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The deadline of September 23, 2013 has come and gone on the calendar. It was on this day the federal government enacted changes to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, better known as HIPAA. Medical physicians must be compliant with privacy and security and changes will include things like how to properly secure a patient’s health information or what you must tell a patient about their privacy rights. Medical physicians have 6 months to comply, and for many this is a difficult task to stay on so that the deadline is met. Compliance of the act includes the following updates to the regulations. Physicians must conduct a risk analysis …
Published By: Melissa Clark, CCS-P on January 28, 2014
You know how important submitting accurate medical claims are for the health of your practice. With a solid and detailed coding policy in place, your practice can ensure strong documentation to prove medical necessity for services that your physicians provide, and get paid accurately for those services. Follow these five easy steps to help you establish a policy that will save you from future audit: Establish coding resources in your library Step 1: To design an effective coding policy, start with making sure that you adhere to the ICD-9-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting. Not keeping yourself up-to-date with these standard rules can land you into big trouble. The Official Guidelines …
Published By: Steve Gray Stevenson on January 23, 2014
ICD-10 deadline is looming. The fear of October 2014 has sent the healthcare industry in a tizzy with many fearing for its accurate compliance. The haphazard preparation of the diagnostic codes is a disaster waiting to happen. Before chalking out the ICD-10 action plan for your practice and to ensure a smooth transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10, it would be wise for you to know the most crucial differences between ICD-9 and ICD-10. Lack of Specifics ICD-9 has been marred by a glaring lack of specification, for instance, the same injuries on opposite limbs comprise the same code. This leads to complexity and gives room for confusion on different levels. …
Published By: Steve Gray Stevenson on January 16, 2014
If you are still using Windows XP machines, you need to be getting rid of them soon. As Mike points out over at Hitech Answers, April 8th is when Microsoft ends all security updates, which puts you in direct violation with HIPAA. “Time’s up. On April 8, 2014, Microsoft is ending security updates and patches for Windows XP and Office 2003. Just having a Windows XP computer on your network will be an automatic HIPAA violation, which makes you non-compliant with Meaningful Use and will be a time bomb that could easily cause a reportable and expensive breach of protected patient information. HIPAA fines and loss of Meaningful Use money …
Published By: Outsource Management Group, LLC on January 16, 2014
As a Provider, ICD-10 preparation, and the subsequent upcoming transition can be a bit daunting. The first thing I recommend you do is to assign one individual to be the driving force behind the process and to oversee the details. This could be your coder, office manager, biller or anyone in your staff with the drive to make it as smooth as possible. Next, you should begin to develop your timeline. It’s important for you to have goals in place so that you can achieve your plan. One of the key elements you will need to do in your preparation is to identify the most common codes that your practice …
Published By: Melissa Clark, CCS-P on January 10, 2014
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