Orienting your support staff to the integrated EHR eco-system

“Before expecting your support staff or divisional departments to contribute qualitatively into the integrated EHR system, care must be taken to identify and train them for orienting them to the mechanism of the EHR”

By now medical practices must have realized that EHR is not just about technology but beyond that. As EHR becomes mandatory in clinical and operational management, practices’ responsibility to comply by EHR mandate would also double up: while they have to ensure EHR compliance for avoiding penalization for being below the EHR benchmark, they should also strive to be eligible for incentives under the ‘Meaningful Use’  criterion as determined by the HITECH Act. Therefore, the whole task of living up to the requisite level of compliance would surely demand not just physicians’ knowledge of EHR, but the integrated effort of functional divisions of medical practices/hospitals.

Before expecting your support staff or divisional departments to contribute qualitatively into the integrated EHR system, care must be taken to identify and train them for orienting them to the mechanism of the EHR.

• To begin with you have the Front Desk, which usually attends to Patient Registration and Admission. As EHR marks a deviation from paper filing to electronic registration, the Front Desk needs to be taught of ways to enter in registration and admission processes into an automated and networked EHR module, which enables viewing and interfacing across the all the connective eco-system of hospital management.
• Next, you have support staffs, who take of monitoring and administering physicians’ instructions for clinical management of patients inside the hospitals. But, for the medical support staff that hitherto has been following instructions orally or from notes, the transition to deciphering instructions from  an electronically automated EHR system would somewhat seem alien initially. But with proper orientation, they would not only be able to appreciate the change but also contribute positively towards the integrated EHR eco-system.
• Following the support staff is the clinical and diagnostic department, who play a vital role in screening and detecting the medical condition. With an integrated EHR in place, their task of collaborative sharing the clinical and diagnostic findings would surely get faster and more efficient.
• Then, you have the all important part in the hospital eco-system: the medical billing staff, who are crucial to the revenue generation from factual medical billing preparation, coding, submitting and realizing the medical claims from the Medicare as well as private insurance carriers. With a streamlined EHR that can ensure compliant billing and coding, you can always expect your billing staff to deliver efficiency and contribute to operational efficiency.
• Finally, you have the Executive Board or the Management, whose task of decision-making would surely be devoid of blemishes as they would have ready access to clinical and operational data from the integrated EHR eco-system.

But, when you consider the time and resource required for comprehensive orientation of all your functional entities, you would rather be well-off opting for outsourced services from credible and competent vendor. Medicalbillersandcoders.com – whose competence and credibility in advocating and practicing EHR implementation and training for diverse medical practices is well-known across the U.S – should be an ideal recourse for practitioners seeking to opt for orientating their support staff to the integrated EHR eco-system.

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Dispelling hospitals’ reluctance in adopting Alternative Therapy & Medical Billing

“As much as its popularity amongst larger population of patients, Alternative Therapy may well become a viable alternative in ensuring hospitals’ uninterrupted sustenance and growth. And, judging by its popularity, it may well become an integral part of comprehensive medical services offer by majority of hospital”

Many a times, proven medical treatment or intervention may not be able to ensure the requisite relief to patients. Especially, when it comes to clinical management of chronic ailments, proven medical procedures or therapies have been found wanting in as far as providing cure or relieving symptoms associated chronic medical conditions. As medical researchers try to seek answers to these elusive questions, parallel medicine has slowly been evolving as an alternative option – acupuncture, guided imagery, chiropractic, yoga, hypnosis, biofeedback, aromatherapy, relaxation, herbal remedies, massage, and many others forming the composition of Alternative Therapy. More than a curative option in chronic disease management, Alternative Therapy is increasingly being used a proactive method for augmenting mental and physical well-being.

But, despite the enormous opportunities, both practice-wise as well as revenue-wise, medical practitioners and hospitals, in particular, have not been that inclined to adopt alternative therapies as part of their comprehensive healthcare service offer. While there could many reasons for the continued apprehension, the likely increase in workload and billing complexities associated with such appreciation in volume may well have been the prime reasons behind the reluctance. But, as the health radical healthcare reforms – Medicare cuts, Accountable Care Organization (ACO) concept, mandatory EHR compliance, and the ensuing ICD-10 and HIPAA 5010 – begin to impact on hospitals’ revenue generation, they will have to off-set the effect through alternative opportunities, such as Alternative Therapy.

