2006 Medical Billing Quality of Care

Quality of care will be of the utmost importance to medical billing in the year 2006. Now, more than ever, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services have decided to focus reimbursement on healthcare quality. There are two ways in which CMS is trying to improve medical billing and quality of care in nursing homes.

Recently The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has introduced a new website called STAR (Setting Targets, Achieving Results). This website focuses not only on medical billing, but also the quality of care in nursing homes. It aids nursing homes in sharing publicly reported data and has many quality improvement tools included. The web address for this medical billing tool is www.nhqi-star.org.

A new survey process is also in the works to improve medical billing and quality of care in nursing homes. The Quality Indicator Survey (QIS) was developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to show healthcare facilities their weaknesses and strengths. A test run of the medical billing survey is being implemented in Connecticut, Kansas, and Ohio. The medical billing survey process is a year long demonstration, but will pay off in the end.

Quality of care should always be your top priority in healthcare. Unfortunately, however, some practices get caught up in the bottom line only. The new Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services quality of care project should force those money-hungry practices to focus on quality instead of money alone.

Medical billing should not be an area to solely make money. You should only use medical billing to accurately report the services you perform. Some practices misuse medical billing as a means of profiting on their patients illnesses. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services would like these medical billing misusees to end.

View all Articles by: Melissa Clark, CCS-P