HIPAA 5010 enforcement delayed to ensure doctors & entities complete transition

Enforcement of HIPAA 5010 transactions on March 15, 2012, was delayed for the second time for another 3 months by the government, with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Office of E-Health Standards and Services (OESS) pushing the date further to June 30, 2012, in order to not compromise physician cash flow. Physicians have […]

How are States Retaining Physicians in Times of Shortage?

Physician shortages is a growing concern and is pushing various states to keep doctors trained in medical schools and residency programs from crossing state lines to practice medicine. According to new statistics from the Assn. of American Medical Colleges- nationwide, there were 258.7 active physicians per 100,000 people and in individual states, ratios range from […]

Electronic Health Records Spurring Hiring of Staff Besides Adding to Costs at Physicians Practice

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are complex systems and a dedicated team of professionals are required for handling and maintaining these systems for smooth operation of such records. The drawbacks of paper based records, the projected advantages of EHRs, and the incentives offered along with the penalties for non-adoption of EHRs are driving hospitals and small […]

Simplify EHR Systems by Restructuring Your Medical Billing

EHR systems have changed over the last decade and the health reforms have given new meaning to such systems by making rules regarding ‘Meaningful Use” (MU) of such systems. Older versions of EHRs were simple digitized versions replacing paper based records and did not have the specific guidelines in MU to be implemented for the […]

Effects on Physicians Reimbursements: Insurance Denials and Uncertainty of Health Reforms

Insurance denials are one of the major factors that affect a physician’s revenue even though health reforms do address some issues faced by patients and physicians in dealing with insurance companies, the denial rate of claims has not significantly altered due to such reforms. These insurance denials are avoidable especially as they create problems for […]

US Healthcare Adapting to Reforms: Hospitals to Ease Physician Shortages

The health reforms have affected every aspect of the health care delivery system in the United States and smaller and solo practices in the country are finding it difficult to cope with the changes on almost every level of health care delivery. The changes in health IT sector, policies in government intervention, and changing reimbursement […]

What does the latest ICD-10 delay mean to your medical practices?

The persistent appeal for pushing back the ICD-10 compliance date has finally paid off for physicians; the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has made it official that physicians would have time till October1, 2014 (revised from the current deadline of October1, 2013) to comply with ICD-10 system of medical coding. The decision […]

Practice Owners face challenges with EHR adoption: Possible Solutions

The adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) presents numerous challenges for physicians and many practices are finding it difficult to successfully adopt EHRs. The data released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention about EHR adoption rates in the country bears witness to the fact that adoption rates are not what they need to […]

How crucial are certain adjustments while posting payments?

While it is true that payment posting is merely an exercise of recording the actual claim realized against patient account concerned, in reality its scope extends beyond that. Far from just being an accounting exercise, payment posting has evolved into an indispensable tool for analyzing and augmenting revenue generation from medical claim realization from medical […]

How aging reports aid in realizing Account Receivables

Notwithstanding the importance of flawless coding in maximizing healthcare insurance reimbursements from insurance carriers, it is the Account Receivable Management (A/R Management) that proves decisive in either making or breaking your chances of mitigating denial or delay of your medical bill claims. Most of the physicians, whose primary focus happens to be quality medical care […]