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If you wish to attend the MIX.2012 hosted by McKesson this year, there are only 2 days left of early bird pricing. Please view the image below for more details.

Visit www.McKessonPracticeSolutions.com/MIX.2012 for all the event details. 

We are currently holding an End of Summer Sale from now until September 7th for any Lytec 2013 pre-orders. Please click the link below to view the presentation and learn some of the exciting new features of Lytec 2013. Don’t miss out on your special “End of Summer” pre-purchase price!

Lytec 2013 New Features

Tropical Storm Isaac, expected to reach hurricane status later today, is approaching the Florida peninsula. As hurricanes have the potential to bring flooding rains, damaging winds and power outages, MediPro would like you to be informed that we are closely monitoring weather reports and we are prepared to provide support in case your organization is affected.

Our client care representatives are prepared to give top priority to calls from customers in areas affected by the hurricane. However, to protect your systems, please BE SURE YOUR BACK-UPS ARE ALL IN PLACE.

As with any healthcare provider, you play a critical role in your community. While you are fully committed to helping your community through times of natural disaster, at MediPro, we are fully committed to supporting you in every way we can. Please don’t hesitate to contact us (info@medipro.com or 800-759-1321) if there is anything you need.

After determining your eligibility for the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs, you should then register as early as possible for the Medicare and/or Medicaid program. CMS’ EHR Information Center is open to assist the EHR provider community with registration and other program-related inquiries.

The center can be reached at 1-888-734-6433 (primary number) or 888-734-6563 (TTY number) from 7:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m. (Central Time) Monday through Friday, except federal holidays.

Here are a few of the Information Center’s most frequently asked questions about registration:

1. Question: What information should I have ready before I begin the registration process?
Answer: When you register, will you need:
If you are registering as an eligible hospital or Medicare eligible professional, you will need an approved enrollment record in the Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System (PECOS). Medicaid eligible professionals are not required to be enrolled in PECOS.
If you do not have a record in PECOS, you should still register for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs. (Please note – your eligible hospital or Medicare eligible professional registration status will remain in an “issue pending” status until you have an active enrollment record in PECOS).
A National Provider Identifier (NPI)
A National Plan and Provider Enumeration System Identity and Access Management ID and password for the individual provider
A Payee Tax Identification Number (if you are reassigning your benefits)
A Payee NPI (if you are reassigning your benefits)

2. Question: Which option do I select when registering on behalf of an eligible professional in the Identity and Access Management System?
Answer: Click on “you are requesting to act on my behalf of the individual provider.”

3. Question: How can I check my registration status in the Registration and Attestation System?
Answer: Log in to the Registration and Attestation System and click the Status tab to view your registration information.

4. Question: How do I re-submit my registration?
Answer: To re-submit a registration, you will need to:
Login to the EHR Incentive Program Registration and Attestation System;
Navigate to the Registration tab;
Select the modify action for the registration;
Select the Personal Information registration topic; and
Save the updated payee information and submit the registration.

CMS provides helpful registration guides and resources on the Registration page of the EHR website. Additionally, FAQs about registration can be found on the FAQs page of the CMS website.

Want more information about the EHR Incentive Programs?
Make sure to visit the EHR Incentive Programs website for the latest news and updates on the EHR Incentive Programs.

CMS is urging physicians to report on at least 10 electronic scripts (e-scripts) by June 30, 2012, to avoid the 2013 Medicare e-prescribing penalty that amounts to a 1.5 percent reduction from their Medicare Part B payments in 2013. Physicians can also file for a hardship exemption but must do so by June 30, 2012. The AMA has put together a tip sheet on the steps physicians can take to avoid the 2013 e-prescribing penalty.

Improved Coding

Down-coding and poor charge capture can both be improved through an EHR’s E&M Coder. A study by Medical Economics Magazine estimated that a physician who is regularly down-coding may be losing $40,000 to $50,000 annually. A study done by Partners Healthcare System found an increase of 1.5% to 5% in overall billing simply through improved charge capture.

