Medical Billing Blog: Section - Medical Billing
Archive of all Articles in the Medical Billing Section
This is the archive containing links to all articles written in the Medical Billing section of our blog.
Click any of the article links below to read the entire article or browse another section to the right to read articles on another subject.
EHR Use Nearly Same in Hospital Outpatient Practices
EHR adoption is nearly universal in hospital-owned outpatient practices as of 2017, according to the latest research from HIMSS Analytics. The 9th Annual Outpatient PM and EHR Study pulled data from myriad sources, including a web-based survey aggregating data from a total of 436 respondents including physicians, practice managers, administrators, CEOs, and health IT experts between June 23, 2017 and July 12, 2017. Additionally, HIMSS collected information from its market intelligence platform on June 30, 2017 to gain insight into nearly 150,000 hospital-owned and independent practices. Based the data, 92 percent of hospital-owned outpatient facilities are presently using a live and operational EHR system. “Statistics from LOGIC and the 2017 …
RCM tip: Stop snail mail for electronic billing
Healthcare organizations should offer electronic billing options patients want rather than use snail mail to send paper statements, according to Jim Denny, president and CEO of Duluth, Ga.-based Navicure. He specifically cited a 2017 Patient Payment Check-Up survey that reveals 89 percent of providers still send paper statements through snail mail, although more than 50 percent of patients prefer electronic bills over paper statements. Given this survey, Mr. Denny shared the following tip with Becker’s Hospital Review. “Despite the abundance of technology that is available, many providers are still billing patients via snail mail. Not only does this way of billing cost more (on average paper billing can cost $7 …
EHR Dissatisfaction is Contributing to Provider Burnout
“I am a daily user of two EHR systems. One is a community hospital based complex EHR, and one is a cloud and iPad based EHR that we use in our private practice. The private practice-based EHR is much more user friendly and adapts well to our practice. I am what you would consider a “power-user” on our community hospital based EHR, and spend a fair amount of time helping other members of the medical staff better understand and use it. The integrated dictation, patient education, auto-population of data, and macros are just a few of the elements of the EHR that make my life easier, and has the potential …
eClinicalWorks Settlement Leads to Distrust of EHR Vendors
A recent study investigating provider opinions regarding the eClinicalWorks $155-million settlement found over one third of surveyed providers are more suspicious of all EHR vendors as a result of the lawsuit. The eClinicalWorks settlement followed allegations that the EHR company had misled consumers regarding its EHR certifications and paid some customers kickbacks in exchange for positive product promotion. Conducted by the Research Cloud, the study surveyed providers working in ambulatory settings to find out how familiar they are with the settlement and how the events have impacted their perception of eClinicalWorks and the EHR industry as a whole… Continue reading this article
EHR Use Negatively Impacts Patient-Provider Relationship
A recent study by Pelland et al. found that while EHR use may reduce medical errors, the technology is also shown to complicate the patient-provider relationship. Researchers at Brown University performed a qualitative analysis of comments submitted to a 2014 Rhode Island Health Information Technology survey to gain insight into physicians’ personal experiences with EHR systems. Both office- and hospital-based physicians in Rhode Island submitted responses describing their perceptions of the impact of EHR technology on patient-physician interactions. Responses from hospital-based physicians were measured against the opinions of office-based physicians for contrast. While both hospital-based physicians and office-based physicians voiced concerns regarding the effect of EHRs on patient-provider interactions, the …
