On this episode of The Modern Practice Podcast, host Gary Tiratsuyan welcomes Tony Cannavale, Director of Enterprise Solutions at Rectangle Health, to the show to discuss how ophthalmology practices and organizations can simplify the business side of their day to day.
During the conversation, Tony discusses how technology will enable ophthalmology professionals in single or multi location organizations to shift focus back to building meaningful relationships with patients.
He shares details into game changing feature sets like bulk texting, which enables a one-to-many communication line to open and free up time while reducing AR, and automation functionality, that will simplify tedious tasks into smooth workflows. All in a single, consolidated platform!
Be sure to connect with Tony on LinkedIn.
Transcript
Gary Tiratsuyan 00:20
Without further ado, hello, everybody, and welcome back to the Modern Practice podcast. Hope you’re all doing well. Today. We’re talking about the strategies and tactics ophthalmology practices and organizations can take to simplify the business side of their day to day. Joining us today is Tony Kanovali, director of Enterprise Solutions here at Rectangle Health. Tony, welcome to the show and thanks so much for taking the time.
Tony Cannavale 00:43
Hey, Gary, thank you so much for having me today. I’m excited to be on the podcast.
Gary Tiratsuyan 00:48
My pleasure. Before we dive into the methods and the solutions that have helped so many in the Ophthalmology space run more profitably and efficiently, I’d love to give our audience the chance to learn more about you. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what brought you to Rectangle Health?
Tony Cannavale 01:04
Sure thing. My background is pretty broad from a sales standpoint. I have many years in financial technologies, medical devices, and services ranging from the individual location level, large hospital IDN systems, and consolidation groups came to Rectangle Health because I saw how they’re changing the industry in a positive way by bringing new technologies specific to the healthcare space.
Common Challenges for Ophthalmology Practices
Gary Tiratsuyan 01:29
Thanks so much, Tony, and welcome again. So we’re talking about Ophthalmology. You’re talking to these professionals every day. And so when you ask what makes running the day to day business operations a challenge, is there a common theme you’ve picked up on or heard in their responses? And it could be more than one.
Tony Cannavale 01:48
Yeah, absolutely. Every organization that I speak with is going to be slightly different, but the common theme is that organizations are doing more with less. Individuals are wearing multiple hats and filling in when short staffed.
The past three years have been challenging on all of us, and I think we’ve all had to find a way to adapt to keep the business side of organizations running. The challenge I hear the most is that business takes away from the passion that our staff has. And our staff, in most cases, is passionate about helping patients, not running a business.
Those challenges can include posting payments too.
Practice management systems, client communications, patient scheduling, compliance, PCI, HIPAA, OSHA, collecting outstanding accounts receivable. These are all huge challenges that take away from what our staff is passionate about.
Developing Patient Loyalty
Gary Tiratsuyan 02:44
Tony, in your conversations, have you put your finger on or have these organizations shared the number of hours they’re spending in a day resolving these business issues or taking on these business tasks as opposed to, like, you know, really getting in touch with the patients and developing those strong bonds that lead to retention and loyalty?
Tony Cannavale 03:09
Yeah, of course.
Again, everywhere is slightly different and it’ll depend on the size and the complexity of the organization. But this is multiple hours a day, and in some cases it’s become full time jobs. We have people that are just manning the phones to still confirm and change appointments. It’s a significant amount of time that can be otherwise spent in revenue generating capacity.
Gary Tiratsuyan 03:42
I think it’s safe to assume, and correct me if I’m wrong, that there are many Band Aid or quick fixes that are more temporary and not so much a permanent solution to resolve these issues.
Right?
Tony Cannavale 03:43
Of course. I think it’s human nature to think about a quick fix when we have a problem. It’s easy to delegate tasks to our staff, but again, we’re removing them from other revenue generating activities. Most will be happy to do it, but it truly is a short term fix for a permanent solution. I believe we need to look to automating these tasks.
The Solution
Gary Tiratsuyan 04:06
Yeah.
And it’s honestly hard to delegate at this point, right. Because of the ongoing staffing issues, it’s hard to retain talent and retain that staff so that one person isn’t wearing 10, 15, 20 hats at a time. So let’s talk more permanent. You already mentioned automation. What’s the fix for an Ophthalmologist with one location or multiple locations? An organization? To really see a positive impact on revenue and time savings, we always need.
