Guest Editorial A recent survey of office-based physicians looked into the state of revenue cycle management (RCM) across various specialties, staff and locations. The RCM Survey Report called “What’s Happening Behind the Billing Office Door” evaluated several high-level metrics including first-pass clean-claim rate, net collection percentages, average days in A/R, and outstanding collections for 120+ days. The…

A recent Government Health IT article quoted Dr. Doug Fridsma, director of ONC’s Office of Science and Technology as saying, “We have to think about where we are now and where we need to go to…” Today’s current systems are “tomorrow’s legacy systems.” In the NeHC University webinar, Meeting the Challenge Grant: Consumer-Mediated Exchange in…

Mobile technology is growing at a rapid pace. Mobile computing is already one of the fastest-growing consumer technologies in history, and smartphones, tablets, and apps are quickly becoming the new face of computing for business and pleasure. AmericanEHR recently conducted a survey to better understand health practitioners’ usage of mobile technology. The survey helps address…

“Big Data” is the buzzword of the moment. However, what is Big Data and does it have any relevance for clinicians working on the front lines, or is it simply a term that applies to executives in health systems or large organizations? Wikipedia defines Big Data as “a collection of data sets so large and…

With the launch earlier today of the 7.9 inch iPad mini, Apple fired a warning shot across the bow of other hardware manufacturers with small form factor tablets, in particular, the 7 inch Amazon Kindle Fire and the Google Nexus 7. While these are competent devices and a little less expensive than the iPad mini…

The huge investment in health information technology including EHRs, Drug Information, and a multitude of other systems has taken place over decades, recently accelerating as the promise of a technology-supported healthcare system becomes more of a reality. Incentive and accompanying penalty programs have been enshrined under the HITECH Act as well as through other programs…

While it is expected that CMS will delay the implementation of ICD-10 to October 2014 instead of October 2013, the final rule confirming these changes has yet to be published. Regardless, it is still important that you and your practice keep moving towards ICD-10 adoption. The switch to the new code-set will affect every aspect…

The following is a letter circulated by CMS about the PQRS program reminding physicians that “it is not too late” to participate for 2012: It is not too late to start participating in the 2012 Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) and potentially qualify to receive an incentive payment equal to 0.5% of an eligible professional’s…

The following article is published on behalf of Donald T. Mon, PhD, Chair, HL7: If you are going through an EHR system selection process, or would like to evaluate the capabilities of your current Electronic Health Record (EHR) system against industry standards, you should check out the HL7 International standard for EHR system functionality —…

One of the advantages of using an Electronic Health Record (EHR) is its ability to simplify research activities to the point that even small medical practices can do their own research, either to support quality improvement activities within their practice or purely for research purposes. Determining what type of research you are interested in and…

Feeling overwhelmed by information? In a highly technology-dependent world, information is the currency of our time. Before we had electronic mechanisms to share and communicate information, physicians were feeling overloaded in their practices. The continuous influx of paper reports, results, requests, and unsolicited publications — in addition to personal reading material — was overwhelming before…