How The Government’s Unintentional Act Made Emr Billing Faster?

By Author: Emma Derek
Total Articles: 2
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America is witnessing a steady rise in the number of surgeons practicing there. According to a report from the American College For Health Policy Research Institute in 2009, the number of orthopedic surgeons active was 20,345. In 2012, the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons tracked down an increase in the number to 27,773. About 44% of the surgeons practicing belong to a private orthopedic group. The cost of performing a surgery is high for both surgeons as well as patients. This increase in cost is compelling the orthopedic industry to look for solutions, which would turn out to be beneficial for both the surgeons and the patients.

The EMR Incentive Initiative

While we are not sure as to what kind of initiatives would be taken by the orthopedic industry, in 2009, the Congress passed down the HITACH (Health Information Technology for Economic And Clinical Health) Act. The law offered incentives to providers who took the initiative to install the EMR (Electronic Medical Records) to their system. So far, the Federal Government had given the providers an incentive of 20 billion dollars for this mass transition ...
... to digital records.

The Outcome Of The Initiative

Whether it is for an orthopedic emr or a dermatology emr, installing an EMR had helped to mark a cost effective change in the medical work sphere.

With an emr, surgeons are able to get various features to make practice better. Even orthopedic surgeons are able to make a quality mark with this software.

Features To Be Found In An Orthopedic EMR

An orthopedic emr features customized templates, easy documentation, coding, billing, scope for quick referrals, mobile access, radiology interface, and management of schedules.

However, there is no denying the fact that the billing and coding procedure of an orthopedic EHR does not appear easy. The software needs to be updated with current codes. With an ICD-10 implementation, it becomes even more complex.

How The Government Initiative Made Billing Easier?

In order to ensure that the incentive is utilized properly, the government initiated the Meaningful Use standards. This was done with the aim to bring about a change in the quality. According to the MU standards, providers need to maintain a particular deadline. They get to keep the money by meeting the deadline.

The Meaningful Use standards needed three criteria for a provider to fulfill:

Criteria 1 > need to start an electronic data capture and sharing.
Criteria 2 > to show an advanced clinical process.
Criteria 3 > the need to show an improved clinical outcome.

The first criteria set by Meaningful Use (MU) had indirectly led to the enforcement of connecting billing software to the EMR. Thus, the initiative undertaken by the Government had ultimately made billing easier.

How Is An Integrated EMR Billing System Advantageous?

Your emr needs to have a detailed collection of data of your patient. A solid data is the heart of medical billing. Whether manual or electronic, to make a proper bill, data regarding the patient is necessary.

Providers are able to input diagnosis and procedure codes right at the point of service.

Emr eliminates the problem of maintaining a collection of paper bills.

With EMR, you can generate both electronic super bills and insurance carriers.

Record a patient’s payments and other co-pays.

Get instant access to the receivable reports of a patient’s account.

Enable coverage of a patient’s documentation history. This helpful during seeking of reimbursements.

During the time of documentation, the emr creates a list of CPT and ICD billing codes. The CPT codes can be linked with the diagnostic codes to generate an efficient billing process.

Billing gets easier when billing software is integrated into an emr. Even if you have only received a CCHIT certificate from the Certificate Commission for Health Information Technology, billing is no longer difficult. You could also eliminate your billing staff (though there are certain things, which your computer system will not be able to execute). Nevertheless, your emr will take less time when it comes to recovering bills compared to your manual system.