Complete Medical Solutions’ Dennis Flint leads the educational charge as firm teams with MedLearn on critical General Equivalence Mappings software translator.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana (PRWEB) January 15, 2012

Dennis Flint is working hard now to make sure America’s healthcare providers are ready for the massive changes coming next year to the nation’s medical diagnosis coding system.

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Studies’ planned update from ICD-9 to ICD-10 in October 2013 – the first update of the diagnosis coding system in 25 years – represents a massive upheaval for national medical practitioners. Even to laymen, the change appears daunting: from about 14,000 codes, each three to five characters long, to over 68,000 codes, some as long as seven characters. For doctors, there will be rough seas indeed; according to some studies, it will cost the average five-doctor practice about $160,000 over three years to implement the coding change, while that same firm can expect a 20-percent revenue drop – if it perfectly implements the changes.

“It’s a really onerous change,” Dennis Flint noted. “Diagnosis coding cuts across the entire continuum of the healthcare system. There’s so much more documentation required to comply with the coding changes, doctors just won’t physically be able to see as many patients. There’s impact throughout the practice, whether it’s paperwork, referrals to outside providers, managed-care contracting – there’s impact everywhere.”

To that end, Complete Medical Solutions – a Louisiana-based company specializing in practice-management software, hardware and consulting services – and Minnesota-based healthcare solutions provider MedLearn are partnering on the distribution of new General Equivalence Mappings translator software. Flint, Complete Medical Solutions’ director of consulting and education, described the GEMs package as “an approximate cross-walk between the old code set and the new code set.”

“It’s basically a software package that allows you to search for new codes from existing code sets,” he said – no mean feat considering the increase in potential diagnoses under the new coding system. In lieu of current diagnoses such as “chest pain” or “back pain,” ICD-10 is detailed enough to include specific codes for “burns due to water skis on fire” and “being struck by a chicken,” according to Flint.

“That’s what the new coding system is all about,” he added. “Really specific diagnoses.”

While those hyper-focused diagnoses will ostensibly lead to better medical care, they’re also a red alert for physicians.

“This represents a huge boon for the insurance industry,” Dennis Flint warned. “They will now have the ability to deny claims at an alarming rate. Most doctors just aren’t going to be ready for the transition.”

But thanks to Complete Medical Solutions and MedLearn, more doctors will be. Among the benefits of the GEMs package is its “multi-directional functioning” between ICD-9 and ICD-10, Flint said, making it easier for healthcare providers to update their diagnosis coding abilities; GEMs also boasts a specialized print function that makes it easy “to create flash cards and other things that will help train doctors,” he added.

“We’ve had experts all over the country look at GEMs,” Dennis Flint said. “We know we’ve got something really special, and it’s being well-received all over the nation.”

Flint is about to debut a webinar series that better explain the benefits of GEMs and MedLearn is planning a kickoff event to extol the software’s virtues. A link to an early demo version of GEMs, dubbed GEMStool, will be posted soon on the MedLearn website.

“ICD-10 represents the most significant change to how the healthcare industry does business in over 25 years,” Dennis Flint said. “It’s critical that doctors understand exactly how these changes will affect their practices and their ability to provide medical services. We’re thrilled to help them get there.”

About Dennis Flint
United States Air Force Capt. Dennis Flint (Ret.) has enjoyed a long, varied and distinguished career in private industry. The former Northwest Airlines commercial pilot left flying behind to follow his father into the family business, operating two franchises for Snelling Temporary Services; from there, his career veered into medical-practice support and administrative services, where he’s filled various roles – from director of sales to CEO – at some of the nation’s most prestigious firms. Dennis Flint currently serves as director of consulting and education for Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Complete Medical Solutions.

Dennis Flint: A GEM in the Rough

Retired Air Force Capt. (and commercial pilot) Dennis Flint takes to the skies to spread the word about forthcoming medical diagnosis coding changes.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana (PRWEB) January 15, 2012

Dennis Flint, a retired U.S. Air Force captain and former commercial pilot for Northwest Airlines, just can’t keep his feet on the ground.

As director of consulting and education for Louisiana-based Complete Medical Solutions – an expert provider of practice-management software, hardware and consulting services – Flint takes his duties seriously. And that’s never more evident than when he’s discussing the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Studies’ planned update from ICD-9 to ICD-10 in October 2013, the first update of the nation’s medical diagnosis coding system in 25 years.

