During the last AHIMA, I sat down with Dr. Jon Elion, Founder and CEO of ChartWise Medical Systems and asked him about how a physician can improve their EHR documentation so that it matches the needs of medical coders better. In the following video, he offers a couple simple tips on how a physician can do this easily.
Considering ICD-10 is just around the corner, I thought many would find these tips interesting and useful.
John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit and Google Plus.
The American Medical Association’s most recent call to halt implementation of ICD-10 codes brings to light an interesting angle to the coding story – one that I hadn’t recognized until I read up on just why the AMA has consistently made it known that the switch is a bad idea.
The association believes transitioning to the new, 68,000 codes will place too much of a financial and administrative burden on physicians (especially small practices), and will ultimately force many of them to shut their doors.
Attending education sessions at AHIMA last fall left me with the impression that though learning the new codes and suffering through dual coding wouldn’t be fun, they would ultimately help physicians and hospitals receive proper reimbursement for their services. Yes, there were vendor cheerleaders on many panels, but the logic made sense even to a novice like me.
I realize that physician practices are quite a different kind of beast when it comes to handling administrative tasks, and I can certainly understand how a small practice would feel completely overwhelmed when, as the AMA stated in a letter to CMS, overlapping federal regulations combined with predicted Medicare pay cuts will make switching to ICD-10 a huge difficulty for them.
But I feel as if there’s a catch 22 here. If physicians don’t make the switch, they won’t see the potential financial benefits of more accurate coding. If they do make the switch, they’ll likely face such huge financial strains that they’ll opt to go out of business. Are there any physician readers out there who are cheerleading the ICD-10 switch?
It occurred to me, reading recently about the predicted banner year for physicians seeking hospital employment, that physicians that do decide to close their doors as a result of ICD-10 may contribute to this glut of MDs looking for work.
Perhaps there’s a domino effect waiting to happen – CMS stands firm on the ICD-10 deadline / Physicians work incredibly hard to try and make it happen. / Physicians fail and go out of business, or decide early on that it’s just not worth the trouble and close up shop. / Said physicians seek hospital employment. / There aren’t enough hospital jobs to go around and many MDs are left in the unemployment line.
That’s just one scenario I’ve been mulling over, and of course doesn’t take into consideration the large amount of other challenges facing physicians right now. What’s your take on the ICD-10 and physician staffing situation?
As Social Marketing Director at Billian, Jennifer Dennard is responsible for the continuing development and implementation of the company’s social media strategies for its three key properties – Billian’s HealthDATA, Porter Research and HITR.com. She is a regular contributor to a number of healthcare blogs, and currently manages the Technology Association of Georgia Health Society’s social media channels. You can find her on Twitter @SmyrnaGirl.
I’ve asked many people why we haven’t had more stories on the benefits of ICD-10 since so many other countries have been using ICD-10 for many years.
In the following video I asked Doris Gemmell, BSc, MBA, CHIM, Director of Coding Services at Accentus Inc. about the benefits of ICD-10 to population health and she provided an answer from her ICD-10 experience in Canada.
You should also check out this video where Doris Gemmell talks about the patient benefits of ICD-10. Plus, Doris also has a blog.
John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit and Google Plus.
While at AHIMA 2012, I asked Susan Sumner, Executive Vice President of Ambulatory Services at Accentus Inc. about some of the problems with EMR documentation today. Here’s her video answer with her views on narrative EMR documentation vs point and click EMR documentation:
John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit and Google Plus.
I recently sat down with Dr. Nick van Terheyden, CMIO of Nuance to talk about some of the Burning Health IT topics. In the following video Dr. Nick and I talk about EHR Upcoding, Meaningful Use Stage 2, Interoperability, EHR Consolidation, and ACOs. Enjoy and I hope you’ll extend our conversation in the comments.
John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit and Google Plus.
