Making the Most of Your NORM Membership

A National Organization of Rheumatology Managers (NORM) membership gives you access to more than just the community forum and our annual conferences. Let me highlight for you the treasures—some of which are hidden—found on the NORM website, www.normgroup.org, which was just revamped, making it easier to navigate on all electronic devices.

On the NORM website home page, you will find clickable options, such as Membership Benefits, Become a Member, Annual Conference, and Conference Registration. You may think that the home page options are all there are to see, but not so fast! There is a hidden treasure that I encourage you to check out—if you click on the News button you will find a plethora of timely information that we share with everyone, regardless of their NORM membership status.

Our news blog is comprised of several categories, including Healthy Lifestyle, Holidays, Industry News, Minute with the Board, NORM Events, NORM News, Resources, Social Media, and Tips and Tricks. We carefully select topics for our news blog posts that we feel will be of the greatest value to practice managers, including methods for decreasing patient wait times, tips for creating a waiting room that is arthritis-friendly, ways to optimize revenue cycles, and how to recruit more rheumatologists from the ranks of medical students. In our News section, you will also find announcements from corporate members. These blog posts are also shared via Facebook, at www.facebook.com/NORMGroup, and Twitter, at https://twitter.com/NORMgrp.

Exclusive Content for NORM Members

As a member of NORM, you can log in and enter the members only section of the website, where you will have access to sections on Membership Information, Healthcare Issues, Resources, and Educational Tools. You will also find guidelines for using the Community Forum, and learn about the Member Code of Conduct. If you are interested in joining one of the many NORM committees, the Service Opportunities page will give you a brief summary of each committee, including necessary contact information.

The Healthcare Issues page, which is updated regularly, gives members the opportunity to educate themselves about healthcare policies on national and state levels, and prepare for the future. Topics covered in this section include how the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 affects the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) Quality Payment Program, and the new Q codes for infliximab announced by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Of note, an article on the Healthcare Issues page about the 2019 policy and technical changes to the Medicare Advantage plan and Medicare Part D was summarized by Hart Health Strategies, and highlights key provisions to the proposed rule that will affect our practices. Hart Health Strategies also provides members with weekly updates through a Regulatory Review, available on our Advocacy page. This equips rheumatology physicians and managers with knowledge—and we all know that knowledge is power!

On the Healthcare Issues page, you will also find a Grassroots Advocacy Kit, which was shared with NORM by Bristol-Myers Squibb; this is a wonderful tool if you want to be more proactive but need some education on how to advocate for your practice and patients. You will also find a link to the Coalition of State Rheumatology Organizations’ website, wherein you can learn about issues within your state and find out how to contact legislators in your area.

Our Resources page highlights the Certified Rheumatology Coder–AAPC examination, as well as offerings from NORM Ventures, the latter of which links you with savings from NORM Ventures’ partners (eg, TransPerfect, MedPro Disposal, and RxVantage). Any new resources that we introduce will also be highlighted in this area.

Our Document Library contains documents shared by NORM members, including clinical forms, human resources forms and handbooks, Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy/protocols, job descriptions, letters, handbooks, policies, and forms. This page also contains information on biosimilars, the healthcare industry, and webinars that were hosted by NORM in 2016, 2017, and 2018.

We know that practice managers wear many hats, and that sometimes they have to miss a webinar they signed up to attend, and that is why we archive most of our webinars on the website. Of note, if the webinar allows you to receive AAPC continuing education units, you must participate in the live program to receive those credits. If you missed the chance to participate in our webinar on “Pharmacy Benefit Managers and the Alliance for Transparent & Affordable Prescriptions,” presented by Judith Gorsuch in November 2017, I encourage you to take advantage of this informative educational opportunity.

I think that the jewel in our treasure chest is the NORM Education Committee (NEC) homepage. We now feature the contents of the NEC webpage on our NORM site, for ease of use by our members. All of the NEC PowerPoint presentations are accessible through our website, and include the Rheumatology Disease Workbook, Workflow Tools, Ancillary Services, Red Flags for Billing, and On-Boarding Providers & When to Bring Them. There is a description of each PowerPoint presentation included on the page.

The contents of the NEC website are still being updated, and will include sections on MACRA and the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System, human resources, and billing and coding, to name a few.

NORM membership unlocks the door to a plethora of resources for your practice. We hope you will take advantage of this treasure trove of knowledge, and chart a new course for your practice’s success.