Member Benefits

For detailed information on these member benefits, please contact:
| 1001 Grand Avenue | West Des Moines, IA 50265 | 515-223-1401

Human resource services - MRA is an excellent resource for your Human Resource, office manager, financial and management staff. It's 24/7/365 professional hotline can be accessed by as many management and HR staff as you designate as an information, policy & guidance source. The core membership package would give your team:
- Human resource counselors 24/7 through MRA's phone and Web call line
- Free wage and salary data for every survey you participate in annually.
- A disc of the immediate past year surveys with the new membership kit.
- Sample policy, guides, forms and templates at the member's only MRA Resource Center.
- An HR metrics calculator with national data for your financial officer and HR staff's immediate access online.
- Publications on HR policies, management and leadership.
- Preferred pricing on all additional services: training courses, custom designed on-site courses, reference checking, affirmative action plans, competency planning, strategic workforce planning and more.
- Webinars on demand for in-house convenient training and a free monthly webinar.
Having MRA membership is like having a part time HR generalist on your staff and access for leadership advice on HR issues. For more information, please contact MRA's Iowa office at 888-516-6357, or visit the MRA Web site at www.mranet.org.
Human resource outsourcing - Merit Resources is a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) providing full-service Human Resources outsourcing for medical clinics. With Merit, your clinic retains all responsibilities for hiring, firing, setting employee rules and policies, setting wages and benefits, evaluating staff, etc. and Merit Resources takes over the responsibilities of maintaining employee files, processing payroll, filing tax deposits and federal/state reports, negotiating and administering benefits, ensuring compliance with laws, etc. The important difference is that through a relationship called "shared employment" employee paychecks come from Merit Resources.

Why this approach? If employees are on Merit Resources' payroll, they become part of Merit's large pool of employees from all of their clients. This helps improve costs and offerings when obtaining employee benefits and other employee-related expenses. It allows your small practice to be pooled together with thousands of other employees, spreading the risk of insurance claims among a greater number of lives and helping keep premiums in check. Plus, Merit Resources has staff that will ensure the clinic is handling all HR matters properly, and will monitor all new employment rules and regulations for you. By outsourcing HR functions, the clinic administrator or office manager is freed up to do other duties that are more central to the practice's operations. This cost effective approach also reduces your clinic's legal and financial liability of human resource issues by shifting much of it to Merit. It is a unique approach that can save you significant amounts of time, money and risk. For more information, contact Frank Accurso at 515-334-6175, or visit their Web site at www.meritresources.com.
Medical Professional liability insurance - Midwest Medical Insurance Company (MMIC) is the endorsed medical professional liability insurer of the Iowa Medical Society. MMIC provides medical professional liability insurance to physicians, clinics, hospitals and facilities in Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska and Wisconsin. MMIC has an A.M. Best rating of A (excellent) for financial stability. The company is recognized in the industry for its proactive approach to designing services and coverage that meet the individual challenges of its health care policyholders. Input and direction from practicing physicians complements the work of the professional staff. Iowa physicians are members of the MMIC Board and participate in many of the Board committees. For more information, contact MMIC Account Executive Derek Briscoe at 800-798-9870 or visit our website at www.mmicgroup.com.
Financial planning - Foster Group is the endorsed IMS service for investment and retirement planning. Foster Group has been an approved affinity program with the IMS since 1989, providing wealth management services. As a fee-only advisory firm, their services include comprehensive financial planning, estate planning, charitable giving strategies, investment management, and qualified retirement plan management. Foster Group is consistently recognized by Medical Economics and Worth Magazine as well as numerous other publications as one of the top financial firms in the country. Contact Foster Group at 800-798-1012 or visit their web site at www.fostergrp.com for more information.
Health insurance - Bernie Lowe & Associates, Inc., the endorsed insurance broker for the physician members of Iowa Medical Society, offers a variety of health insurance carrier options. Whether your clinic is large or small, Bernie Lowe & Associates, Inc. offers a dynamic range of funding and benefit offerings that are at the cutting edge of the healthcare market.
Workers' compensation - IMS offers workers' compensation through Farm Bureau and LaMair Mulock Condon Insurance Company. This IMS program stresses safety in the workplace and is a cost-effective way to provide coverage with a pro-active risk management approach. Call Jeff Baker at LMC at 515-237-0106 or 800-677-1529.
Practice management software - athenahealth offers fully integrated physician billing and practice management services. athenaCollector, athenahealth's web-based physician billing and practice management solution, enables physician practices to increase revenue, faster and with less hassle. athenahealth helps physician practices get paid more and faster, with less work and hassle by optimizing your workflow, evaluating productivity and monitoring cash flow.

