ICD-10 Ready?
May 15, 2013
Today on MORE For Your Practice, I interview Suzanne MacEwan, Senior Project Manager of Healthcare Information Technologies, about the status of ICD-10 implementation. According to Suzanne, the new – and as far as we can tell final – date for ICD-10 implementation is October 1, 2014. Marilyn Tavenner, Acting CMS Administrator, released a letter in February which, in no uncertain terms, confirmed the government’s commitment to this implementation date.
What can you do to get ready for ICD-10?
- The #1 place to begin preparing for the ICD-10 transition is in your chart documentation. Now is the time to assess your current level of documentation. Start this process by performing chart reviews.
- Schedule documentation education programs with the providers in your practice to prepare for the new ICD-10 codes.
- Perform an Impact Assessment by identifying every instance in your office where a diagnosis code is used. Start with the patient check in process and follow the patient cycle all the way through check out.
- Start revising all of the forms used in your practice that currently contain ICD-9 codes.
- Talk to your top 10 or 20 referral sources to identify how you can work together to get through this process.
- Assess your staffing needs particularly in managing claims processing and claims denials. The claims denial process will be the most heavily impacted area of your practice.
- Build up a 6 month cash reserve to help you through this transition. This cash reserve will help you through what’s sure to be a slow-down in claims processing as claims are rejected for inaccurate coding.
- Don’t lose your ICD-9 codes. You’ll still need to be able to navigate between ICD-9 and ICD-10 since worker’s compensation, disability and auto insurance claims don’t have to comply with ICD-10.
Practices are overwhelmed, but with careful planning and a methodical approach the transition can be managed. The most important point to keep in mind is to start preparing NOW, and you’ll have a better chance of managing the implementation with minimal disruption to your practice.
Join us at 4:30 PM Eastern Time today for the full interview at http://www.healthcarenowradio.com/programs/more-for-your-practice or download the podcast below.
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Leslie Witkin on Value-Based Payment Modifier
May 9, 2013
Guest Leslie Witkin of Physicians First, Inc. discussing the Value-Based Payment Modifier which is a quality initiative under the Medicare Part B program that moves the payment for physicians to the Pay-for-Performance model. The Value-Based Payment Modifier will look at the quality and cost of the care that the physician provides. Additional discussion on how PQRS integrates with the Value-Based Payment Modifier initiative.
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Would you know what to do if you had to close your medical practice tomorrow?
May 8, 2013
Recently, I was approached by one of my clients who was retiring and, due to health concerns, had to close his medical practice rather quickly. He turned to me for guidance on the specific steps he needed to take to communicate this situation to his patients, including how to transfer his patients to another provider while at the same time protecting the privacy of their records.
Summary of tasks:
- Locate the appropriate state statute which governs the closing of a medical practice in your state.
- Notify your patients, in writing, of the termination of the practice. You must include:
- the date of practice termination and
- an address at which the records may be obtained from the physician terminating or
- the address of another licensed physician to whom the records will be transferred.
- Run a notice in the newspaper of greatest general circulation in each county in which the physician practices and in a local newspaper that serves the immediate practice area for four (4) consecutive weeks. Again, you’ll want to include:
- the date of practice termination and
- an address at which the records may be obtained from the physician terminating or
- the address of another licensed physician to whom the records will be transferred.
- You may post a notice in your facility but that is not required
- Notify your state Board of Medicine of the closing – include the same information contained in the advertised notice
- The physician who the records are transferred to shall be responsible for providing a copy of the complete medical record, upon written request, by the patient or the patient’s legal representative.
If you find yourself in this situation, I’d be happy to talk with you about what we learned while closing my client’s practice. This circumstance is often rife with emotion – having an objective third-party help you think through the steps you need to take can help to relieve some of the stress involved.
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Kathi Browne – Healthcare Social Media Evangelist – shares her expertise
May 2, 2013
Guest Kathi Browne – the “Healthcare Social Media Evangelist” – walks us through the steps for getting our practice on social media, which ones are most important for medical practices and ideas on how to manage a social media presence. Learn more about Kathi on her websitewww.browneknows.com.
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Stop patients from threatening your HIPAA compliance
May 1, 2013
Last week we had another great group of practice managers for our HIPAA Compliant Policy Writing Intensive workshop. One of the side benefits of getting different practices together in one setting is to find out what their challenges are and share some of the issues they’re facing. A couple of questions came up that involved data security, specifically data transmitted by email:
How do I securely email when I don’t have a patient portal yet?
My patients are trying to email protected information to me. How do I stop that and give them a secure way to send their information?
Back in February we did a post on QuickDrop which allows users to securely send and receive files of any size and type on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Today I’d like to tell you about a product called Enlocked which specifically addresses the email security issue.
Enlocked is a secure cloud-based messaging service that allows medical practices to communicate with patients via encrypted email. There are two ways for patients to view messages with Enlocked: 1) they can download an encryption app to decode emails, or 2) they can be sent a message letting them know that they have an email that they can view via Enlocked’s secure website. Enlocked is promoted by Physician’s Practice and is just one of many new ways that the IT industry is helping medical practices to be HIPAA compliant. Learn more about Enlocked on their website at https://www.enlocked.com/Home.html.
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