Having the best and most up-to-date Electronic Medical Records (EMR) software will significantly ease the ICD-10 transition, allowing for better familiarity, faster adoption, and less disruption in cash flow after the deadline. Specific EMR features and functionalities exist within these software systems that can assist healthcare providers with ICD-10-CM as they train and integrate these codes into their specialty-specific practice. Here are four must-have, key EMR features to look for when purchasing or updating their software to fulfill ICD-10 and Meaningful Use requirements.
Whether your practice has been preparing for ICD-10 for some time now or are just beginning to prepare for the imminent changes, it's imperative that you ensure you're entirely set for the introduction of the new code regulations. While your staff may have already read countless articles on how to adjust their day-to-day practices and understanding of billing and coding to fit the ICD-10 transition, you may want to take a high-level look at your practice or clinic to be positive everything is in place. If you're seeking some helpful advice on getting ready for the arrival of ICD-10, take a look at these tips:
The Ebola Virus Continues to Spread Ever since cases of the virus first showed up in Guinea back in March 2014, newsfeeds have been regularly flooded with stories about the West Africa Ebola outbreak, and even more so when the infection briefly appeared in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) claims that “The risk of an Ebola outbreak affecting multiple people in the U.S. is very low.” While this is true, the outbreak continues to spread abroad, and the CDC has declared the 2014 Ebola epidemic as “the largest in history, affecting multiple countries in West Africa.” While the virus can only be spread through direct contact with the blood and/or bodily fluids of a symptomatic person, Ebola is still very contagious. It also has a high mortality rate of approximately 53% (to give some perspective, the mortality rate recorded during the last outbreak of the SARS virus was just shy of 10%).
Revenue management is essential to the health care industry, as it helps manage claims, and controls payment and cash flow. It ensures that the billing process goes smoothly to generate adequate revenue to invest further in your business. Therefore, your practice should always be striving to improve revenue cycle management. Here are a few ways you can better revenue management to build a more profitable practice: 1. Keep track of Medicare payments It's not unusual for Medicare to delay payments to providers, which could result in money lost for your practice. The reason behind the delay could be due to a claim that was improperly coded or insufficient documentation. Be sure to identify the exact date that Medicare stops or delays payment. This way, your practice can take the appropriate steps to receive those payments that are due. Your practice can enroll in a medical review program, which consists of a clinician or certified coder reviewing Medicare claims to reduce payment error. They identify and address billing errors regarding coverage and coding.
Hello and welcome to our video blog, aimed to help your practice with anything from electronic medical records to revenue management.
It's now 2015, and all Medicare providers will soon be required to at least begin demonstrating compliance with meaningful use of Electronic Health Records (EHR). Failing to meet this requirement will start to come with a penalty cost, as of the New Year, triggering a +1% reduction in Medicare reimbursement every year through at least 2017 and possibly later. In 2015, CMS requires Stage Two Meaningful Use compliance by providers who have already fulfilled the Stage One requirements during the previous 2-3 years. The core requirements for Stage Two compliance are dependent upon successful installation and mastery of sophisticated information systems that can support EHR exchange between providers and patients as well as between providers and other providers. Some of these are:
We've posted previously about the benefits of e-eligibility services for specialists. The core reason for adopting an e-eligibility service is that it enables a practice to communicate accurately to patients, prior to administering care, their responsibility for the cost of care. Having that determined early on paves the way for collecting up-front patient payments – a practice steadily gaining momentum as patients take a more active role in paying for their healthcare.
The switch to ICD-10 means dramatic changes to the U.S. healthcare infrastructure in terms of one-on-one patient care, clinical documentation, and insurance claims processing. It’s not enough to fully implement ICD-10 in a private practice with doctors and their personnel. Physicians also need to ensure that all of their business partners (i.e. EHR software vendors, payers, and clearinghouses) are up to speed and will be ready for ICD-10 by October 1, 2015. The following is a closer look at two of the challenges that healthcare providers and payers specifically face in the midst of an ICD-10 transition, along with how to overcome them.