As much as its popularity amongst larger population of patients, Alternative Therapy may well become a viable alternative in ensuring hospitals’ uninterrupted sustenance and growth. And, judging by its popularity, it may well become an integral part of comprehensive medical services offer by majority of hospital. As far as the complexities of voluminous medical billing, coding, claim submission, and realization are concerned, hospital can easily look to avail the services of competent and credible medical billing service providers, who along with the routine billing services, are willing to offer expertise in EHR implementation, denial management, and Revenue Cycle Management. Consequent to such combination of integrated medical billing management, hospitals can easily dispel the apprehensions associated with adopting Alternative Therapy as a viable option along with the regular medical service offers.

Medicalbillersandcoders.com (www.medicalbillersandcoders.com) – whose long-standing reputation as the largest consortium of medical billers and coders in the U.S. is built on its credibility and competence to offer comprehensive medical billing solutions comprising Patient Scheduling and Reminders, Patient enrollment, Insurance Enrollment, Insurance verification, Insurance Authorizations, Coding and audits, Billing and Reconciling of Accounts, Account Analysis and Denial Management, AR Management, and Financial Management Reporting along with advisory on EHR efficacy and implementation – should instill  the much needed confidence to go in for Alternative Therapy as a viable option along with the regular medical service offers.

For more information visit: medical billing companies

Billers and Coders to gear up for 1CD- 10 –despite physician community pushing the deadline

ICD-10’s implementation on October 1, 2013, according to AAPC – will alter everything from the way health care providers document services to the way codes are selected, reported, and reimbursed, however it will be coders who will play a vital role to achieving success in ICD-10 implementation.

AAPC’s vice president of ICD-10 education stated that with the expected advantages of electronic health records (EHRs) aside, all eyes will turn to coders to make sense of ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-PCS, he further cautioned even the best coders in the industry need to increase their understanding of anatomy and pathophysiology (A&P). Further elaborating that specificity of ICD-10 codes is based on a precise identification of body sites and function; hence increasing coders’ knowledge of A&P would be necessary.

Reasoning with the Physician community: Medical Billing Services

With the pressure elevating in the physician community the American Medical Association (AMA) adopted a policy of resisting the implementation of the ICD-10 during its semi-annual policy making session. Implementation of ICD-10 would increase physician burden immensely as practitioners are already clambering to implement electronic heath records, facing high reimbursement cuts while trying their best not to lose focus on their patients. In this scenario it is imperative for physicians to acquire services of proficient billers and coders for revenue maximization.

Challenges for Medical Billing – ICD-10 Transition 

Adoption of ICD-10 will lead to expansion in the number of codes available for both describing diagnoses and procedures from the currently used ICD-9 codes.

Coders to prepare for the transition need to:

• Learn the new coding system, which includes roughly 55,000 unfamiliar codes
• Learn the new code books and styles, which are receiving complete overhauls
• Use both ICD-10 and ICD-9 simultaneously for a period of roughly two years
• Work with your office’s physician to go over the new documentation requirements
• Thorough understanding of medical terminology and human anatomy, due to the increased specificity of ICD-10.

According to Director of coding and classification for the American Hospital Association failure to successfully implement ICD-10 could: Create coding and billing backlogs, cause cash flow delays, increase claims rejections/denials, bring about unintended shifts in payment and place payer contracts and/or market share arrangements at risk because of poor quality rating or high costs.

Gearing up for the change: turning point for Biller and Coders

Hence the importance of the right Billers and Coders in ICD-10 transition couldn’t be more elaborated, and whether or not physicians are able to at this point prepare for ICD-10, Billers and Coders need to gear up and start preparing for the change. Moreover as other healthcare reforms along with ICD-10 necessitates physicians need to prepare themselves to remain afloat, and with various physicians willing to invest into their practices – could be a turning point for Billers and Coders to expand their scope of work and opportunity.

Various physicians are already seeking services of medical billers who are proactive and prepared with material-requisites for ICD-10. Medicialbillersandcoders.com is a viable option for physicians in smooth transition to ICD-10; moreover MBC is equipped with experienced Billers and Coders well-versed with HIPAA, ICD-10 and other compliances, and training themselves constantly as per the industry requirements, along with a long-standing reputation of being the largest consortium of medical billers in the U.S.