Total Potential Savings: For our example we will use a conservative improvement rate of 2.5% to factor in a reduction in down-coding errors resulting in an increase in income of approximately $25,000 per year!

Transcription

By utilizing voice recognition capabilities that come stock in our EHRs, this can be a savings of $1,000 per month for using a transcription service at the industry standard.

Total Potential Savings: Total potential yearly savings are approximately $12,000 per year!

Chart Management

Chart Management costs can be reduced through lower chart creation costs, lower chart storage costs and fewer chart pulls. The cost to create a new chart is estimated at $2/chart and the cost to pull a chart is $5 according to a study done by Partners HealthCare Clinic.

Total Potential Savings: For this example we will assume that there are 50 chart pulls per day including the 60% average for non-visiting patients. We will use a lower estimate for the cost of each chart pull at $3 and assume that we will only reduce our chart pulls by 40% the first year and not be paperless for 3 years. For the cost in searching for missing charts, we will use a conservative estimate of 25 minutes per day in looking for misplaced charts. 240 days x 25 minutes = 100 hours per year x $10/hour for office staff = $1,000 per year!

Prescription Refills

A study done by Journal of Healthcare Information Management showed that the time spent doing an Rx refill can be reduced from 15 minutes to 3 minutes. At 7 refills per day, that would be a savings of 84 minutes per day.

Total Potential Savings: 84 minutes/day x the average patient visit of 15 minutes = 5.5 extra patient visits/day. At an average cost of Medicare reimbursement for Office Visit level 99213 as of *2011 being $68.97 = an extra $379.34/day or $1,896.68/week OR a whopping $98,592 per year!

Capitated Patient Cost Savings

According to a study published in The American Journal of Medicine, the benefits of clinical decision support resulting in the reduction of ADE’s, lab and radiology tests and the ability to offer alternative medications showed that a conservative estimate of $29,000 could be saved per year by year 2 of EHR implementation!

Grand Annual Total of Potential Savings EHR Can Bring: 165,592 per year!

Average annual cost of owning one of MediPro’s Solutions: $4,200 – $5,988 per year!

Now ask yourself: “Does it make sense to deny myself this potential savings? Even if realistically, I can save my practice 1/2 of the $165,592 savings per year, would this be a bad thing?”

CMS recommends that all eligible professionals (EPs) register as early as possible for the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs.

Registering does not mean you are required to participate. By registering early, however, you can make sure your information is completely up to date in all of the CMS systems and resolve any issues which might otherwise prevent you from participating in the EHR Incentive Programs. If you do not resolve registration problems, you will not be able to attest and could potentially miss out on a payment year.

Give yourself plenty of time and register today. For more information on registration in the EHR Incentive Programs, visit the Registration page of the EHR website.

Want more information about the EHR Incentive Programs?
Make sure to visit the EHR Incentive Programs website for the latest news and updates on the EHR Incentive Programs.

HealthData Management, March 12, 2012:

The Department of Health and Human Services recently confirmed its intent to push back the Oct. 1, 2013, ICD-10 compliance deadline for certain health care entities. However, HHS has not yet specified a new deadline or defined which entities will be covered by the change, and many physician practices are wondering if they should delay their transition or continue on as planned.

Regardless of when the deadline is or who it impacts, we recommend continuing to move forward on your ICD-10 preparation. As the industry learned from recent 5010 transition challenges, it’s never too early to prepare. Here are seven ways to take advantage of any extra time the delay provides:

