Medical Billing Blog with Medical Billing & Coding Info & Articles
Welcome to the Medical Billing and Coding Blog
Welcome to the medical billing blog containing news and articles relating to medical billing, medical coding, ICD, HIPAA and practice management functions.
2004-2024 Celebrating 20 Years of Healthcare RCM Articles
The Blog Currently Contains 1,265+ Healthcare Articles
7 Trends EHR Vendors Must Address to Survive in 2018
A new market report addresses areas where EHR vendors will need to improve their systems in order to stay competitive through 2018. According to Kalorama Information, the $28-billion EHR market dominated by a score large vendors and hundreds of smaller competitors is set for a change as a result of emerging challenges voiced by healthcare professionals such as health IT-related administrative burden and negative perceptions of specific EHR vendors and products. “Small trends that in the past were noted but not addressed, like usability and interoperability, the removal of incentives and lack of market share leadership have bubbled up we believe, to where they are no longer side issues,” said …
Medicare is Still Behind on Telehealth
Medicare has long been criticized for its narrow restrictions on the coverage and reimbursement of telehealth services. A new report to Congress by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) shows that not much has changed over the years. Mandated by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, the GAO report noted that Medicare and the US Department of Defense (DoD) trailed the Veterans Affairs (VA) system in their use of telehealth and remote patient monitoring (RPM). On the other hand, the report painted an optimistic picture of Medicare demonstrations and new care delivery models that, it said, might increase the use of telehealth in Medicare. But Gary Capistrant, chief policy …
Paper-Based Billing is Ancient History in Healthcare
“Today’s realities are that managing a practice is more complicated than ever…” That’s how an assessment begins on what it takes to successfully run a medical group in 2017 by Triple Tree, a merchant bank focused on healthcare. In a recent report, the bank also looked at the forces driving mergers of specialty groups. Chief among them is the realization by administrators and their physicians that the healthcare business isn’t what they hoped it would be. The mounting pressures are affecting medical groups’ top and bottom lines. The bank’s report suggests that while opting to be part of a larger group might sound attractive to an independent practice, the non-clinical …
New Proposed Rule to Reduce EHR Data Reporting
A new CMS proposed rule contains two provisions intended to reduce hospital eCQM reporting requirements in response to feedback calling for less aggressive EHR data reporting policies. A couple provisions in a new Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) Program rule proposal outline modifications to electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) reporting requirements and validation processes. In a public document in the Federal Register, CMS proposed reductions to hospital eCQM reporting policies. In the 2017 calendar year reporting period (and 2019 fiscal year payment determination), hospitals would be required to choose six available eCQMs listed in the Hospital IQR Program measure set and offer two chosen calendar year quarters of data… …
14 things to know about medical coding
Medical coders play a crucial role in the revenue cycle process, as they help ensure health systems, hospitals and physicians are properly reimbursed for the services they provide. Here are 14 things to know about medical coding. 1. AAPC describes medical coding as “the transformation of healthcare diagnosis, procedures, medical services and equipment into universal medical alphanumeric codes.” 2. Once medical coding professionals assign a code to a specific healthcare service or procedure, the code is included on an insurance claim, according to AAPC. This code tells the insurer how much it owes for the care and helps determine how much the patient will be billed. 3. Coders use a …