According to Flint, the update represents a massive upheaval for medical practitioners, who are tasked with switching from a coding system that utilizes about 14,000 codes (each three to five characters long) to one including over 68,000 codes (some as long as seven characters). Calling the switch “a really onerous change,” Flint cites studies that predict the cost of implementing the coding change will be about $160,000 over three years for the average five-doctor practice; other studies suggest that same firm will suffer a 20-percent decline in revenues, and that’s if it perfectly implements the changes.

“There’s so much more documentation required to comply with the coding changes, doctors just won’t physically be able to see as many patients,” Dennis Flint said. “Whether it’s paperwork, referrals to outside providers or managed-care contracting, there’s impact throughout the practice.”

Making the coming transition even scarier for healthcare providers, he added, are the “troubling” findings of a recent survey of national healthcare providers regarding ICD-10. For one thing, many providers consider ICD-10 to be “just a coding or IT issue,” he noted.

“Wrong,” Dennis Flint said. “ICD-10 crosses the entire continuum of a healthcare provider’s day-to-day work processes. Superbills, lab and X-ray orders, preauthorization of procedures and referrals to outside providers are all affected, just to name a few.

“And what about retrospective reporting?” he added. “As practice administrators, we benchmark based on past performance. How can we rely on reports that compare ICD-9 apples to ICD-19 oranges? ICD-10 is not just an IT issue.”

Another finding of the troublesome survey, according to Flint: Some insurance companies will be required to transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 and some will not, but most healthcare providers are unaware that – in order to comply with both – they’ll be universally required to run dual coding tracks.

“If not,” he warned, “they will be unable to file electronic claims. What sort of impact would it have on your practice if you couldn’t file electronic claims?”

To help as many doctors as possible be ready for the coding change, Flint is hitting the highway – or in his case, the airways. A member of the Editorial Board of ICD-10 Monitor, an online news source dedicated to helping healthcare providers make educated decisions as they transition to the new coding system, Flint has completed a workshop series, several webinars and numerous national podcasts discussing ICD-10 and its implications, and has already traveled to various national locales – including two recent trips as far as the Hawaiian islands – to educate doctors in person.

Now he’s packing his bags again. Flint is planning a Jan. 18 trip to Lansing, Mich., to address the Michigan Primary Care Association and a Jan. 26 voyage to Raleigh, North Carolina, to address the North Carolina Community Health Center Association.

After North Carolina, Dennis Flint will be in Austin, TX on January 28th to address TEXMED and numerous other dates are scheduled throughout the year. The Complete Medical Solutions consulting and education director said he anticipates several more junkets around the country to discuss the critical ICD-10 changes with healthcare providers.

“Most practices know they need to do something about ICD-10, but they have no idea where to start,” Dennis Flint said. “ICD-10 will be a disaster for any practice that doesn’t prepare.”

About Dennis Flint

Parker, Colorado resident and retired U.S. Air Force Capt. Dennis Flint earned a bachelor’s degree in Organizational Behavior from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1977 and has enjoyed a long, varied and successful career in private industry. A former commercial pilot for Northwest Airlines and franchise manager for Snelling Temporary Services, he’s filled various roles – from sales director to VP of education to CEO – during two decades in the medical-practice support and administrative services industry. Dennis Flint currently serves as director of consulting and education for Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Complete Medical Solutions.

Dennis Flint Earning His Wings, Again

Tallahassee, Florida restaurateur Dennis Flint donates time at local soup kitchen Dishing Out Hope, which serves some 9,000 hot lunches every month to the homeless and low-income families.

Tallahassee, Florida (PRWEB) January 15, 2012

Dennis Flint marked two special anniversaries this week: one year as a restaurateur, and six months as a volunteer at Dishing Out Hope.

The 38-year-old restaurateur realized a lifelong dream when he opened the doors to his Spyro Grille in January 2011. But Dennis Flint, who studied at the Florida Culinary Institute in West Palm Beach, said something was nagging at him from the moment he debuted his restaurant, even though the eatery – which specializes in Greek and Mediterranean dishes – was “successful from the day we opened.”

