News

Big Lift For The Decision Support Certification By The EHRA

Posted in Client News Coverage on Wednesday, March 27, 2024.

There happen to be numerous overlapping federal requirements, such as the need for annual projects in order to maintain information blocking compliance as well as aggressive time frame when it comes to decision support certification, go ahead and represent big challenges for the health IT developers, according to the leaders from the HIMSS Electronic Health Record Association.

With a spate of regulations that happen to be driving the health IT product development, being in compliance with the regs that do not always work well with each other happens to be a big ask, as per Leigh Burchell, who happens to be the vice chair of the EHRA’s information blocking compliance task force as well as a member of the organization’s executive committee.

Hospital & Healthcare Management»

Big Lift For The Decision Support Certification By The EHRA

Posted in Client News Coverage on Wednesday, March 27, 2024.

There happen to be numerous overlapping federal requirements, such as the need for annual projects in order to maintain information blocking compliance as well as aggressive time frame when it comes to decision support certification, go ahead and represent big challenges for the health IT developers, according to the leaders from the HIMSS Electronic Health Record Association.

With a spate of regulations that happen to be driving the health IT product development, being in compliance with the regs that do not always work well with each other happens to be a big ask, as per Leigh Burchell, who happens to be the vice chair of the EHRA’s information blocking compliance task force as well as a member of the organization’s executive committee.

Hospital & Healthcare Management»

Big Lift For The Decision Support Certification By The EHRA

Posted in Client News Coverage on Wednesday, March 27, 2024.

There happen to be numerous overlapping federal requirements, such as the need for annual projects in order to maintain information blocking compliance as well as aggressive time frame when it comes to decision support certification, go ahead and represent big challenges for the health IT developers, according to the leaders from the HIMSS Electronic Health Record Association.

With a spate of regulations that happen to be driving the health IT product development, being in compliance with the regs that do not always work well with each other happens to be a big ask, as per Leigh Burchell, who happens to be the vice chair of the EHRA’s information blocking compliance task force as well as a member of the organization’s executive committee.

Hospital & Healthcare Management»

EHRA on the 'big lift' of decision support certification

Posted in Client News Coverage on Tuesday, March 26, 2024.

Several overlapping federal requirements – including the need for annual projects to maintain information blocking compliance and an aggressive time frame for decision support certification – represent big challenges for health IT developers, say leaders from the HIMSS Electronic Health Record Association.

Healthcare IT News»

MDaudit Billing Compliance and Revenue Integrity Platform Enhancements Deliver More Powerful Reporting, Enhanced Automated Workflows

Posted in Press Releases on Friday, March 22, 2024.

Wellesley, MA — March 22, 2024 — MDaudit, an award-winning provider of technologies and analytic tools that enable the nation’s premier healthcare organizations to minimize billing risks and maximize revenues, has released a series of automation and reporting enhancements to its billing compliance and revenue integrity platform workflows. Made based on insights and feedback from MDaudit customers – including more than 70 of the nation’s top 100 health systems with $1 billion in net patient revenue – the enhancements are designed to eliminate noise and streamline results around system reports and workflows.

Switching It Up

Posted in Client News Coverage on Tuesday, March 12, 2024.

Best Practices for Transitioning to a New HIM Vendor—Why, When, and How

The HIM outsourcing market continues to thrive, with ResearchandMarkets.com projecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 12% for medical billing outsourcing between 2023 and 2030, during which its value will expand from $12.2 billion to $30.2 billion. Data Bridge Market Research further projects that the health care revenue cycle management outsourcing market will reach $8.56 billion by 2030, a CAGR of 15.2%.

Behind the rapid growth trajectory is a confluence of trends. A survey by Black Book Research found that 98% of hospital leaders plan to bring in more third-party vendors for cost efficiencies and to allow internal resources to be focused on priorities, including improving patient access, acquiring replacements for aging equipment, bettering profit margins, and implementing digital technologies. Further, as provider organizations look for ways to find adequate staff and reduce costs, outsourcing has emerged as a valid strategy to achieve a financially healthier organization.

