Radiologists are playing an ever increasing role in hospitals and these deeper involvements are due to numerous factors. The outcomes of such an ever increasing involvement of radiologists in hospitals can bring about positive outcomes not just in the core aspects of medicine and for patients ... Views: 1752
The necessity of Durable Medical Equipments (DMEs) had never been so high – in U.S. 30% to 54% of those over 65 years have some form of disability; around 75% to 90% of such disabled require some form of DME to keep them mobile or enabled. It is also estimated that around 1.5 million ... Views: 1710
Health information technicians are considered as one of the 10 fastest-growing allied health occupations according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), with Medical billers and coders being in high demand among the allied health occupations.
Further increase in terms of job outlook is ... Views: 1354
Notwithstanding the importance of flawless coding in maximizing healthcare insurance reimbursements from insurance carriers, it is the Account Receivable (A/R) Management that proves decisive in either making or breaking your chances of mitigating denial or delay of your medical bill claims. ... Views: 1269
There has been an increasing trend in the healthcare industry where physicians are opting for hospital employments and the reasons and repercussions of these seem numerous. It cannot be argued that there are many positives for ‘being your own boss’ in a private practice. However, due ... Views: 1170
The persistent appeal for pushing back the ICD-10 compliance date has finally paid off for physicians; the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has made it official that physicians would have time till October1, 2014 (revised from the current deadline of October1, 2013) to comply ... Views: 1046
The hurdles faced by physicians in 2012 are not just limited to core medical issues but are also spread across almost all the facets of the health care delivery system. The changing nature of medical practices, changes in Information Technology and in other departmental processes is ... Views: 1032
There is a distinctive difference between billing for Durable Medical Equipment (DME) services and other clinical procedures – durable medical equipment services are ancillary to the primary clinical purpose, and their admissibility is subject to certain conditions. Physicians ... Views: 1018
Physicians who are part of DME services now face an important operational decision: whether to persist with in-house billing staff or entrust to external sources. The long-held belief that in-house billing staff would manage DME-related billing complexities seems to have failed them ... Views: 1004
The front office desk executive in a physician’s practice has numerous functions to carry out such as understanding the patients’ information related to demographics and finance which is needed for effective billing, the responsibility of communicating the financial policy, and ... Views: 996
Filing claims has become more complicated as health insurers tighten eligibility requirements, and the chances of claims being denied have increased substantially
Hence when a claim is filed, there is a fair possibility it will be denied and most providers are struggling to balance their busy ... Views: 974
Staff turnover in any medical practice or hospital can have detrimental repercussions financially as well as qualitatively when it comes to providing healthcare. However, it cannot be denied that staff turnover or attrition would always be present in any practice or hospital; keeping it in ... Views: 961
“Reigning superiority over its closet competitors in every aspect of compliant and secure EHR performance, AltaPoint EHR/EMR Version 11 has built an enviable reputation in the EHR/EMR market. The qualitative features that lend AltaPoint competitive edge over its immediate competitors ... Views: 927
Although it has been quite a while since the Federal Government announced a series of far-reaching healthcare reforms, we are yet to experience their full impact across the healthcare continuum. And, with the Senate bill deferring a major chunk of the reforms further, it is expected that we may ... Views: 908
Care providers operate in an environment characterized by multiple payors – Medicare, Medicaid, and a host of private health plans. The prevalence of such multi-payer is reason enough for differences in rates at which care providers are reimbursed despite the clinical procedures ... Views: 902
Various providers despite being paid lesser by government than by commercial insurers believe that Medicare and Medicaid reimburse more fairly than commercial payers. Findings from a recent survey depicted that 93% of respondents feel that Medicare is fair always or frequently while 62% felt the ... Views: 894
EHR systems have changed over the last decade and the health reforms have given new meaning to such systems by making rules regarding ‘Meaningful Use” (MU) of such systems. Older versions of EHRs were simple digitized versions replacing paper based records and did not have the ... Views: 893
Recent estimates conclude there are various specialists in the EMR market who rather than using specialty EMR, usually follow the trend of using a general EMR which has a few extra functions; however user views suggest that general EMRs with extra functions/templates are usually not sufficient ... Views: 875
While it is true that payment posting is merely an exercise of recording the actual claim realized against patient account concerned, in reality its scope extends beyond that. Far from just being an accounting exercise, payment posting has evolved into an indispensable tool for analyzing ... Views: 854
The intense competition in the healthcare industry is triggering unprecedented benefits to the patient fraternity. While the quality of medical care has improved by leaps and bounds, patients now, have choices and alternatives just in case they feel deterioration in the perceived level of ... Views: 840
Hospitals, healthcare organizations and dentists have long been occupied with the issue of medical filing. The process of medical claim filing is overtly complex, requiring paper work, filing and adjudication. Moreover, with the introduction of new reforms in the system every other day, which is ... Views: 830
How Rising Usage of Thoracic Ultra-Sonography Would Prompt Physicians to Opt for External Medical Billing The safety and precision factors associated with Thoracic ultrasonography have made it a more indispensable and preferred imaging modality to the traditional radiology imaging procedures ... Views: 829
The importance of timely claims submission is not lost on physicians or their staff and is an integral part of the revenue cycle management (RCM). The dynamic nature of the health industry and the reforms has further exacerbated the already volatile situation when it comes to claim submission, ... Views: 827
The adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) presents numerous challenges for physicians and many practices are finding it difficult to successfully adopt EHRs. The data released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention about EHR adoption rates in the country bears witness ... Views: 824
Cardiology is one those specialties that generally perform high-cost diagnostic and curative services, and getting reimbursed for such significant services means conclusive and convincing cardiology medical billing – adhering to cardiology codes, compliance standards and coding rules. ... Views: 801