At first, Dennis Flint couldn’t put his finger on what was bothering him. But by mid-summer, with the tourist season in full swing and his new business sizzling, he realized what it was.

“Driving to the restaurant every day, I would pass Dishing Out Hope,” Dennis Flint said. “And sometimes, the line was out the door.”
Even with a new, busy restaurant to occupy him, he couldn’t continue turning a blind eye to the soup kitchen and its clients. He even tried taking a different route to work, Dennis Flint noted, but the knowledge that he had a special talent that might be especially useful to a soup kitchen wouldn’t go away.

While he studied professional cooking at the Florida Culinary Institute, Dennis Flint credits his understanding of Mediterranean cooking to his mother, Adonia, and her brother, Uncle Niko. He also credits his mother and uncle with instilling in him a sense of charity and caring for others, so one day in July the chef stopped on his way to work and asked the operators of Dishing Out Hope if they needed a hand.

They did indeed. The soup kitchen relied on just two cooks, a $500 monthly budget and as many donations as local individuals, restaurants, markets and churches could muster to provide some 350 hot lunches, six days a week, for homeless adults and low-income families. All told, Dishing Out Hope serves over 9,000 meals a month – and its operators were thrilled that a professional chef was willing to lend a hand.

“Dennis was a godsend,” said Stacey Blackley, who along with her partner, Mellisa Bohm, opened Dishing Out Hope in 2005. “We’ve always struggled to meet demand, whether it was obtaining enough food to prepare or having enough time to prepare it. It’s always been like pushing a boulder uphill. Having Dennis Flint on the team has been a real help.”

Among other things, the professional chef has been able to apply some uniquely useful training to the cause. Not only is he familiar with the requirements of preparing large amounts of food for several people (Spyro Grille, he noted, will produce as many as 50 servings of chicken souvlaki in a single day), but he is expert in combining ingredients in ways Blackley and Bohm would never have considered – a particularly useful skill for a kitchen forever skirting the edge of ruin.

“We’ll have maybe two dozen tomatoes left and nothing else, and no idea what to do with them,” Blackley noted. “And then here comes Dennis with a few pounds of rice from his restaurant, and some mint and onions, and the next thing you know we’re serving the most delicious stuffed tomatoes you’ve ever had.
“And our clients are so grateful,” she added. “They might be less fortunate than some other people, but you can see in their eyes that if you serve them one more dish of tomato soup, they’re going to go nuts.”

On January 8, to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Spyro Grille’s grand opening, Dennis Flint and his Dishing Out Hope partners hosted a special luncheon for the soup kitchen’s patrons. Everyone who attended lunch at Dishing Out Hope on Saturday, January 7, was given a coupon to come to Spyro Grille at 11 a.m. on Sunday, January 8 – when the soup kitchen was closed – and enjoy a special Greek buffet prepared gratis by Dennis Flint and his staff.

“It turned out to be a terrific party,” the chef said. “More than 200 people showed up, all ages, and they wound up eating pork cutlets and omelets and gyros and Greek salad. And the looks on their faces, especially the kids … it was like a special holiday, just for them.”

Coincidentally, January 9 marked Flint’s six-month anniversary preparing food at Dishing Out Hope – and as busy as his Spyro Grille keeps him, he said he has no plans of stopping his charity cooking anytime soon.

“As fulfilling as it is to finally own my own restaurant, nothing makes me prouder than working with Stacey and Louisa at Dishing Out Hope,” Dennis Flint said. “And as happy as I am that my restaurant is a success, I don’t think I could have really enjoyed it knowing there were people in this community who were starving … literally starving.

“I have a great kitchen staff [at Spyro Grille], so if I come in an hour or two later a few days a week because I’m helping [at Dishing Out Help], it’s not the end of the world,” he added. “The truth is, I just couldn’t ignore this calling. My mother and Uncle Niko taught me better than that.”

About Dennis Flint

Dennis Flint, 38, is a graduate of the Florida Culinary Institute and owner of the Spyro Grille, a Greek and Mediterranean restaurant in Tallahassee, Florida. A lifelong Floridian, he and his wife, Jennifer, reside in Tallahassee, where he is a volunteer at the Dishing Out Hope soup kitchen. Dennis Flint is an avid boater and deep-see fisherman.