1. Conduct more thorough in-office analysis to identify each of the day-to-day processes and areas of the practice that will be impacted. For example, both clinical documentation and office superbills will need to be converted to include ICD-10 codes.
2. Ensure there is a strong plan in place to train your billing and clinical staff in ICD-10 coding changes. At a recent AAPC Boot Camp on ICD-10, it took participants four hours to code 20 cases–and that was with the help of a teacher. Having the right type of training will help reduce coding times.
3. Conduct time studies to identify how much extra time coding will take with ICD-10. The American Health Information Management Association estimates that, initially, it will take roughly twice as long for a coder to code under ICD-10. In addition, medical practices should expect a permanent 10 percent to 25 percent loss of coding productivity. Questions that need to be answered are how to keep up with your increased coding needs, and how will that financially impact the practice? Will the practice pay overtime, hire more coders or outsource some of the work?
4. Check with business partners, vendors and software applications to see how they plan to handle the transition.
5. Almost every policy and written office procedures that medical offices have mention coding. To maintain compliance requirements, these documents will need to be updated to reflect ICD-10 changes. The Office of Inspector General has developed guidelines to help practices develop internal controls and processes to assist with these changes.
6. Review payer contracts, which may be based on older codes, and work with payers to update them for ICD-10. Don’t assume payers will do it for you.
7. Establish a line of credit. The industry encouraged providers to do so with the 5010 transition, but many didn’t take this step and were caught off-guard by the revenue impact. The ICD-10 switch certainly will affect cash flow, and most lines of credit need to be in place for six months to a full year before funds become available.

In light of the proposed delay, many practices are tempted to take a break from ICD-10, but the items mentioned above take a long time to complete. Doing as much as possible to prepare a practice for ICD-10 now will save headaches as the deadline nears, and will ensure that practices continue to operate efficiently throughout the transition.

February 29 is the last day for eligible professionals (EPs) participating in the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program to register and attest to receive an incentive payment for calendar year (CY) 2011 through the Medicare & Medicaid EHR Incentive Program Registration and Attestation System.

With the February 29 deadline approaching, the EHR Information Center is extending their hours of operations to Saturday, February 25 to assist providers with registering and attesting for the program. Information specialists will be on hand and able to assist callers with their needs.

Call Information:
(888) 734-6433 (primary number)
(888) 734-6563 (TTY number)

Saturday Hours:
9:00am – 1:00pm CT

Supplementary information on the program may also be viewed by visiting the FAQs section of the EHR Incentive Programs website, where users can search for any questions they have about the Medicare or Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.

Reminder: February 29, 2012, is also the deadline for EPs to submit any pending Medicare Part B claims from CY 2011, as CMS allows 60 days after December 31, 2011, for all pending claims to be processed. This means that EPs have 60 days in 2012 to submit claims for allowed charges incurred in 2011.

Want more information about the EHR Incentive Programs?
Make sure to visit the EHR Incentive Programs website for the latest news and updates on the EHR Incentive Programs.

Chicago – Feb. 13, 2012 - More than two-thirds (71 percent) of the complete electronic health records (EHRs) of providers and hospitals that have successfully attested to federal meaningful use criteria and qualified for incentives through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) are dually certified under both the ONC-ATCB and the CCHIT Certified programs of the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology. According to the latest figures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), approximately 22,000 eligible providers and hospitals with complete EHRs have successfully attested.

“These early adopters have advantage of complete EHRs that not only meet the meaningful use requirements established by the Office of the National Coordinator for HIT (ONC), but also have been against the more rigorous clinical scenarios for functionality, interoperability and safety required by the independent CCHIT Certified program,” said Karen M. Bell, MD, chair, CCHIT. “It’s no surprise that the vast majority of physicians and other providers are choosing tried and true CCHIT Certified products that have been proven over the years to support their unique business and patient care needs.”

CCHIT continues to certify EHR products in both programs, Some health IT companies previously certified by CCHIT in the ONC-ATCB program are not returning to become CCHIT Certified. The CCHIT Certified program includes both “core” and “optional” certifications. Currently, optional, add-on certifications for specialty care or special patient populations include behavioral health, cardiovascular medicine, child health, dermatology, clinical research, oncology and women’s health.

“Moving forward, CCHIT will continue to review and upgrade its independently developed, comprehensive programs to ensure that EHR certification keeps pace with advances in the field, and meets the various information technology needs of health care providers in the future,” Bell said.

About CCHIT
The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) is an independent, 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with the public mission of accelerating the adoption of robust, interoperable health information technology. The Commission has been certifying electronic health record technology since 2006 and is approved by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as an Authorized Testing and Certification Body (ONC-ATCB).