How Specialized Billing Service can Help Reduce (EHR) Up-coding Errors?

Is your medical practice facing EHR up-coding errors? There are several benefits associated with the implementation of an EHR. It has proved extremely beneficial for healthcare providers in reducing medical errors and simplifying complexities of documentation during the billing procedure. But at the same time, EHR implementation has also made way for errors that wouldn’t have been possible with paper documentation.

It becomes easy to copy previous notes to current notes through the ‘cloning feature’ of EHR but if providers are not vigilant, errors can get carried forward along with information that might not make sense for the current visit. Unbundling and up-coding are some of the common examples of EHR fraud.

In case of up-coding, practices bill for a more complex service than what was provided. This is done to get higher reimbursements. Initially, practices might benefit with increased payments but they also become susceptible for audits in the future. This is why it becomes important to ensure that EHR is being implemented for the purpose it is meant for. Irrespective of the cause behind behind EHR errors, measures need to be taken for resolving them.

Ways to minimize EHR fraud risks:

• In order to reduce the chances of EHR fraud, providers will have to verify data in medical records. This needs to be done for supporting billing and diagnosis
• Providers will have to check EHR entries to make sure there are no errors. It will also help to review output reports to maintain consistency and accuracy
• Place of service should be coded without fail because in terms of electronic coding, reimbursement can get affected if place of service is coded incorrectly
• EHR systems need to be sourced from reputed vendors
• Variations in coding patterns need to be evaluated
• Practice records should be reviewed to find evidence of cloning or to see if notes on physical exams and patient histories have been carried forward

Practice of medicine has change dramatically with the availability of EHR on portable devices. It has certainly made team-based patient care more efficient but the potential of errors in EHR has made it essential for providers to stay vigilant all the time.

Seems too much to handle?

Considering the workload and in some cases lack of time and money, it can be a difficult task to handle the above mentioned measures to tackle EHR up-coding errors. This is the reason why many physicians opt for specialized medical billing services.

Billing companies like Medicalbillersandcoders.com have been offering EHR consultancy as extended medical billing service to practices across the US. We have a team of experts who have the capability of EHR sourcing to solve all EHR related woes. MBC has a strategic alliance with reputed EHR vendors to help you find custom-made EHR systems so that cloning and up-coding errors are easy to detect before claim submission to Medicare/Medicaid. Our aim is to handle your revenue cycle management while you concentrate on provision of patient care.

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Published By - Medical Billers and Coders
Published Date - Jan-24-2014 Back