The Obama government is making every possible effort to digitize the entire process of medical record keeping. Apart from increasing administrative efficiencies and reducing healthcare costs, adoption of EHR has been helping practices prevent careless billing errors.
- According to a New York Times analysis of Medicare data from American Hospital Directory, Medicare payments increased by 47% for hospitals that received government incentives for adopting EHRs
Connection between EHR and Medical Coding:
- Practice workflow gets affected due to time-consuming coding and billing tasks. However, providers can eliminate various inefficiencies from their practice workflow with the help of an EHR.
- Coders get to remain at the forefront of health information technology with an EHR
- It offers them the flexibility and the opportunity to solve issues with clarity
- Reading digital documents has become easy with this record-keeping solution
- EHR also plays a vital role in enhancing quality of work and productivity of coders as it gives them a chance to access their work remotely
How to Make the Best use of an EHR?
- Providers need to create a strong clinical, billing, management and IT team to ensure smooth implementation of EHR. A project manager should also be appointed for overseeing the entire process
- Staff performance must be optimized before providers go live with the EHR. This is important because EHR implementation can put a lot of strain on resources. Staffs needs to be told how the new system will change their job responsibilities. Remedial training should be offered so that they are enabled to make optimum use of EHR
- Providers must analyze their practice workflow to ensure effective implementation of EHR solutions. New workflow should be developed if the existing workflow doesn’t support the health record solution
- A framework should be laid out so that providers can determine which aspect of the software needs to be implemented at each phase. This will also help them keep a track on each task
- Status reports will be vital to stay in tune with the entire team and know how well the tasks are getting completed. Regular communication is extremely important to make the best use of EHR
Extensive training and testing will ensure whether or not the EHR software is benefiting billing and coding procedures. EHR will continue to change with new fixes, updates and features. This will require providers to keep the staff aware of the changes and required adjustments.
Outsourcing EHR Requirements:
Many practices across the US opt for EHR consultancy services from billing companies like MedicalBillersandCoders.com. Lack of time and money poses challenges for them in selection and effective usage of an EHR system. By hiring companies like MBC, they are able to streamline their billing and coding procedures and implement the best EHR solution.
MBC has the largest consortium of certified coders and billers who are well-trained in streamlining billing and fulfilling EHR requirements so that providers get sufficient time to concentrate on quality patient care.