Author: myquery

15 Jan 2024

6 Benefits of Medical Billing Software!

medicare billing
medicare billing coding

Handling claims and medical billing efficiently is key for a profitable and well-run practice. Sifting through piles of paperwork, scouring physical files for information to process bills, and ensuring patient payments are made correctly and on time are all time-consuming and error-prone tasks that have been holding back practices from ultimate efficiency in billing for years.

However, medical billing software is revolutionizing how medical practices process and track claims and provides powerful tools to make billing a much more efficient process. When your practice runs with efficiency and your billing is smooth and streamlined, your practice will be able to see more patients and generate more revenue much faster.

Medical billing software offers these 6 great benefits for all types of practices, small and large. 

Minimize Paperwork, Manual Work, and Errors

Paperwork is becoming more and more antiquated in the medical field, and even smaller practices are opting for a better, more efficient way of handling billing software for hospitals and claims while reducing the amount of paper and physical forms that are needed in modern practice. 

Medical billing software for hospitals and medical practices helps to dramatically reduce paperwork and the errors that come along with filling in forms manually and storing those documents securely. With a medical billing solution in place, you can virtually eliminate paperwork in your practice. 

Make Patient Information More Accessible

Using medical billing software gives you better control of your patient billing data and makes that information much more accessible for your practice. Accessible information, that is also accurate and secure, will help you work much more efficiently and process your payments much faster. 

Improve Claim Tracking

Medical billing software for hospitals helps substantially in tracking and processing claims. The software can help you check patient coverage alert you to denied claims and guide you through the process and timeframes required for resubmissions. 

Medical billing solutions will also alert you to coding errors or inconsistencies in a patient’s file that could lead to a rejected claim from the insurance company. Overall, medical billing systems help increase data accuracy and speed up the claims process so you can get paid quickly and provide accurate bills for your patients. 

Enhance Financial Reporting 

Real-time reporting is an integral part of a robust medical billing system for hospitals or a full suite of practice management tools, and it can help you measure and demonstrate meaningful use of patient health records. You can also use reports to monitor the performance of your practice or clinic to find ways to improve the patient experience and increase efficiency. You can also access payment reports and do a deeper analysis of claims and your practice’s profitability (and where your biggest losses are as well).

Streamline Coding

ICD (International Classification of Diseases) coding is in its tenth revision (ICD-10), and is steadily being adopted as the standard, shared system of coding for physicians and medical professionals. A standardized set of medical codes helps streamline the coding process in medical billing software for hospitals and ensures efficiencies in individual practices. On a larger scale, this classification system allows for the creation of a comprehensive database of codes that signify particular diseases or courses of treatment. 

While it’s still in the early phases, AI technology is being used to streamline and automate coding and charting across medical billing and CRM healthcare features. AI can scan medical documents and pull out important details for coding and billing software for hospitals. Automating the coding process helps save time and can also reduce data entry errors to keep records updated accurately. This technology combined with improved electronic medical records (EMR) will continue to change how patient data is stored and used across medical facilities. 

Improve Patient Care with Payment Ease

The patient experience is moving swiftly to the forefront of medical practice priorities. As in retail or other industries serving customers, modern medical practice is paying more attention to patient care and long-term retention in a competitive field by providing excellent care and a seamless experience.

A huge part of providing a seamless experience for patients comes down to payment convenience. Patients want more online and electronic payment options, as well as patient portals that help them understand the benefits and bills they need to pay for their care. This is one of the best CRM hospital software features to explore for improved management of billing and patient care. Article credit wheelhouse.com

12 Jan 2024

HIPAA Updates and HIPAA Changes in 2023-2024!

 

HIPAA updates and HIPAA changes happen more frequently than many people are aware of because of the nature of the update or because of their minor impact on HIPAA compliance. A major update to HIPAA is long overdue, and steps were taken in December 2020 to address the need for HIPAA changes and HIPAA updates when HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that proposed multiple changes to the HIPAA Privacy Rule.

