Hi Everyone, Just when life seem very routine, it throws you a curve. Our Lacation Center has been given the go ahead to look forward to opening an outpatient "clinic" as a fee for service operation. We also may begin billing for inpatient consultations as well. This was decided as we have become terribly overwhelmed with the case load with just 2.7 FTE's . We see 300-350 moms per month on maternity and speak with another 200-230 telephone clients, run a retail center and see consults and do PPHV's. At this time we have no secretarial support, either. I know this is a mixed blessing, as a hate to go totally on charging. OTOH it is really time to advance our profession and stop giving things away. Aren't we like the respiratory therapists, occupational therapists, dieticians who all now charge for their services? Please e-mail me privately with your repsonses on how you are doing charging for inpatients and outpatient.s. We might establish the outpatient portion at a nearby freestanding surgicenter and health care "mall". We are wondering if more sucessful billing would occur if we named a "medical director" or if reimbursement occurs well without a physician name. I thnk if we get the ball rolling in our geographic area, other hospiitals will follow. We are also restarting our support group :) since LLL in our area has not been as widely available as they once were. In addition with the recent PEDS journal focusing on the Baby - Friendly Hosptial Initaive in Boston, and them winning a UN award, our department chair would like an AD HOC Committee formed to see how and if we can measure up to those standards, and if not why not. Wow do we have our work to do! Any an all input would be grateful. Glad to be working with SOME physicians who are supportive and an administration who also tries to be! Warmly, LuAnn Smith RN, IBCLC York, PA P.S. Congratulations to all the new IBCLC's. I'm going on year 12 as one....may your own careers be as rewarding and amazing as mine has been. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html