athenahealth continuously researches and seeks out new insurance rules, builds them into their patented revenue cycle rules database, and makes them available to all clients on their network, resulting in fewer claim denials. athenahealth's Intelligence Team also tracks new government and Pay-for-Performance (P4P) rules to help make sure you receive the incentive payments you're eligible for. For more information, call 608-763-2380 or visit their website at www.athenahealth.com/ims.
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Collection services - Green Flag Profit Recovery by Transworld Systems, Inc., provides effective debt management for improved cash flow, fewer write-offs, lower internal collection costs, and increased profit margins. This flat fee service provides a diplomatic approach for delinquent accounts and lets you keep more of the dollars actually collected. For more information, please contact Steve Burgett, Transworld Systems at steve.burgett@transworldsystems.com or 515-321-4324.
Tamper-resistant prescription pads - Standard Register provides a discount on tamper-resistant prescription pads that meet the higher security standards that have been in place since October 1, 2008. The Standard Register pads have multiple layers of security integrated into their ScripPlus prescription forms. These forms exceed CMS requirements as well as Iowa's state requirements. To order online, go to: www.standardregister.com/securescrip, and select "Iowa" as your state (look for the map of the U.S. under the words "ScripPlus" for your State). Or call Standard Register at 1-866-741-8488.
Credit card services - Members may choose two credit services from Bank of America: 1) Professional Services Account enables groups and clinics to accept patient payments by credit card; and 2) the IMS Platinum Plus MasterCard with WorldPoints for personal use. Contact Bank of America at 866-598-4970.
Specialized medical periodicals - Members may arrange discounts through Decision Health on subscriptions to such publications at Part B News, Physician Practice Coder, Part B Answer Book and more. Contact Decision Health at 877-602-3835, or visit their web site at www.decisionhealth.com.
Magazine subscription service - This convenient, centralized national subscription service offers savings of 50-60% off your favorite magazine subscriptions for the office, waiting room or home. Contact the IMS Magazine Program at 800-289-6247.
Practice management - Physician members of IMS and their staff receive valuable programs, workshops, and webinars to address the mounting complexities of managing efficient and cost-effective practices. These programs and webinars cover current topics relating to third-party reimbursement, government regulatory measures and the basic topics of coding and collections. Special emphasis continues to be placed on education for physicians and their staff in the area of E&M coding and Medicare audits of E&M coding documentation. Contact IMS Practice Management at 800-747-3070 or 515-223-1401, ext. 206.
CME accreditation - the IMS is recognized by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education as the in-state accreditor of CME providers. The IMS demonstrates its long-term commitment to improving the quality of health care in Iowa through the administration of this local accreditation program. Accredited CME offerings are crucial for licensing, credentialing, hospital privileges and for compliance with the Joint Commission.
iowadocs.com - members are provided a free listing on the IMS online directory. Many patients call the IMS for referral to a physician in a certain geographical area, or for a particular specialty. The public may also use the online directory to search for physicians by several criteria. Update your information by logging onto www.iowadocs.com.
NPI data base - physician offices may need to include the National Provider Identifier (NPI) number of other physicians on insurance claim forms. The IMS has made it easy for you to find the NPI numbers of any Iowa physician. Go just to the IMS NPI home page. This is password protected for members only. To obtain your password, call the IMS office at 515-223-1401 or 800-747-3070.