Coding

Codified data is the prerequisite for both health care billing and clinical documentation. Topics here include: ICD-10, the role of the HIM department in I.T. efforts, data formats and standards, participation in payer incentive programs and upholding regulatory requirements.

AMA Board to Members: Skipping ICD-10 for ICD-11 Not Recommended

Joseph Goedert | May 16

A new report from the American Medical Association Board of Trustees concludes that the advantages of skipping implementation of the ICD-10 code sets and waiting until ICD-11 are outweighed by the disadvantages.

Electronic Data Interchange

Group Practices

Hospitals

Payers

Policy & Regulation

Revenue Cycle Management

Revenue Cycle & Payments

CMS: Deadline Nears to Avoid Medicare eRx Payment Penalty

Joseph Goedert | May 08

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has published guidance on avoiding a 2 percent reduction in Medicare payments for physicians who are not participating in the Electronic Prescribing Incentive Program by June 30, 2013:

Payers

Group Practices

Medication Management

Revenue Cycle & Payments

Policy & Regulation

Electronic Data Interchange

Health Info Exchange

AMA Defends Cloning EHR Data, Calls for Reconsidering Stage 2 Criteria

Joseph Goedert | May 06

Disputing that physicians are purposely using electronic health records to generate higher Medicare billings and “gaming the system,” the American Medical Association says federal policies themselves put providers in a Catch-22 situation. One fix, according to the AMA, is to reconsider Stage 2 meaningful use requirements.

Comments (1)

EHR

Group Practices

Payers

Policy & Regulation

Hospitals

Revenue Cycle Management

Revenue Cycle & Payments

Stimulus

60 Seconds Smarter: ICD-10

May 06

The tenth edition of the International Classification of Diseases is set to be rolled out in the United States, and getting smarter about ICD-10 is critical for all industry stakeholders.

Disease Management

EHR

Hospitals

Payers

Policy & Regulation

Revenue Cycle Management

Revenue Cycle & Payments

Vendor News

Free Software to Aid Analysis of Medicare Claims Data

Joseph Goedert | May 03

Archimedes Inc. is offering free data analytics software to analyze Medicare claims data from 2008 through 2010 under a collaboration with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Electronic Data Interchange

EHR

Group Practices

Hospitals

Payers

Revenue Cycle & Payments

Revenue Cycle Management

Policy & Regulation

AHIMA: Need More Research on EHRs & Billing

Joseph Goedert | May 03

The American Health Information Management Association is urging more research on the causes of higher levels of coding and reimbursement through the use of electronic health records.

EHR

Group Practices

Hospitals

Payers

Policy & Regulation

Revenue Cycle & Payments

Document Management

Premier Survey: I.T. Top Capital Investment for Hospitals

Joseph Goedert | May 03

In the Spring 2013 Economic Outlook from provider alliance Premier Inc. that included surveying 530 hospitals and health systems, 43 percent of respondents expect health information technology and telecommunications to be its largest capital investment during the next year.

Hospitals

Chronic Care

EHR

Health Info Exchange

Revenue Cycle & Payments

Health HIT Vendor News Round-up: Explorys, Omnicell, RGP Healthcare & NextGen

Joseph Goedert | May 03

New sales or introductions of data analytics, medication management, incident management and ICD-10 software are among recent announcements from health information technology vendors:

Payers

Hospitals

Group Practices

Medication Management

Policy & Regulation

Vendor News

AAFP: Primary Care Docs Do More, Should be Paid More

Joseph Goedert | Apr 16

The American Academy of Family Physicians is calling on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to develop a new set of evaluation and management codes specifically for primary care physicians.

Group Practices

Payers

Revenue Cycle Management

Revenue Cycle & Payments

Policy & Regulation

Feds to Hear from Industry about EHR and Coding Issues

Joseph Goedert | Apr 15

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Office of the National Coordinator for HIT will host a “listening session” on May 3 in Baltimore to hear from stakeholders on issues related to coding for Medicare services via electronic health records systems.

Comments (1)

EHR

Group Practices

Hospitals

Payers

Policy & Regulation

Revenue Cycle Management

Revenue Cycle & Payments

Health Datapalooza to Feature a Coding Challenge

Joseph Goedert | Apr 12

Bryan Sivak, chief technology officer at the Department of Health and Human Services, is seeking 10 coding teams for a competition at the Health Datapalooza conference, June 3-4 in Washington, with $25,000 in prizes on the line.

Group Practices

Policy & Regulation

Chronic Care

Disease Management

ICD-10 Readiness Survey Results: Sobering

Joseph Goedert | Apr 11

A new survey from the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange on ICD-10 preparations--the seventh survey since late 2009--finds a disturbing lack of industry progress during the past year.

Electronic Data Interchange

EHR

Group Practices

Hospitals

Payers

Policy & Regulation

Practice Management

Revenue Cycle Management

Revenue Cycle & Payments

Upcoming CMS Provider Call Targets ICD-10 Work in 2013

Joseph Goedert | Apr 09

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will host a National Provider Call on April 18 to give guidance to providers as they begin transitioning to the ICD-10 code sets during 2013. The ICD-10 compliance date is Oct. 1, 2014.

Comments (1)

Electronic Data Interchange

EHR

Group Practices

Hospitals

Payers

Policy & Regulation

Revenue Cycle & Payments