subject: EMR Services are improving to Fit New Needs [print this page] EMR Services are improving to Fit New Needs
Only about 5% of doctor's offices are implementing electronic medical records or EMR. It is estimated that 80% of offices will need to have EMR by 2012 thanks in part to the new healthcare legislation. The healthcare industry is taking off in big ways. Millions of Americans that have never had health insurance will be purchasing policies. That means people that haven't had medical check ups in years will be flooding in to offices. It's going to be a nightmare for medical staff.
For these patients whom haven't had check ups in who knows how long, lots of tests are going to be required. That means mountains of paperwork are going to flood in. practices that are using only paper systems have no chance of keeping up. Insurance companies are sharing in the headache brought on by the flood of information. They are already giving preferential treatment to practices using EMR. That's why EMR is going to boom.
EMR combines medical records from clinics, hospitals, labs, pharmacies and more and puts it all in to one system. Accounting, insurance scrubber software and claims denial services are all at the touch of a button.
Practices already using Electronic Medical Records will notice a few improvements. Claims services are combined to do claims scrubbing with an all-payer, web based, customer responsive clearinghouse for transmitting and tracking electronic claims. Certain software can be used along with other practice management systems. The best software is using continuously updating payer specific rules and WEDI/SNIP recommended levels up front before claims are submitted. Cash flow doesn't suffer this way.
Procedure coding software now checks for compliance with CCI policies, gender and age restrictions, and medical necessity using crosswalk data and the ordering of procedures for maximum reimbursements. Diagnosis coding software uses valid primary diagnoses, proper levels of specificity and the inclusion and ordering of any required accompanying diagnoses. Situational and conditional fields and service procedure related fields are checked to see if they are required and reported. Date fields are consistent and payer specific rules editing is implemented.
Programs that have consultant service upgrades are improved too. These services present various online high level business intelligence views of practice data. Views of data can be customized and alerts can be set to email key personnel when performance indicators are violated.