While at AHIMA 2012, I had a chance to sit down and talk with Rita Bowen, MA, RHIA, CHPS, SSGB, Sr. VP of HIM and Privacy Officer at HealthPort to talk about some of the challenges and risks associated with the disclosure of health information in this new world of EHR software. In this video, Rita talks about some challenges with EHR software disclosures that I bet a lot of people haven’t thought about before.
John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit and Google Plus.
While at AHIMA 2012, I had a chance to sit down with Dr. Jon Elion, Founder and CEO of ChartWise Medical Systems. I asked him about the changes in clinical documentation he’s seeing and I grabbed a video of his answer below. His answer was an interesting and insightful look into clinical documentation and ways that coding is effecting the clinical documentation.
I find Dr. Elion’s answer quite interesting in the terms of using clinical documentation intelligence in EHR. Add in things like coding engines, NLP, and EMR templates and you can see why getting the documentation right is a challenge even in an IT optimized world.
John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit and Google Plus.
While at AHIMA 2012, I had a chance to sit down with Dr. Nick van Terheyden, CMIO of Nuance Communications, to learn a little bit more about the recent Nuance acquisitions of Quantim (HIM division of QuadraMed) and J.A. Thomas & Associates. I asked Dr. Nick to describe how these acquisitions will fit into Nuances portfolio in the following video.
John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit and Google Plus.
… ICD-10 by a landslide. For those of you wondering whether “upcoding” might just steal 10′s thunder, it wasn’t meant to be. Providers and vendors alike brushed aside the phrase – some with a shrug of the shoulders, others with a roll of the eyes, and some with a “What did you expect?” The general consensus I gathered on the show floor was that technology such as electronic medical records enables doctors to code more accurately – not fraudulently. Everyone agreed that paper-based processes have for years resulted in doctors under-coding, and now that technology and workplace culture have caught up, those same doctors are finding it more efficient to code accurately, thus leading to more accurate, i.e. higher, reimbursement.
Speaking of reimbursement, John mentioned in a recent blog that ICD-10 is on the list when it comes to Top 5 Revenue Cycle Management Issues, and I couldn’t agree more. Talking with vendors and their physician customers at the show brought home to me just how fine a line providers walk when it comes to coding and revenue. As we move closer to Oct. 1, 2014, and the final push towards ICD-10, I am eager to see how these more granular, accurate codes play out in the revenue space. If a doctor codes more accurately in 10 (and hopefully provides quality care at the same time), and as a result sees higher reimbursements, will this somehow turn into a price increase that will trickle down to patients through payers? Where will the touted cost-effectiveness really come in? At any rate, I am definitely seeing the cause and effect relationship between coding and revenue more clearly as the ICD-10 deadline draws near.
ICD-10 was the focus of the only educational session I was able to attend, and it was well worth the time. “The Good, the Bad and the Reality: Lessons from the Frontlines of ICD-10 Implementation” featured the stories of Sutter Health, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Deloitte Consulting. Both Danielle Reno from Sutter Health and Gary Perrizo from VUMC stressed strategy, education and testing in the run up to 2014. I got the impression from them and the physicians in the audience with me that though everyone is grateful for the extra time to make the switch, no one should be taking the time for granted. “Lollygagging” as I tell my children, is not advisable.
As you probably know by now, I’m a big fan of social media in the healthcare space, and I was very impressed with the efforts the AHIMA team took to incorporate social networking into just about everything – especially compared to last year. The attendees at AHIMA seem more like a Facebook crowd, and that was indeed the sentiment I heard from several vendors. That being said, I do think the tweet stream was more active than last year, probably due in large part to the @AHIMAResources team taking a proactive approach to socially marketing the event. I hear that next year (the event will be in my hometown of Atlanta) we’ll see the hashtag on all the slide presentations, which may encourage attendees to get in on the tweeting action.
Overall it was a fun, educational first trip to Chicago and second trip to AHIMA. (You can check out some of the more memorable images from the show below.) Seeing the sun rise and set over Lake Michigan in early Fall was a real treat. I hope that Atlanta will have equally spectacular vistas to offer next year.