Meaningful Use’ Compliant EHR Technology Implementation – specialists’ perspective

“While specialist practitioners, such as Radiologists, Psychiatrists, Chiropractors, Urologists, etc. can claim exemptions and exclusion of certain objectives set out in the Meaningful Use Clause by CMS, they are not treated preferentially as far as documenting clinical processes using approved and compliant EHR software is concerned:  their responsibility for reporting clinical data using Certified EHR Technology and EHR modules remains as mandatory as for general practitioners.”

There has hardly been anything that has got as much an attention as the CMS’ Meaningful Use criterion for medical practitioners – a program for eligible practitioners to be able to qualify for Medicare incentives upon meeting a certain set of core objectives set out in the Meaningful Use Clause under the ARRA. Although CMS has laid down guidelines for general practitioners, who serve the bulk of Medicare beneficiaries, yet their specialist colleagues – such as Radiologists, Psychiatrists, Chiropractors, Urologists, etc. – are not out of the CMS’ Meaningful Use ambit; after all they too are indispensable to CMS’ initiative towards an efficient healthcare environment. But, because their service-composition and documenting varies from general practitioners, specialists’ requisite compliance with core objectives set out in the Meaningful Use Clause under the ARRA gets a little different.

Recognizing the diverse nature of specialists, CMS has allowed for certain exceptions and exemptions from complying with certain objectives that does not owe allegiance to these specialist practices. Therefore, of the 20 mandatory objectives to be met out a possible list of 25, specialist practitioners can still seek exemptions on the ground of being unique fields of medicine. Consequently, their mandatory objective-list ultimately becomes less than 20; while CPOE, eRx, Vital Signs, Smoking Status, Electronic Copy of Health Information, and Clinical Summaries are usually allowed exemptions from Meaningful Use objectives, the following exclusions may still be claimed under substantiated evidence: Drug Formulary Checks, Clinical Lab Test Results, Patients Reminders, Patient Electronic Access, Medication Reconciliation, Summary Care Record, Immunization Registries Data Submission, and Syndromic Surveillance Data Submission.

While specialist practitioners, such as Radiologists, Psychiatrists, Chiropractors, Urologists, etc. can claim exemptions and exclusion of certain objectives set out in the Meaningful Use Clause by CMS, they are not treated preferentially as far as documenting clinical processes using approved and compliant EHR software is concerned:  their responsibility for reporting clinical data using Certified EHR Technology and EHR modules remains as mandatory as for general practitioners. Thus, everything points towards sourcing and implementing EHR software’s that best serve unique needs of diverse practices while also being compliant with the CMS mandate on Certified EHR Technology for achieving Meaningful Use criterion bench-mark.

Despite the market being replete with numerous EHR software – a prior advisory on judicious selection is always advisable as any hasty selection can have multiple repercussions: adverse impact on clinical documenting, practice management, and revenue generation. Given the prevailing scenario, Medicalbillersandcoders.com proven credentials in advising and implementing certified EHR software platforms –  Medisoft , Misys Tiger, Eclinicalworks, Advanced MD, Office Ally, Sage Medical Manager, GE centricity, Lytec, Altapoint, Dentrix being some its leading names in an exhaustive portfolio innovative and futuristic models – for diverse clients comprising Allergy, Anesthesiology, Cardiology, Dermatology, ENT, Endocrinology, Family Med, GI, Geriatrics, Internal Medicine, Long-Term Care, Multi-Specialty, Neurology, Neurosurgery, OB/Gynecology, Occupational Medicine, Ophthalmology, Optometry, Orthopedics, Pediatrics, Plastic Surgery, Podiatry, Psychiatry, Psychology, Pulmonology, Rheumatology, Surgery, SurgicalCenter, Urgent Care, Urology, and the rest.

About Medicalbillersandcoders.com (www.medicalbillersandcoders.com)

Medicalbillersandcoders.com has been a leading source for comprehensive medical billing revenue cycle management. A talent-pool of qualified and competent medical billing professionals with diverse skills specific to unique needs of multiple medical disciplines has been instrumental in our being a leading consortium for medical billing management.