Last week, the American Medical Association and other medical societies let their voices be heard in regard to Meaningful Use and the proposed rules for Stage 3. Via a letter to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the AMA urged the government to delay the Meaningful Use Stage 3 rollout. It now appears these medical societies have additional support for the Stage 3 delay as more than 100 members of Congress have signed a letter of their own, asking for a hold in the Stage 3 rollout.

A growing number of physicians are implementing electronic medical records (EMR) in their respective practices. The increase in EMR adoption, however, also brings a great chance of dissatisfaction in current solutions, whether it's merely one feature or the entire software. Capterra conducted a survey to measure EMR usage and to dive into the details of why physicians are switching.

Despite the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently submitting Meaningful Use Stage 3 final rules to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, prominent medical societies are asking the government to delay the Stage 3 rollout.

In the early development of EMR systems, a surprisingly small amount of vendors seem to have anticipated just how important the ability to offer integration between EMR and Practice Management (PM) software would become in only a few short years. These days, using a fully integrated EMR and PM solution is not viewed as a mere convenience—it has quickly become the standard in Dermatology.

On this blog, we’ve done our best over the last nine months or so to give our readers as many resources as possible to get prepared for the switch to ICD-10 in advance. In fact, back in February I provided our readers with a three-part blog series that provided a detailed look at how some of the more commonly used ICD-9 codes in Dermatology, Ophthalmology, and Plastic Surgery would translate over to ICD-10.

Well, folks… here we are. After years and years of political bickering, last minute delays, and long postponements, the final deadline for ICD-10 implementation in the United States is now less than two short weeks away. There were lot of people who still thought it wouldn’t happen in 2015, and if some had their way it would still not be happening. However, unless some kind of unexpected zero hour delay occurs between now and the October 1 deadline, ICD-10 is coming to a Dermatology practice near you (in fact, it’s coming to your Dermatology practice). It’s the Final Countdown, people!

Unless some kind of unexpected zero hour delay occurs between now and the October 1 deadline, ICD-10 is coming to a Plastic Surgery practice near you (in fact, it’s coming to your Plastic Surgery practice). It’s the Final Countdown, people! Somebody cue me up a 1980s-style “get ready” montage!

Medical practices are gearing up for the ICD-10 transition away from ICD-9 codes, set to take place in just two weeks on October 1. However, four states in the U.S. will be allowed to do things a little differently immediately following the deadline. According to Modern Healthcare, four states have been approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to delay their transitions to direct ICD-10 code processing by the Oct. 1 deadline.