For The Record»

Physicians and Coding

Posted in Client News Coverage on Tuesday, March 12, 2024.

Ongoing education and the right tools and resources can help physicians as they face increased coding responsibilities.

Twenty-five years ago in outpatient settings, doctors dictated notes using narratives and appropriate medical jargon to describe a patient’s presenting diagnoses. Samuel L. Church, MD, MPH, CPC, CRC, CPC-I, Georgia-local medical director at Aledade, Inc, remembers that coding happened after the dictation, apart from the physician. “It kind of happened magically,” he says. “We never had to worry about [coding] then. We were concentrating on doing good medicine.”

Today, however, the landscape has shifted. Physicians are often tasked with at least some of the coding responsibilities as they input notes into EMRs. “We get to these electronic records where we are asked to provide a specific diagnosis code. Ultimately, the doctor or the provider is the one who is responsible for the code. We have to do it at the time of the note signing,” Church says.

For The Record»

Harris Data Integrity Solutions Launches Rapid MPI Cleanup Tool for Fast, Accurate Eradication of Duplicate Patient Records

Posted in Press Releases on Tuesday, March 05, 2024.

Intelligent MPI Triage Solution is a fast, affordable, and secure way to alleviate duplicate record backlogs, easing the burden on HIM resources and protecting patient data integrity

Niagara Falls, N.Y. – March 5, 2024 – Harris Data Integrity Solutions, the leading provider of best-in-class patient data integrity services and software, has responded to growing demand for faster and more affordable duplicate record cleanup with the launch of its latest innovation, Intelligent MPI Triage Solution. Leveraging the efficiency of AI-driven logic paired with 20 years of data integrity expertise, Intelligent MPI Triage delivers precise and swift duplicate resolution to lower duplicate rates by easing backlogs created by higher patient volumes and fewer health information management (HIM) resources.

“A perfect storm of razor-thin operating margins, double-digit labor cost increases, and widening staffing gaps have HIM leaders scrambling to find ways to maintain the integrity of their patient data. Our clients reached out for help, and we responded with Intelligent MPI Triage Solution,” says Lora Hefton, Executive Vice President of Harris Data Integrity Solutions. “With it, Harris Data Integrity Solutions can partner with HIM teams and leverage our unique AI-powered ‘assess, treat, and refer’ process to quickly reduce potential duplicate queues, protecting patient records for a fraction of the cost.”

2024 Ushers in New Regulations for Billing Split/Shared Services

Posted in Client News Coverage on Monday, March 04, 2024.

January introduced new split/shared services documentation and billing challenges for Medicare providers in hospitals and skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). The new regulations, rolled out by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as part of the 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) final rule, took effect on January 1, 2024, and finalized CMS’s definition of the “substantive portion” of a split/shared visit (first introduced in 2022).

That definition – more than half of the total time spent by the physician or nonphysician practitioner performing the split or shared evaluation and management (E/M) services or a substantive part of the medical decision-making (MDM) – is crucial in 2024 for determining who will bill Medicare for such visits. It was developed in response to public comments asking CMS to allow either time or MDM to serve as the substantive portion of a split or shared visit.

HealthIT Answers»

Adapting To CMS-HCC Model V28

Posted in Client News Coverage on Monday, March 04, 2024.

For the first time in a decade, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has overhauled its hierarchical condition categories (HCC), upgrading the underlying methodology to align with ICD-10-CM – which the rest of the healthcare system has been using since 2015. As a result, HCC version 28 requires greater specificity in documentation and code assignment to ensure accurate risk adjustment.

Healthcare Business Today»

The RCM Maturity Framework, Part Three: The Four Stages of Maturity

Posted in Client News Coverage on Monday, March 04, 2024.