In addition, there has also been a proposed update to align 42 CFR Part 2 – the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records regulations – more closely with HIPAA, and proposals to change the conditions under which PHI relating to reproductive healthcare can be used or disclosed. Part 2 and reproductive health changes are expected to be finalized in 2024, while the new proposed Security Rule standards for cybersecurity should be announced in 2024 and implemented in 2025.

We discuss all the HIPAA updates since the inception of HIPAA and this information can be used in conjunction with our HIPAA checklist to understand what is required to ensure compliance.

Major HIPAA Updates in the Past 25 Years

Since HIPAA was signed into law there have been a few major HIPAA updates. The HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules were introduced which limited the uses and disclosures of protected health information, gave patients new rights over their healthcare data, and introduced a set of minimum security standards.

Those HIPAA updates were followed by the incorporation of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, which saw the introduction of the Breach Notification Rule in 2009 and the Omnibus Final Rule in 2013. Such major HIPAA updates placed a significant burden on HIPAA-covered entities and considerable time and effort were required to introduce new policies and procedures to ensure continued HIPAA compliance.

There have been two minor HIPAA Privacy Rule changes since 2013 – the first, in 2014, allowed patients to have access to test reports to align the Privacy Rule with the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments. The second HIPAA Privacy Rule change, in 2016, allowed covered entities to disclose PHI to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

The most commonly updated section of HIPAA is Part 162 of the Administrative Simplification Regulations. Part 162 HIPAA updates are most often made by CMS to existing standards – for example, the 2020 change relating to Schedule II drug refills. However, a proposed Part 162 HIPAA change expected to be finalized in 2024 could have wider implications. Read more at Hipaajournal.com

09 Feb 2022

HINT HEALTH ROLLS OUT A VALUE-BASED PRIMARY CARE DIRECT CONTRACTING NETWORK!

Direct contract physicians don’t submit claims because the care is not based on fee-for-service.

Hint Health is rolling out a nationwide network to provide direct contracting between employers and primary care providers, bypassing traditional insurance in the PCP market.

Hint Connect is providing employers a single point of access to hundreds of independent primary care providers, the company said.

It also removes the challenge for DPC practices to find and access large employers.

For physicians in direct primary care, “the challenge is getting to an employer-based that’s large enough,” said company COO Mark Nolan.

Hint Connect is currently rolling out across Texas in major metro areas and the Rio Grande Valley.  Over the next three months, Hint Connect will expand to Colorado, Arizona, Oklahoma and Florida and will soon go nationwide.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Physicians like the simplicity and ability to operate partially or fully outside of the insurance-based system while having someone else take care of the administrative burden, Hint said.

Physicians don’t submit claims because care is not based on fee-for-service.

The HintOS platform automates enrollment, eligibility, invoicing, and payment. It offers direct-to-consumer membership management, Hint said.

Employers pay physicians a set monthly fee for each employee to receive primary care. The average cost is around $50 to $75 a month, according to Nolan.

Hint Health comprises 1,700-plus clinics, more than 5,700 employers and nearly a million lives. Its platform helps providers increase membership and saves money for employers, the company said.

Read more @ https://tinyurl.com/28esky8h 

28 Jan 2022

A NEW BAN ON SURPRISE MEDICAL BILLS STARTS TODAY!

If you have a medical emergency, you will no longer need to worry about a large bill from a doctor you did not choose.

For years, millions of Americans with medical emergencies could receive another nasty surprise: a bill from a doctor they did not choose and who did not accept their insurance. A law that goes into effect Saturday will make many such bills illegal.

The change is the result of bipartisan legislation passed during the Trump administration and fine-tuned by the Biden administration. It is a major new consumer protection, covering nearly all emergency medical services, and most routine care.

“I think this is so pro-consumer, it’s so pro-patient — and its effect will eventually be felt by literally everybody who interacts with a health care system,” said Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, who was part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who wrote the bill. He said he counted the bill as among his top achievements as a lawmaker.