Charity Is Not Greek to Dennis Flint

Snowplow operator Dennis Flint is at it again, lending senior citizens a hand (no charge) as winter finally strikes the Buffalo, New York region.

Amherst, New York (PRWEB) January 14, 2012

As the first major snowstorm of Winter 2012 bore down on the Greater Buffalo Region this week, Dennis Flint geared up.

Dennis Flint, the owner of Amherst, New York-based Big D Towing, hit the streets along with two of his employees early Friday morning, their powerful, snowplow-equipped tow trucks part of a large fleet subcontracted by local governments in Buffalo, Amherst and surrounding communities to keep roads clear. But unlike many of their fellow plowers, Flint and his Big D crew added a few additional stops – clearing private driveways of senior citizens, private roads inside age-restricted townhouse communities and parking lots outside three different senior centers, all free of charge.

“It’s just something I feel we should do,” Dennis Flint said. “It’s a nice way to give back.”

Flint rose to local fame during the Buffalo area’s brutal 2012 winter season, which saw measurable snow fall on 51 of 83 days between Dec. 1, 2010, and Feb. 22, 2011. As of that latter date, Buffalo had endured over 86 inches of snow – more than 7 feet – and while making his rounds as a subcontractor working for town, city and village officials during those four-dozen snow events, Dennis Flint noticed many senior citizens struggling to clear their driveways, as well as several buried senior facilities.

By mid-December, he decided to do something about it. At first, Flint simply pulled his truck into a driveway whenever he saw an older person digging his or her way out and cleared a path, no charge; he started keeping lists and, with every fresh fall, would either return himself or dispatch one of his other two trucks to the same driveway. When one of the grateful seniors noted her local center had been closed for over a week by the treacherous conditions, Dennis Flint made his way to the site and singlehandedly cleared the entire parking lot, even climbing out of his truck to dig a walking path from the lot to the front door.

Two days after a January 15-16, 2011, snowstorm dumped about four fresh inches on the Greater Buffalo Region, one of the other Big D drivers, Gary Brown, noticed that his parents’ 55-and-over townhouse community in Tonawanda still wasn’t plowed and asked his boss for permission to clear it out. Dennis Flint agreed, and a new location was added to his charitable plowing list.

“It’s kind of ridiculous that these places weren’t plowed sooner, but it’s also understandable,” Dennis Flint said. “It seemed like it was snowing every day, and even with all of the companies they hired to help, town and county governments were having trouble keeping up. And for private businesses like senior centers, you have to remember, we were in the middle of a major recession – there was only so much money to spend on things like snow removal.

“So we were happy to help,” he added. “Seeing an old man struggle to dig out his car, that’s a no-brainer – you’re going to stop and help. But we were glad to keep showing up at these other places and lending them a hand when we could.”

Word of Flint’s good deeds spread quickly, and the legend of Amherst’s “White Knight” was born.

“He must have come here nine or ten times,” said Jennifer Cristiner, 74, a widow who lives alone in a two-story colonial off Spruce Road. “One day just before Christmas, I was in the driveway with my shovel and this big black truck pulled up and [Dennis Flint] leaned out of the window and said, ‘I’ll take care of that for you, ma’am.’ I thought it was John Wayne!

“And then he came back, nearly every time it snowed, like clockwork,” Cristiner added. “He never asked for a single dime. And I know he plowed out at least two of my neighbors’ drives, and at least once he cleared the entire parking lot at the Amherst Center for Senior Services.”

This winter has been much easier on the Buffalo region – before the Jan. 12-13 event, only 5.5 inches of snow had been recorded since the 2011-2012 season started. But as soon as the flakes started falling this week, Amherst’s “White Knight” was back in action.

“I’m really very happy to provide this service, and so are my other drivers,” Dennis Flint said. “That might not be my mother and father, but it’s somebody’s mother and father, somebody’s grandparents. I have the plows and the ability to help, so why wouldn’t I?”

About Dennis Flint

Dennis Flint, 46, is the owner of Big D Towing in Amherst, New York. Recognized as a “Top Local Business Leader” in 2002 by the Amherst Town Council, he lives in nearby Kenmore with his wife, Lori, and their three children. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Dennis Flint is an avid hunter and stock car racing fan.

