Fall 2010 - Eastern Virginia Medical School

alumni1982 Grad HelpsPhysicians Learn“New Language”of MedicineBetty Bibbins, MD, wasn’t expecting toget into medical school. The Portsmouthnative already had a bachelor’s in zoologyfrom Connecticut College and a nursing degreefrom Norfolk State University, and was workingon her master’s in public health at HamptonUniversity. But she always found herself wantingmore.“The harder I worked, the more I wanted toget my doctorate,” Dr. Bibbins says. So she appliedto Eastern Virginia Medical School, thinking shecould always return to Hampton University tocontinue working on her master’s degree.“I was really expecting to be rejected,” Dr.Bibbins says. “But guess what? My name is DoctorBetty Bibbins.”Inspired by her father, a dentist and one offew African-American health-care providers inPortsmouth at the time, Dr. Bibbins says she neverconsidered any career outside of health care.“I had a lot of exposure to the needs of peoplethrough what my father did,” she says. “He hadthe philosophy never to turn a patient away if youcould help it.”That sentiment drove Dr. Bibbins’ career, asshe went on to graduate from EVMS in 1982,complete her residency at the University of Texasin Galveston and establish her own ob-gyn practicein Louisville, Ky.“The courses at EVMS changed my life,” Dr.Bibbins says. “It was something that opened me upto the idea, ‘I can do it.’ That is the greatest feeling.They showed me that I can do it.”Dr. Bibbins ran a thriving ob-gyn practice inLouisville for 10 years, but in the early 1990s, shenoticed a disturbing trend — insurance companieswere making it increasingly difficult to receivereimbursement.So Dr. Bibbins educated herself on best practicesfor documenting patient care to ensure properreimbursement. She then began working at aconsulting firm, showing other physicians how justa small change in wording on a patient’s medicalrecord could make a big difference in the insuranceclaims process. During her tenure as a consultant,she worked her way from a part-time position toassistant vice president, and in 1999, opened herown firm — DocuComp LLC.“Documenting patient care is difficult andcomplicated,” says Dr. Bibbins. “If a physicianleaves just one diagnostic, descriptive word out of amedical record note, it can result in a denied claim.”DocuComp LLC educates physicians on thenuances of documentation and helps hospitalsimplement certified Clinical DocumentationImprovement (CDI) programs, improving thedocumentation process from the physicians to thecoders, case managers and nurses.“We as physicians have been left out of the loopof the third-party payer,” Dr. Bibbins says. “Thereis a whole other language, the documentationof the practice of medicine, that is in completeopposition to what we learned in medical school.”Dr. Bibbins has now dedicated herself to herconsulting firm, traveling around the countryeducating physicians, keeping in touch with formerclients and growing her business. She hopes shealso inspires physicians to embrace documentationas a necessary aspect of practicing medicine.“We need to become activists in health care,” shesays. “We need to participate in documenting,know what the rules are, and if some rules aren’tcorrect, we need to voice our opinions. It may seemlike tweaking, but that tweaking can make orbreak a hospital.”34 FALL 2010 www.evms.edualumni