Tony Cannavale 04:41
To look to new technology, look at a tech stack to simplify the business side of healthcare. There are so many things that we bring to the table, from streamlining payment processes, reporting, client communication, and scheduling, as well as compliance. These, again, all need to be top of mind. Furthermore, new technology is great. But as organizations bring on new services in many cases they bring on multiple vendors and multiple points of contact. Just earlier this week, I had a conversation with an account that had a lot of great technology in place. But as we peeled back those layers, that new technology came with five different vendors and five different monthly statements and five organizations to call when their questions arrived. For this organization, they had the technology, but the permanent fix for them was to look into consolidation of the vendors for that new technology.
Gary Tiratsuyan 05:35
Right.
And that’s really in line with a recent report I read from Bain and Company, where they’re reporting out that healthcare across the industry are investing in technology, investing in software solutions that’ll help them with these long term fixes that they’re seeking so that they can run almost autonomously. And like we mentioned earlier, get back to that one to one patient provider relationship, building those strong bonds. So we’re speaking about revenue cycle management, automation tools being a top priority in the healthcare space. According to that report by Baining company, Rectangle Health has released multiple pieces and a few podcasts about it as well. So for larger organizations, we’re talking about bringing all or most of those business operations under one software or one roof, so to speak. What’s the implementation and training timetable look like?
Because obviously, if the investment is made, business must go on as usual on the front lines.
Tony Cannavale 06:47
This will depend on a few things.
Size of the organization and how many locations. Going live can change the time frame slightly. But in most scenarios, we’re looking at three to six weeks for a full implementation.
Of course, we can work on a more aggressive time frame if needed, and we have buy in from your organization.
Gary Tiratsuyan 07:04
Yeah.
And that goes back to what we’ve heard so many times from so many guests on this podcast. It’s Rectangle health’s consultative approach, right? We move at the pace that our clients and partners need us to and deliver the experience of using our technology in an efficient manner in a way that works with them.
So, Tony, one last question here for you. Are you hearing anything else or do you have a sense of what will emerge as a game changer or must have in the industry?
Tony Cannavale 07:38
Yeah, game changing in the industry to me is taking new technology and how do we apply it?
So one topic that becomes part of every conversation I have is Accounts receivable. Accounts receivable is never good or it can always better. We always laugh when we ask, how is your outstanding AR? And again, the answer is always, it can always better. So, as a software company, we’re looking to reach as many people as possible in the most effective ways. Everything’s changing. We get mail and people don’t open their mail. People don’t answer phone calls, but we know that 97% of all text messages are read. Sure, Text-to-Pay has been around for some time, but adding to that technology, I believe the future is simplifying that process and reaching hundreds or thousands of people through one streamlined bulk text message platform.
We recently launched our bulk text to streamline your AR. It is commercially available and we’re seeing tremendous success and adoption.
Gary Tiratsuyan 08:44
That’s incredible because as you think about the time, it just sets up, the time it takes to make one phone call, the notes and the updates that you need to make, then we shift to single text message and setting that up. But now with this bulk texting capability for an ophthalmology organization, reaching it’s that one to many, the power of one to many that really stands out, and you’re right, is going to be a game changer and that’s incredible stuff. Tony, thank you so much for our.
Listeners tuning in today. I invite you all to connect with Tony on LinkedIn and talk to him. He’s always a wealth of knowledge and a true guru in the healthcare software space. I will have a link tony’s profile in the episode description below. Tony, thank you again so much for taking the time to join us.
Tony Cannavale 09:36
Gary, thanks for having me. I love helping and I love having conversations with groups of all sizes all across the country.
Gary Tiratsuyan 09:42
Looking forward to having you on the show again. And one final note for everyone. Alongside a link tony’s profile, I will also have a direct link to Rectangle Health Software assessment tool, where you can see the cost and time savings your organization can experience using Rectangle Health software. Be sure to like and subscribe, and also leave your thoughts and comments on this episode and what you’d like to hear discussed in the future episodes on The Modern Practice podcast.
Thanks for tuning in. Till next time, everybody.
Thank you for listening to the Modern Practice podcast. If you enjoyed today’s conversation, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify or SoundCloud for new episodes, and follow Rectangle Health on social media for more helpful information, news and event details. Thanks for tuning in.