Dennis Flint The ‘White Knight’ Rises

Over two decades of generosity earns youth sports enthusiast Dennis Flint the Jonesville, Michigan, Village Trustees’ 2012 “Man of the Year” honors.

Jonesville, Michigan (PRWEB) January 13, 2012

Dennis Flint may be the biggest baseball fan in all of Michigan, but as hard as he roots for his beloved Detroit Tigers, one other team is even nearer and dearer to his heart. That would be the Jonesville Junipers.

The Junipers are a pint-sized squad of boys and girls, ages 5 through 7, who take the field every June and July against rivals including the Litchfield Lions and other clubs from around Hillsdale Valley. And Dennis Flint, a lifelong Jonesville resident, is easily their biggest fan.

Although his own children – and two of his six grandchildren – have long outgrown the Junipers, Dennis Flint, 77, has sponsored the team for each of the past 22 seasons, buying the players’ uniforms, paying county field fees and even springing for equipment likes gloves and cleats for kids who couldn’t afford them. On Jan. 10, the Jonesville Village Council honored Flint’s two-decades-plus of generosity and community spirit during a special ceremony at Jonesville Village Hall.

“I love these kids,” Dennis Flint said during the ceremony. “This is a wonderful honor, but really, it’s about kids having a chance to play baseball, and that’s a really beautiful thing.”

Dennis Flint, who retired from a 46-year career in investment banking in 2002, was the starting center fielder for the Michigan State University Division I baseball team that finished third in the 1954 College World Series tournament, losing 4-3 to eventual champion University of Missouri in the penultimate round. Invited to the Detroit Tigers’ 1955 spring training camp in Lakeland, Florida, Dennis Flint was never offered a professional contract – but his passion for America’s pastime never waned.

“Except for Annie, baseball is the love of my life,” Dennis Flint said, referring to his wife of 52 years, Annabelle (nee Henry) Flint. “It’s like an endless dance with your best girl. It’s dreamlike, moving along with no clock, no time limit, every game just playing itself out however it’s meant to.”
That goes for games played by the Tigers – whom Dennis Flint has loved “since birth,” he said – or the Junipers.
“When I was a kid, there was no Little League around here,” Dennis Flint said. “There was no organized baseball for little boys and girls. Instead, there was a war.”

With their “fathers off fighting in some foreign country” in World War II, he added, the youth of Jonesville were left to form their own teams and – in some cases – rules. “I remember the old dirt lot where we played,” Dennis Flint said. “We had wooden planks for bases. The weeds behind right field were so thick, if you hit the ball in there, it was an automatic home run.”

From such humble beginnings grew his lifelong love affair with the game, and when life presented him an opportunity to provide younger generations of Jonesville kids (including his three sons, and two of their children) with better playing conditions, he seized it. In 1989, Dennis Flint spearheaded a fund drive that resulted in the creation of a new baseball and softball fields for the Jonesville Recreation Department (he donated $15,000 himself to get the drive started), and he’s paid out-of-pocket for every Juniper uniform ever since.

He’s also purchased equipment including bats, balls and catcher’s gear for the local team, and even help stock the snack bar at the Jonesville Sports Complex (known by many locally as “Flint Field”).

“He’s easily the most generous man I’ve ever known,” said Benjamin Dean, a former Jonesville Village trustee and one of Flint’s closest friends. “The fact that he continues to step up every year and pay for all this shows how much he cares about this town, these kids and his beloved baseball.”

While he was officially named the Jonesville Village Trustees’ 2012 “Man of the Year” during the Jan. 10 ceremony, eagle-eyed observers noted that someone in Village Hall had taped a small piece of yellow paper onto the plaque the trustees presented to Dennis Flint, replacing the word “Year” with “Century.”

“I am extremely proud of this,” Dennis Flint said of his plaque, and the Village Hall honor. “But I haven’t donated to the baseball program so people would think I’m this great man. It’s all for the kids. And it’s all about baseball.”

About Dennis Flint

Dennis Flint, 77, is a 1955 graduate of the University of Michigan and lifelong resident of Jonesville, Michigan. The retired investment banker and his wife, Annabelle, will celebrate their 53rd wedding anniversary in June. The couple has three sons and six grandchildren. Dennis Flint is an avid baseball fan and also enjoys fly-fishing, hiking and poker.

Honoring Jonesville’s Mr. Baseball Dennis Flint