they provide during an appointment is in fact medically necessary. Things like BulletTouch macros are designed to help you do this. BulletTouch macros were created as a way to offer templates and prompts so providers know what information is required and where that info needs to go in a note. And although using these macros helps guide providers, they must also understand basic documentation principles, so they know why those prompts are in place.

Electronic intake forms gather crucial medical history for your patient and pull that into the chart note to demonstrate you have made a thorough history of the patient before initiating care. Like the macro sets for documentation, using the intake form allows the DC to ask the necessary questions to get a complete patient history.

Intake forms offer patients the convenience of filling in their info on their own time, whether it be in the comfort of their home, or during some down time at the office. This way they can take the time they need to carefully, and completely, answer the questions. Once submitted, the provider can review and expand on that info during the consultation. Electronic intake forms save time for the patient, and practice, while ensuring all the correct information is available.

Patient billing profiles are an essential feature of billing software. For example, when a patient moves to maintenance care, you need to switch their default billing profile to ensure you do not continue to bill their insurance plan.

ChiroTouch: How does KMC’s collaboration and close working relationship with ChiroTouch help to improve ChiroTouch solutions?

Kathy:  Trust forms the bedrock of any relationship. My role as a consultant is to keep ChiroTouch informed of any changes in billing, coding, and compliance. As a result, you can feel assured that your practice management software is chiro informed.

When I refer to ChiroTouch in a training session, or appear as a speaker in one of their webinars, that carries a lot of weight. My clients and seminar audiences rely on me to get them valuable information that can considerably impact their business.

So, whether I’m providing billing and coding advice or delivering seminar and webinar presentations, you can be confident that the information you’re receiving is accurate and current.

ChiroTouch: Tell us what you like most about working with ChiroTouch.

Kathy:  I appreciate working with the industry leader in chiropractic software. Their willingness to engage with chiropractic experts like me is a testament to their commitment to the profession. In addition, ChiroTouch has always been open to and welcomed my suggestions and ideas on improving their solutions so they can better serve our wider chiropractic community.

Partnerships are vital to supporting the chiropractic profession; they ensure relevance and accuracy. Combining forces and sharing ideas puts KMC University, and ChiroTouch, in a stronger position to more effectively support the evolving needs of the chiropractic profession.

ChiroTouch: On a personal note, how do you enjoy spending your free time, and can you share a fun fact about yourself?

Kathy:  I enjoy traveling with my husband and family, and I love playing golf. I’m also a volunteer with the Entrepreneurs Organization, which is incredibly rewarding and inspiring.

Here are two fun facts that may have helped me in my career – I’ll let you be the judge.

First, when I was younger, I performed as a singer at Carnegie Hall. And although I don’t sing during any of my seminars, having a stage presence has served me well in my career.

Second, my father was a professional baseball umpire. Growing up with a role model who could call foul or safe, and feel confident in doing so, even if people disagreed, made a big impression on me. I like to think that I can lean into that strength as an advocate for the chiropractic profession.

While Kathy’s journey into chiropractic began in 1983, it’s far from over! This year marks Kathy’s 40th year of dedication to the chiropractic industry, and as you can see from our conversation with her, Kathy’s fervor for supporting the chiropractic community is as strong as ever.

We were honored that Kathy took the time to sit down with us and speak about our incredible partnership. Not only does our alliance with Kathy allow each of us to serve the chiropractic profession more completely, but it also ensures that our work as a software provider remains focused on providing modern solutions to current problems.

We look forward to many more years of working with Kathy, and our other thought leader partners as their insights fuel our continued commitment to being the premium software solution for chiropractic practices.