The article about Pediatric Associates in CA has a nugget with a potentially outsized impact: the implication that VFC vaccines…
News 5/31/12
Gateway EDI announces it has signed its 100,000th client and expanded its client base by 19% over the last year.
HHS’s Office of Inspector General reports that use of the two highest-level codes for established office visits has increased by 17% over the last decade, while use of high-level codes for ER visits has risen 21%. The OIG attributes the increase in part to the jump in overall services provided to patients. Wider use of EHRs have also made it easier for providers to meet billing requirements for higher codes.
e-MDs customer Orlando Heart Specialists earns Bridges to Excellence Cardiology Practice Recognition for providing superior patient care and is presented with the Florida Health Care Community Award. The clinic’s administrator says the practice’s use of e-MDs has facilitated data evaluation and has been instrumental to the winning of the awards.
IDC Health Insights releases a report on the ambulatory EMR/EHR market for small practices and assesses 11 products from nine vendors. It’s hard to glean much from the press release and the full details are only available to subscribers. However, I agree with this warning from IDC research director Judy Hanover:
“If providers allow the constraints of meaningful use to dictate their technology choices and limit the goals for implementation, they may only see the short-term incentives and not the long-term strategic advantage that EHR can bring to their practices and may fail to compete under healthcare reform.”
Hayes Management Consulting announces that its MDaudit software provides an E&M bell curve reporting module to help organizations identify providers who are consistently coding higher than their peers.
Over the last couple of months I have switched almost all my bills to online payments. I must say I am loving it and wondering what took me so long to get on board. I have established paperless billing with as many vendors as possible and appreciate the convenience of direct links to make payments, the auto-reminders, and the absence of paper, envelopes, and stamps. No surprise, but physician offices are way behind other industries in terms of offering online bill payment. For interested practices, American Medical News presents three options for establishing online bill payments for patients, including the relatively simple and cheap option of PayPal.
Premier Bone & Joint Centers (NE/WY) select SRS EHR for its 10 physician practice.
gloStream introduces gloSuite v7, which includes a practice portal for physician communication, secure direct messaging, and an option to run on an iPad.