Payer denials and delays is a cause of worry for every doctor in the US. A denied or a delayed claim leads to loss of revenue for the physician. To top it all the physicians are now looking at an uncertain future working in the Medicare program due to introduction of reimbursement cuts. In the ... Views: 798
While the recent healthcare reforms ushered in by the Federal Government promises to elevate clinical and operational efficiency across the nation’s healthcare continuum, it is also going to induce physicians into a more accountable and responsible quality clinical regime. The imminent ... Views: 796
Medicare, which continues to remain as the nation’s largest public health insurance scheme covering nearly half the United States’ population in its health insurance ambit, has gone through considerable reforms over the years. In fact, the evolution of Medicare can be defined ... Views: 791
From seemingly innocuous platforms for personal interaction amongst registered community members, social media (comprising Face Book, Twitter, and other interactive sites) has emerged as a powerful channel for marketing. In fact, its business-utility has grown to so much that it has evolved to ... Views: 789
Various options in Medical Billing and coding jobs provide ideal opportunities to billers and coders to choose from an array of different types of work environments giving them several opportunities along with flexibility in the rapidly growing health care field. According to a study by the ... Views: 780
Medical billing for Skilled Nursing Facilities has undergone metamorphic changes ever since the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 came into effect 1998. One of the significant requirements under the new legislation is that Skilled Nursing Facilities are not permitted to unbundle services that are ... Views: 773
Physician shortages is a growing concern and is pushing various states to keep doctors trained in medical schools and residency programs from crossing state lines to practice medicine. According to new statistics from the Assn. of American Medical Colleges- nationwide, there were 258.7 active ... Views: 769
Insurance denials are one of the major factors that affect a physician’s revenue even though health reforms do address some issues faced by patients and physicians in dealing with insurance companies, the denial rate of claims has not significantly altered due to such reforms. These ... Views: 764
The health reforms have affected every aspect of the health care delivery system in the United States and smaller and solo practices in the country are finding it difficult to cope with the changes on almost every level of health care delivery. The changes in health IT sector, policies in ... Views: 747
Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are complex systems and a dedicated team of professionals are required for handling and maintaining these systems for smooth operation of such records. The drawbacks of paper based records, the projected advantages of EHRs, and the incentives offered along with ... Views: 744
Contrary to single-location practices that were the norms during olden days, the recent trend has been the exploring of practice opportunities in multiple locations. It is not strange for a medical practice/clinic/hospital to expand its operations beyond the original location once it has built ... Views: 744
The fact that inpatient medical coding deals with patients after they are discharged from health centers makes it widely different and much more complicated than outpatient billing and coding. Inpatient billing and coding has to account for the entire set of eventualities stemming from a ... Views: 743
Healthcare is perhaps one of those few professions which are exception to the general rule of eight hour-a-day duty – professionals are required to stretch beyond their usual duty hours, and may even have to be on a 24×7 vigil. As a result work-related fatigue has been more common, ... Views: 724
In an industry characterized by the highest level of professional integrity and honesty, it is strange yet true that health insurance related fraud and abuse have reached alarming heights. While the incidence of fraud and abuse are equally spread across the health insurance continuum, it’s ... Views: 724
Health practitioners often find themselves dealing with a variety of records – from records pertaining to practice license and credentialing documents to financial and compliance records. But none of them are as significant as ‘health care records’ (often known as ‘patient records’) simply ... Views: 718
Over the last few years the healthcare system in the United States has witnessed modifications in policies and regulations, in order to make healthcare facilities cost effective and accessible to people from all income groups. However, a substantial percentage of the population still ... Views: 708
MBC has recently launched a job board to lessen the complexity of bringing physicians and coders together, eventually working as an easy-to-use interface between them through the facility on job listing. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Medical billers and coders are ... Views: 700
There has been a rapid growth in the healthcare industry, more than any other industry, mostly in response to rapid growth in the elderly population. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the healthcare industry will create 3.2 million new wage and salary jobs between 2008 and 2018. ... Views: 694
“As much as the intrinsic competencies of your Medical Billing Companies, their ability to advise on EHR/EMR implementation for efficient clinical and operational management should equally hold prominence. As HIPAA 5010 compliant EHR/EMR is the prerequisite to medical billing under ... Views: 689
Even as the Department of Health & Human Services’ in order to reduce regulatory burdens, announced last month it would consider delaying the ICD-10 implementation deadline for certain entities, subsequent industry reactions depicted healthcare professionals being primarily not in ... Views: 686
Ascertaining Cardiologists’ Medical Billing Needs Even as They Migrate From Private Practices to Hospitals
Till recently, cardiologists who were happy with their private practices have suddenly started exploring avenues to align themselves with hospitals. The change has been so dramatic that ... Views: 684
The shortage of primary care physicians in the United States will soon worsen due to the added pressure on resources because of healthcare policy changes by the government. The rising numbers of elderly people in the country is also putting tremendous pressure on the services provided by primary ... Views: 683
The doctor-patient ratio has woefully been disproportionate across the 50 states in the U.S., and researchers believe that it may continue to be far from ideal and even worsen in the coming years: Researchers have estimated that even in the absence of the health care reform law, the shortage of ... Views: 672
The shortage of primary care physicians (PCPs) in the United States has been a well publicized and well documented issue. However, the solutions to the various issues faced by primary care in the country have been obscure even after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The ... Views: 670
Nursing facilities across the U.S. have somehow endured a series of Medicare/Medicaid cuts thus far, but the latest move by CMS to reduce reimbursement for so-called Medicare “bad debt” – Medicare co-payments not made by beneficiaries or state Medicaid programs – may bring them on the threshold ... Views: 664