Physician Medical Billing

• Supported EM Coding using a built in E&M Calculator.
• EHR Stimulus Money is waiting for you!
• Convenience of having all your patient medical records at your fingertips.
• DUR review to notify you of any drug interactions that may occur.
• Paperless Electronic Patient Charting.
• Backing of the Medcin Database.
• E-Prescribing
• Integrated product with Medical Insurance Billing Software.

• Young adults will be able stay on their parents' insurance until their 26th birthday
• Insurers will not be able to rescind policies to avoid paying medical bills when a person becomes ill
• New plans must provide coverage for preventive services without co-pays. All plans must comply by 2018
• A 10 percent tax will be imposed on amounts paid for indoor tanning services on or after July 1

• On March 23, President Obama signed heath care reform into law.  Insurance premiums fall like rain (hopefully!)
• Discussion period for EHR stimulus continues.  Congress looks to modify ARRA rules for meaningful use resulting in more attainable CMS incentive payments.
• Bradford-Scott brings live an Ohio EMR client and two Indiana EMR clients on CCHIT certified Sage Intergy EHR v 5.5!

• Medical Billing Software
• Electronic Medical Records
• Claims Billing Software
• Electronic Statements
• Practice Portal
• Lab Portal Transmission
• Patient Portal
• Electronic Prescriptions
• Electronic Patient Charting
• Document Imaging
• Voice Recognition Software
• Computer Hardware

Bradford-Scott is located in the Indiana in the heart of the Midwest. We are known as one of the largest Medical Software Vendor in the area. Currently Bradford-Scott Data Corp is launching a campaign to bring EMR to you.  We would love to come to your office and give an EHR Demo to display our systems capabilities as your new EHR System.

Our EHR and Medical Billing software is a high tech integrated system that is easy to understand and use. We are able to help you customize the system to fit your Medical office. This will not only improve the efficiency in your office, but will also qualify you for the available EHR Stimulus package.

The government is forcing the industry to all move towards an EHR system. They are offering an EHR Stimulus credit to those practices that have implemented an EHR system by 2012-2015. After that they are still requiring the medical practice to move to EHR, but with no stimulus offered.

So do not be left in the cold, get your EHR demo scheduled today and let us show you our product and services available!

The decision to stop recognizing Current Procedural Terminology® (CPT) codes 99241–99245 and 99251–99255 in the Medicare program as of January 1, 2010, took many by surprise. In justifying its decision, CMS cited a 2006 Office of Inspector General report that 75 percent of consultations were billed incorrectly.

Offsetting the elimination of those payments, the codes CMS directs physicians to use instead received modest increases in the work relative value units (wRVUs). The small boost to units associated with these E/M codes, espouses CMS, means the decision to eliminate payment for consults is budget neutral for the Medicare program.

CMS’ exclusion of consultation codes for Medicare patients will certainly affect physician revenue, especially if private payers follow suit. Physicians must also devise new strategies for coding and documentation to continue getting reimbursed for seeing these Medicare patients, or else just decline to see them at all.

Here are answers to common questions physicians are asking about the new Medicare consultation policy:

How do I code consults for Medicare patients? 
Use the appropriate E/M code. For a patient in the hospital, code from the series CPT 99221-99223 for the initial encounter and 99231-99233 for subsequent encounter(s).

Can I ask the patient to sign an Advance Beneficiary Notice (ABN), and collect directly from the patient? 
CMS no longer recognizes the consultation codes as valid, as opposed to non-covered; therefore, you cannot use an ABN and bill the Medicare patient.

If physicians are directed to use the initial hospital visit code, how is an admission identified? 
To report an admission for Medicare, append AI (“a” – “eye”), the principal physician of record, to the initial hospital care code (99221-99223) or initial nursing facility care code (99304-99306). The new modifier is informational only; no additional remuneration is provided.

How will I get paid when a referring physician requests my opinion? 
CMS directs physicians to use the appropriate E/M code and will reimburse the physician even when services are requested within a practice within given parameters: “Medicare may pay for an inpatient hospital visit or an office or other outpatient visit if one physician or qualified NPP in a group practice requests an evaluation and management service from another physician in the same group practice when the consulting physician or qualified NPP has expertise in a specific medical area beyond the requesting professional’s knowledge.” Remember, this policy relates to Medicare, so you can continue using the consultation codes for non-Medicare patients.

Should physicians stop using consult codes altogether? 
It may be the easiest path from a process perspective but most payers, other than Medicare, continue to pay for consults. Because the payment differential is significant – consults pay up to 30 percent more than a visit code at the corresponding level – experts don’t advise dropping them altogether.

How do I handle Medicare as a secondary payer (MSP)? 
This may be the most confusing situation of all because CMS essentially authorizes you to change codes when it is the secondary payer. CMS instructs: “Bill the primary payer using a consultation code that is appropriate for the service, and then report the amount actually paid by the primary payer, along with an E/M code that is appropriate for the service [our emphasis], to Medicare for determination of whether a payment is due.” Develop processes for “crosswalking” codes on MSP claims, catching MSP claims before they are submitted to Medicare, and re-working any denied claims that miss your crosswalk process.

