I also decided against the CCM care merge product after hearing their pitch because it seems that their system does not decrease the burdens of documentation and does add another level of complexity. Meanwhile I had concerns about their fee system. Although it included a strong motivator to capture all your CCM (financial risk), that same model might lead to inappropriate use of CCM. So for a small practice like mine I thought it could be more risk than benefit.
I attempted to piece together a CCM tracking method using the subject headings like "CCM 10 min" in messages, use of templates for documentation, and flags to identify patients who across the 20 minute threshold per month. But it is burdensome and no matter how you cut it, it probably does require someone to manually generate the bills once a month from a flagged list and also to reset the flags.
It takes a little bit of momentum and regular reminders/training to get a boot strap system like this to work and I haven't gotten it off the ground yet. maybe I needed a little bit more stick (Like in the caremerge system) rather than just the carrot.
Stew Mones MD
Solo Practice since 2008
Eugene, OR