Matt Bridge continues his three-part series on how to achieve a high-performing revenue cycle for your facility. Bridge reports that you need an understanding as to where your organization falls on the RCM Maturity Framework. Here is Part Three in this exclusive series for ICD10monitor.

The journey toward fully mature revenue cycle management (RCM) is typically a five-step process that starts with evaluating the maturity of the current state of operations to determine where the organization falls on the RCM Maturity Framework, outlined in the first two articles of this three-part series. This is followed by the establishment of a realistic long-term maturity target, followed by the development of iterative annual goals to achieve it.

RAC Monitor»

The RCM Maturity Framework, Part Two: The Four Stages of Maturity

Posted in Client News Coverage on Thursday, February 22, 2024.

Matt Bridge continues his three-part series on how to achieve a high-performing revenue cycle for your facility. Bridge reports that you need an understanding as to where your organization falls on the RCM Maturity Framework. Here is Part Two in this exclusive series for ICD10monitor.

The RCM Maturity Framework, introduced in the first edition of this three-part series, is a powerful diagnostic tool in the quest to optimize and digitally transform revenue cycle performance. It serves as the basis for a practical approach to transforming revenue cycle management (RCM) to help future-proof operations through a hybrid model of in-house management, global services, advanced technologies, and actionable analytics.

Four stages make up the Maturity Framework: Emerging, Foundational, Advanced, and High-Performing. Where an organization falls within those stages is determined by its level of maturity across three pillars: service delivery, technology and interoperability, and analytics.

ICD10 Monitor»

AGS Health Taps Conrad Coopersmith to Lead Coding Automation

Posted in Press Releases on Wednesday, February 21, 2024.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – February 21, 2024 – AGS Health, a leading provider of tech-enabled revenue cycle management (RCM) solutions and a strategic growth partner to healthcare providers across the U.S., announced today the appointment of Conrad Coopersmith to General Manager-Coding Automation. In this role, Coopersmith will focus on the creation and delivery of highly strategic automation solutions and services to meet AGS Health customers’ evolving coding needs.

“Conrad’s proven ability to optimize team performance and achieve organizational goals and objectives make him a valuable addition to the AGS Health leadership team,” said Patrice Wolfe, CEO of AGS Health. “Coding automation is a priority for healthcare organizations that are fighting to regain their post-COVID financial footing amid chronic staffing shortages, heighted scrutiny, and evolving coding and billing regulations. We look forward to the impact Conrad will have on AGS Health’s ability to meet our customers’ technology needs while exceeding their service expectations.”

Accredited Medical Coding and Billing Online Schools

on Tuesday, February 20, 2024.

The healthcare industry relies on trained individuals who are familiar with the coding systems used for insurance reimbursement. Additionally, the use of electronic health records (EHRs) is now becoming the norm. And these new standards require coding professionals who can maintain the medical data within those records.

If you’re interested in pursuing a career in medical billing and coding, you’ll need some training. One of the best ways to obtain it is with an online program. Online medical coding and billing programs present an excellent opportunity to build a lucrative and rewarding career. They are highly flexible, allowing you to go at your own pace. They allow you to schedule your studies around your busy schedule. And if you need to work while you attend medical billing and coding school, many colleges offer part-time options.

Online College Plan»

Knowing the Score: MIPS

Posted in Client News Coverage on Thursday, February 15, 2024.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Medicare’s legacy quality reporting programs were consolidated and streamlined into the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System, known as “MIPS.”

The Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) uses a composite performance score to determine if eligible physicians will receive a payment bonus, a payment penalty, or no payment adjustments.

If a physician bills more than $90,000 for Part B-covered professional services and they see more than 200 Part B patients, and has provided more than 200 covered professional services to those patients, the physician must participate in the MIPS program. It’s essential for all eligible clinicians to report in order to prevent a 9-percent downward adjustment for all Medicare Part B claims paid two years from the reporting year.

RAC Monitor»