DACULA, GA – Even as a majority of physicians in solo or small practices around the country continue to struggle with mounds of paper records, two physicians in rural Georgia and Florida have recently joined the ranks of the automated.

It places them in a group of about 15 percent of all U.S. physicians who have converted from paper to digital records, according to industry surveys.

Others say they can’t afford it or can’t figure out what to do.

Veronica Patterson, MD, a family practice doctor in Dacula Ga., and Louis Foley, MD, an OB/GYN doctor in Naples, Fla., figured they couldn’t afford the paper habit.

Both have decided to hand over their claims, billing and collecting work to Greenway Medical Technologies in Carrollton, Ga. In exchange for their business, Greenway set up both practices with its PrimeSuite electronic health record software.

It’s Greenway’s answer to the dilemma of what to do with the small practices that face real obstacles to adopting technology as the country moves toward

a national health information

network.

“It accomplishes that nobody-left-behind concept,” said Tee Green, Greenway’s president and chief operating officer. “If those guys can’t participate, the basic building blocks are missing. Then, it’s like building a house on sand. We can’t leave the one or two docs behind, or it’s not going to work.”

A recent Healthcare IT News online poll showed that 64 of 118 readers who responded believed that small practices were critical to the success of a national data

exchange. Industry leaders note that the majority of patients receive their care from small practices.

The Greenway offer is geared to start-up practices and one- or two-doctor practices, Green said. Greenway takes a 5 percent to 8 percent cut of what it collects.

In Georgia, Patterson was faced with a typical small practice dilemma. Her practice was growing, and the billing was becoming an onerous job.

“We used to have a biller here in the office,” Patterson said.

It turned out that Greenway’s PrimeARM, as the revenue cycle service is called, is less costly.

“It’s definitely saving money,” Patterson said. “PrimeARM can process payments every day.”

Foley agrees. “It’s beautiful,” he said. “It’s like they are my employees in my back office.” Foley estimates that if his practice were to take in $350,000, he would end up paying Greenway about $17,500 a year for handling the revenue cycle. “I can’t get an employee for $17,500 a year, he said.

Foley had planned to do the back office work himself. After he got started, he realized it was much more complicated than he had anticipated. The coding was more complex than he expected, and the volume of work overwhelming.

He talked to a trainer and concluded he was not the man for the job. To hire a back-office administrator would cost at least $35,000 a year, he figured, most likely more.

He was happy to have Greenway take the paper off his hands.

Greenway, which employs about 170 people, announced in November it would expand its Carrollton, Ga., location to accommodate its new PrimeARM business unit. The company invested $1.2 million and expects to create 250 jobs in the next three years.