Does this policy change apply to Medicare Advantage plans? 
Medicare Advantage plans aren’t required to embrace the new payment policy, but some have. It’s important to check with the plans with which you participate.

Is it no longer necessary to send reports to referring physicians? 
Although it’s no longer necessary to follow CMS’ documentation rules specifically related to consults, CMS states: “…physicians should continue to follow appropriate medical documentation standards and communicate the results of an evaluation to the requesting physician.” Furthermore, one of the proposed “meaningful use” criteria for the HITECH Act’s electronic health record bonus program is: “Provide summary care record for each transition of care and referral”.

How can I get more information?
Review the MLN Matters 6740: Revisions to Consultation Services Payment Policy.

In jettisoning consultation codes for Medicare, CMS cited audits showing high levels of inappropriate consultation coding, physician confusion about its rules, and its own disagreements with the consultation coding guidance in the AMA’s CPT® Manual. The new day for consultation coding is here. Let’s see how it works.

Written by Elizabeth W. Woodcock, MBA, FACMPE, CPC of Woodcock & Associates.

What is the biggest complaint about going to the doctor's office? The amount of time we spend in the waiting room! Everybody is busy and tries to save time. If my doctor was always late, I would find a new Doctor. But how do you as a doctor know if your patients are waiting for hours in the waiting room?

This is a feature that our Medical Software Systems offer. The system has a tracking system that will track the time the patient spends at your office. The medical software not only displays the whole time the patient is there, but where they spend the most of their time at.

The system starts with your schedule in the Medical Office Billing Software. Then as the patient works their way into a room and is actual seen by a provider that time is tracked by the Electronic Health System. Bradford-Scott's Medical Software systems are integrated allowing an overall report to be created on your patent's time.

This will not only allow you to better server your patients, it will also prove the amount of time you spend with your patent's for Medical Billing coding. If you were ever under an audit you could prove the level of office visit that you are coding at.

This is a great benefit not only for patient satisfaction, but also for you as a doctor being able to code visits at the level you deserve.

• What kind of training do you offer? Is it classroom training, web-based training, or self training?
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• What is your implementation plan?
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• How can you offer me better service then your competitors?
• What Medical Software support is available to me on the product?
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• What kind of Back up support do you offer is something were to happen to my EMR system?

There has been a lot of belly aching about the recent snow storms that have hit the Midwest. Yes, snow storms do get old, but I remember what it was like growing up in the 70's and 80's with blizzards here in Indiana. In the more recent years our winters here in Indiana have been very mild compared with those of my childhood. And although I am in the Federal protected age group, I am not that old. I guess one thing that you can count on in Indiana is that there will be some snow storms each and every winter season.

• A call back within 29 minutes from when you have logged your call
• trained software and hardware support teams
• Our dedication to client satisfaction, every year we send our clients our customer satisfaction surveys and this year you rated us as a 9.52 on a 10 point scale.

• Electronic Eligibility (important in the high deductible world we now live in)
• Pre-collection of copays
• Advanced collection modules
• Clearinghouse integrations
• eStatments, eCollcetion Letters, etc.
• Claim Scrubbing
• Patient Portals via the web
• Image scanning
• and many more...

• Intergy by Sage medical claims software implementation
• Intergy EHR by Sage electronic health records implementation
• CCHIT 2008 certification for Intergy EHR by Sage v5.5
• Customer service survey score of 9.52 out of 10.

Purdue University will receive $12 million to help health-care providers adopt
and use health information technology, such as electronic medical records and e-prescribing.

Purdue is one of 32 non-profit organizations receiving funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to develop regional extension centers that will assist health professionals in selecting and implementing new information technology software.

"Electronic health records (EHR) technology has heretofore only been affordable by large practices and health-care systems, but through the federal initiative new options are being developed to enable adoption by practices of all sizes," said Dave McKinnis, director of Purdue's Technical Assistance Program.
"Purdue's expertise in health information technology puts us in a great position to help health-care providers engage and utilize these new resources and ultimately boost the health of patients throughout Indiana."

Purdue's center would help physicians and nurse practitioners at small practices across Indiana - with 10 or fewer doctors - and those aiding underserved populations and those that don't have access to the resources of the larger health-care systems and haven't yet adopted the electronic technology. 

Modern health information technology, such as electronic medical records and e-prescribing, helps physicians increase the efficiency of practices and reduce the risk of errors, thus significantly improving patient care, which should be the ultimate goal of the healthcare industry.

As the largest provider of Medical Billing Software and EMR in Indiana and the five-state region,  Bradford-Scott Data Corporation offers select products such as Intergy by Sage combined with support and training in order to implement the technology and use it to its fullest potential.

 

(gathered from IndyStar.com and InsideINdianaBusiness.com)