Dear Synapse Network,
There’s been a lot going on in Synapse world so we thought we would provide a quick update before our annual Christmas newsletter.
We’ve been involved in more media stories, attended conferences, added hundreds more rules to our rules engine and had some important cross jurisdictional appointments.
Perhaps biggest of all we’ve revamped and relaunched our MBS Answers service, where you can have any question on the Australian medical billing system answered. Join the community and be in the know.
Happy reading.
In this issue
 Synapse Hospital Billing Solution |  Payment Integrity Partner Announcement |  MBS Answers New Look Website |  The Age Whistleblower Story |
Read on for these articles and more…
Arcadia Pittwater and
Matilda Nepean Hospital Group
We’ve been working with the above hospital group for some time on streamlining billing and coding functions. This has included an integration of our billing platform with Global Health’s PAS/EMR to provide a best of Australian breed partnership to the digital revenue cycle of a leading Sydney hospital group.
By combining with Global Health and MasterCare+ the hospital has a seamless workflow, an elegant interface and a very intuitive user experience.
Since moving to the Synapse hospital billing solution, the hospital group has experienced hugely successful collections, with an overall rejection rate of just 0.43%. If you’d like to hear more about this or what we can offer to your facility, please get in touch.
Kirontech
Following on from the ABC News report earlier this year, we’ve also been pleased to formally announce our relationship with our payment integrity partners on that project, Kirontech.
This is a long-term agreement that will continue our work in the payment integrity space internationally. Our work exposing fraud, waste and abuse in health care systems is just getting started and is critical in supporting the sustainability of any health system.
Data analysis and future reports are already in the works.
There is more to come in the payment integrity space very soon, so stay tuned.
Synapps MBS – New and improved
As our billing clients will know, we are always looking to improve our billing app and the functionality available to you.
Billing rejections, with our platform, remain under 1% across all specialties. We are also receiving more and more referrals from clients telling colleagues to come and join us.
We love this and are so grateful for the referrals. And we always endeavour to provide the same high level of service for each client. The app is now at version 2.3.8 recently released.
Download the latest version to ensure you’re up to date!
Indo-Australian Chamber of Commerce
Our CEO and Founder, Dr Margaret Faux, was recently elected as a Director on the IACC’s Board.
Dr Faux is working to reconstitute the board under the new governance structure and is excited to be continuing the progress made over the last few years building the trade relationship between India and Australia.
Very exciting news and watch this space.
AIMAC / MBS Answers
A new look, new website and additional features!
Since we began the MBS Answers service at the beginning of Covid, the questions haven’t stopped coming. This has meant that we have had to take stock recently when we realised that after providing the service for free for almost five years, we could not continue the free service given the work involved. There is clearly a need for this service given the huge volume of questions we receive every week, so we felt that discontinuing was not the right solution. Instead, we have come up with a low-cost subscription model that will enable the service to continue.
There are now over 70 detailed answers on the site, with a commitment that two new answers will be added each week. The annual subscription for MBS Answers is $299 (roughly the cost of a coffee per week) and for that you get all of this:
Weekly mailer updates with the latest answers.
Monthly PIM newsletter (Payment Integrity Monthly), where Margaret will summarise all the latest PSR cases as well as any court or tribunal decisions involving health practitioners.
Priority answers when there are major changes to Medicare laws that the entire industry needs to know about.
The ability to submit questions.
This is a service that benefits everyone, and the initial sign-up rate and feedback has been very positive. You can subscribe here.
We also have a new Report a Concern section to deal with the influx of patients and others (including doctors) coming forward to share troubling stories of Medicare misuse.
If you want to report the conduct of someone, whether a colleague or someone else, you can do so confidentially here. This is basically a free reporting service for anyone who cares about payment integrity and the sustainability of the Australian health system.
You can report a concern in two ways.
Send us a short summary of your concern using a simple form.
Complete the Medichecker survey, which has a dedicated option for healthcare workers.
Mornington Peninsula story
We wanted to end with a recent story in The Age and SMH involving a whistleblower who has alleged widespread fraud by almost 50 doctors on the Mornington Peninsula.
Margaret was asked for comment as an expert. She has the whistleblower letter and can assure you that the media reporting was accurate, balanced and not at all sensational as some have incorrectly claimed. These are extremely serious allegations that need to be investigated for the benefit of patients, doctors who bill correctly, and the sustainability of the Australian health system.
That’s all for now but as always, if you have any questions about anything in this newsletter our customer service team will be delighted to hear from you at cs@synapsemedical.com.au
We’ll be back just before Christmas.
From Margaret and the Synapse team
enquiries@synapsemedical.com.au
