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| By this time, most physicians recognize that an Electronic Medical Record system is in their future. But at what point should you take the plunge?
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 It appears that the majority of Medworks clients will choose to qualify under the Medicare guidelines. The Meaningful Use Objectives have been finalized, so everyone now knows what needs to be done to qualify for ARRA incentive funding. If you’ve seen them, they may look daunting. They’re not as bad as they seem, but will require both time and attention to detail. |
| To qualify for the 2011 incentive funding ($18,000 per provider in 2011 if you do $24,000 in Medicare billing), a provider selects any 90-day period during the year for certification. At the conclusion of that 90-day period, reports built into the software will confirm that the requirements have been met. You will then go to a CMS website to confirm that you have done so. |
| Which returns to the question: WHEN SHOULD I IMPLEMENT? Let’s go backwards. |
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The latest you can certify in 2011 is the 90-day period October 1 through December 31. So, your program must be implemented and tested, and your staff trained and comfortable with it by October 1. |
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Getting installed and trained is taking most practices 90-120 days. So now we’re back to June 1. |
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The time from placing the order to installation can be another 30-60 days. That’s April 1. And that doesn’t leave any room for slippage and delays. Vendors have only so many qualified people to do implementation, so what happens if their lead time grows? |
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| The bottom line is that many providers should be making their decisions in the next few months in order to be completely confident that they’ll be able to qualify for the 2011 incentives. |
| If you haven’t gotten around to looking at MediSoft Clinical EMR, now’s the time. Please review the Medisoft Clinical EMR section of our website and call Frank Vigilante or Steve Ruhle for help in planning your EMR project. |
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| Many practices do a great job of getting new claims out the door every day or two. But then they run out of time to properly follow up on unpaid claims. |
 Did you know that the Insurance Aging Report will list all unpaid claims beyond a certain age? It makes following up with insurance companies easy. In Medisoft, simply click on Reports/Aging Report/Primary Insurance Aging. In the Selection Window, put in a date range of 01/01/2001 through a date around 40 days ago. And there you have a report showing any claim more than 40 days old that does not have an insurance payment posted against it. |
| Then pick up the phone or go to the insurance company websites to check on claim status and follow up or re-submit as appropriate. Make notes in MediSoft transaction notes or in the margins of the report. Re-run the report monthly. Check the prior month’s notes for any claims that appear again and respond as needed to those and any claims that appear for the first time. |
| If you haven’t run this report before, it could literally be hundreds of pages. Don’t be put off. Just run it in sections and chip away at it over time. Your goal is to get it down to fewer than perhaps 15-20 pages (depending on the size of the practice). In the process, you’ll see your cash flow improve significantly, and in the end, keeping up with outstanding claims will be easy. |
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| What's New |
| "Breakfast & Conversation" |
| Tuesday, Nov 2, 8:00 AM |
| Marriott Courtyard Parsippany |
| Join fellow MediSoft Users in a small group setting on Tuesday, November 2 at 8:00 AM to talk about Medisoft. |
| Learn how your existing Medisoft billing program integrates with MediSoft Clinical EMR. |
| Talk about MediSoft Tips and Tricks – use MediSoft more efficiently. |
| See what you’ll need to do to be compliant with the new ANSI 5010 and ICD-10 protocols. |
| With special guest Chris Miley of McKesson. |
| We’ll see you there. Click here for a registration form or call us to reserve your spot. |
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