Category: News

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

 

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