Over the last few years, medical billing has undergone a lot of changes, with emphasis on the IT systems, for the smooth & efficient processing of insurance claims and timely payments to doctors & other healthcare professionals (HP). In 2009, the Obama administration pledged $19 billion funds to health care information technology.
The use of electronic health record (EHR) or electronic medical record (EMR) technology helps to maintain and update patient history, diagnosis, treatment plan, etc. without the additional paperwork. The EHR/EMR incentive payments have been introduced via the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to encourage doctors to incorporate this technology into their practices. The doctors & HPs must achieve specific objectives to be eligible for these incentives.
They must be HIPAA compliant which mandates the standardization of healthcare IT systems for secure Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) of all patient data, health plans, administrative & financial data to ensure privacy and data integrity of all patient related information. The ICD-10 coding system is being introduced in the coming months, which contains more than 140000 codes for diagnosis & procedures as compared to the current 17000 codes available in the ICD-9 version. Keeping up-to-date with the Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS), Current Procedural Terminology codes (CPT), Current Dental Terminology codes (CDT), and NDC National Drug Codes (NDC) codes can be overwhelming for doctors.
Doctors are facing uncharted territory in order to abide by the changing government regulations to improve software systems and manage patient data. Moreover, falling behind in terms of the technology & coding systems used for medical billing, results in coding errors or inaccuracies which in turn have increased the number of claims being rejected by insurance companies. These unwanted delays have a direct effect on the revenue of their practice. Furthermore, a lot of time and resources are spent on following up on denials & re-processing the claims which leaves very little time for patient care.
In order to accommodate the ever increasing number of insured Americans, health care providers need to execute an efficient & advanced medical billing system to ensure a balance between patient care and regulatory compliance. This can be achieved via support from certified and experienced professionals from medical billing companies who can provide guidance & advice in technology changes.
MedicalBillersandCoders.com is a reliable name in the healthcare industry with more than ten years of experience in medical billing & coding. Our licensed team of professionals; across 50 states in the United States – providing skilled medical billing and coding services also provide assistance to practices during technology implementation. We study and provide feedback on various features of a practice like vendors, relationship with insurance companies, coding errors, area of improvements etc. With our guidance, practices can smoothly transition into the new medical billing technologies and primarily concentrate on delivering the best patient care.