AHIMA 2013 will take place in Atlanta Oct. 26-30.
This book caught my eye on the show floor. Anyone read it yet?
This picture does no justice to the spectacular views I had from the 95th floor of Chicago’s John Hancock building, thanks to the fun folks at Healthport.
The Precyse team flew a special member in just for the show.
The Friedman Marketing group was nice enough to hold another tweetup after show hours.
My coworkers presented me with a lovely birthday balloon bouquet from one of the two balloon artists on the show floor.
As Social Marketing Director at Billian, Jennifer Dennard is responsible for the continuing development and implementation of the company’s social media strategies for its three key properties – Billian’s HealthDATA, Porter Research and HITR.com. She is a regular contributor to a number of healthcare blogs, and currently manages the Technology Association of Georgia Health Society’s social media channels. You can find her on Twitter @SmyrnaGirl.
I’m heading to Chicago this weekend for the annual AHIMA show. It will be my second time attending, and last year’s experience will be hard to beat. I stayed at the Grand America hotel, which has now spoiled me for days when it comes to tradeshow accommodations (or vacation accommodations, for that matter). The show was in beautiful Salt Lake City, which literally was a breath of fresh air every time I walked from the hotel to the convention center. The show floor was bustling, attendees were friendly and chatty, and exhibitors were eager to talk about their latest offerings in the world of coding, transcription and health information management, with a dash of healthcare IT thrown in for good measure. And how can I forget the great networking off the show floor? Those HealthPort folks sure know how to karaoke!
Needless to say, AHIMA set the bar high in Utah, and I’m eager to see if my experience in Chicago will live up to it. The time definitely seems right for talking to providers and vendors about ICD-10, of course; but I believe ICD-10 has met its match in the EMR-related buzzword “upcoding.” You may have seen it mentioned in the major news outlets in recent days, read John’s post about EHR Incentive Increasing Medicare Costs, or come across this statement from the government:
“There are … reports that some hospitals may be using electronic health records to facilitate “upcoding” of the intensity of care or severity of patients’ condition as a means to profit with no commensurate improvement in the quality of care.
“False documentation of care is not just bad patient care; it’s illegal.”
The government obviously means to let providers know that inappropriate documentation will result in legal action, but there is another side to this story in that some providers claim they aren’t “upcoding,” but rather more accurately documenting care now that they have the technology to do so. For hospitals that are struggling financially, implementing new EMR/billing technology may simply allow them to clean up their documentation and billing methods. Seems to me that it’s pretty easy to immediately go from red to black if you’re used to using paper, but now have all kinds of efficient technology at your fingertips.
At any rate, the upcoding conundrum has, for me, elucidated the link between coding and documentation, the EMR and a healthcare facility’s fiscal health. Harold Gibson makes a number of good points around this relationship is his recent blog, “Medical Documentation Specialists can do Better Medical Billing:”
“The medical record is the basis for every financial transaction that follows its creation. EHRs have the advantage of being instantly accessible to a credentialed medical coder or biller at any location. The value of EHRs cannot be underestimated, nor can computer assisted coding software, but they are not a panacea for the elimination of billing errors.”
I hope to find out as I walk the show floor next week how vendors and providers alike are trying to get past this problem. If you have any insight, please share them in the comments below, or, if you’ll be at the show, grab me on the show floor for a quick chat.
Also, if you’re in Chicago and/or at AHIMA 2012, then be sure to come by the AHIMA Tweetup on Monday, 10/1 5:30-6:30. Swissotel, Friedman Marketing suite.
As Social Marketing Director at Billian, Jennifer Dennard is responsible for the continuing development and implementation of the company’s social media strategies for its three key properties – Billian’s HealthDATA, Porter Research and HITR.com. She is a regular contributor to a number of healthcare blogs, and currently manages the Technology Association of Georgia Health Society’s social media channels. You can find her on Twitter @SmyrnaGirl.