Even with insurance, emergency medical care can still be expensive, and patients with high deductible plans could still face large medical bills. But the law will eliminate the risk that an out-of-network doctor or hospital will send an extra bill. Currently, those bills add up to billions in costs for consumers each year. Read more @ https://tinyurl.com/2p9wedyf

22 Jan 2022

WHAT’S THE FUTURE OF MEDICAL BILLING LOOK LIKE?

Life was more leisurely in the 1980s. Most healthcare providers handled their own billing – physicians set fees for treatment and sent bills to insurance companies, who in turn paid the bill. Paper wasn’t a swear word yet, seeing as little technology was needed.

If you’re reading this, however, you know today’s healthcare world consists of rigid and complicated coding rules, and fees for each procedure endure an oft-heated negotiation process. The administrative burden is overwhelming for physicians, who more than ever are turning to medical billing companies for help.

Advances in health IT and the looming ICD-10 deadline are changing the rules of the medical billing game. Seeing as we’re living in an exciting time for medical billing, what lies on the horizon?

Let’s phrase this as that quintessential job interview question: where does medical billing see itself in the next few years?

Widespread EHR Adoption
We don’t expect it’ll take more than eight or so years for most American physicians to adopt an electronic health record. In 2011, the National Center for Health Statistics found that 55% of physicians had adopted an EHR system, and of course the 2015-16 Meaningful Use deadlines. Read more @ https://tinyurl.com/2nxj7tfp

18 Jan 2022

WHAT IS MEDICAL BILLING?

3.01: INTRODUCTION TO MEDICAL BILLING

By now you have a good idea about the practice of medical coding. But we still don’t know much about what those codes are used for.

While it’s true that we can use diagnosis and procedure codes to track the spread of disease or the effectiveness of a particular procedure, their main use in the United States is in the reimbursement process. In other words, codes help us bill accurately and efficiently.

Let’s take a closer look at why we bill.

WHY WE BILLGoing to the doctor may seem like a one-to-one interaction, but in reality it’s part of a large, complex system of information and payment. While the insured patient may only have direct interaction with one person or healthcare provider, that check-up is actually part of a three-party system.

The first party is the patient. The second party is the healthcare provider. The term ‘provider’ includes hospital, physicians, physical therapists, emergency rooms, outpatient facilities, and any other place where medical services are performed. The third and final party is the insurance company, or payer.

It’s the medical biller’s job to negotiate and arrange for payment between these three parties. Specifically, the biller ensures that the healthcare provider is compensated for their services by billing both patients and payers. We bill because healthcare providers need to be compensated for the services they perform.

In order to do this, the biller collects all of the information (found in a “superbill”) about the patient and the patient’s procedure, and compiles that into a bill for the insurance company. This bill is called a claim, and it contains a patient’s demographic information, medical history, and insurance coverage, in addition to a report on what procedures were performed and why. Read more @ https://tinyurl.com/2p99buxw

09 Sep 2021
billing coding

MEDICAL BILLING PROBLEMS PLAGUE CONSUMERS!

Not only do health care costs pose a challenge to many consumers, but billing issues often create a financial headache, too, text a new survey shows.

Cedar, a company that provides a platform for paying health care expenses, interviewed 1,607 consumers of health care services to gauge how painful the medical bill payment process has been for some of them. They learned that billing challenges often have far-reaching implications.

About a third of respondents believe health care providers can stand to improve the billing and payment process. For example, one of the biggest challenges consumers face is trying to learn what they will be expected to pay ahead of time. Approximately 60% of respondents said they’ve tried to find out what their out-of-pocket costs would be before receiving care. However, 51% of respondents said they either couldn’t get that information easily or the information they received was not accurate.

Another area that causes frustration among many health care consumers is the lack of digital billing options, such as online bill pay and email bill delivery. In fact, approximately 20% of respondents have provided a negative review of a health care provider because they had a bad digital experience. Read more @ https://tinyurl.com/49tpnh2x 

01 Feb 2020
medicare billing

COMING SOON!

Drop us a line @ quermed@yahoo.com, what is your current concern and what would you like to know more about medical billing and coding?

Any thoughts? Try Us, we would be delighted to hear from you.