The Office of the Inspection General (OIG) just published a report (May, 2012) illustrating the shift in the curves of billed E/M service toward the higher levels. The report doesn’t directly point to the increased use of EMRs; however, it’s clear that with documentation capabilities being more robust the trend is clear and the OIG is keenly aware. As a result of this report, The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as recommended by the OIG should continue to educate the physician community on the appropriate application of the documentation guidelines. This could include letters, in-person seminars, teleconferences, etc.
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It’s amazing that NASA sent astronauts to the Moon using less computing power than you will find in a modern family car – we’re not even talking top of the line models here. Yet with all this processing power, car drivers still depend upon a check engine light to know when there is a problem. True, there is a dashboard with all sorts of gauges but even these often don’t alert you to a problem until it’s too late.
Your hospital has hundreds and perhaps thousands of computers working towards making sure your facility runs smoothly and efficiently. Even with all this processing power, there is no check engine light to warn you about things that have gone wrong. Most hospitals today use some type of financial dashboard but just as in a car, this dashboard doesn’t alert you to a problem until it’s too late. This is why Business Intelligence is so sorely needed in the market place.
We're now in 2012 and every hospital, physician, and other medical entity has a computer system. As a matter of fact, according to the U.S Census Bureau, almost 77% of all U.S. households have access to the internet as of the end of 2009.
Unless the Supreme Court significantly guts the new Health Care bill, there will be major changes coming to health care in 2014. With the idea being to reduce the cost of health care so that everyone can be covered, something that many people didn't know about was the federal government's RFP that went out looking to hire a number of Patient Safety Hospital Engagement Contractors.
The federal government really wants all medical providers to be on EMR (electronic medical records) by 2014. Unfortunately, we all know it's not going to happen. We can hope that the majority of hospitals and physicians will be there, or at least on their way there.
Yes, ICD-10's are coming. There's going to be a lot to learn when it comes to coding both diagnoses and procedures, and there's a short window to learn everything. At least to learn coding, that is. As with everything else in life there are back stories to ICD-10's that you might not know. Here are some of those stories.
