AAHAM eNewswatch

Are electronic health records hindering patient care?

15 May 2013 10:46:27 CDT

SHM board member Eric Siegal, MD, SFHM, wasn't surprised by the findings in a new report in the Journal of General Internal Medicine that found medical interns spent just 12 percent of their time in direct patient care and a whopping 40 percent of their time using computers. "There certainly are advantages to electronic health records, but one of the clear consequences is that it's impossible to function in the hospital without spending a lot of time in front of a computer screen. EHRs have turned physicians into secretaries," said Dr. Siegal, medical director of critical-care medicine at Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center in Milwaukee. "Work that we used to hand off to a unit clerk or to somebody else to do has now dropped into our laps."

AAHAM webinar: 'Self-Administered Drugs: Demystifying Common Assumptions and Clarifying Provider Obligations'

15 May 2013 10:46:27 CDT

Topic: Self-Administered Drugs: Demystifying Common Assumptions and Clarifying Provider Obligations

When: May 29 , 1:30-3 p.m. EST

Speakers: Jon Menard, Consulting Manager at Medical Bureau/ROI

Program Focus: This INTERMEDIATE webinar will provide a detailed review of Medicare's regulations governing self-administered drugs. Learn about Medicare's definition of self-administered drugs, requirements for billing Medicare and patients for self-administered drugs, and ways to ensure compliance.

Registration Info: Payment must be received on or before May 15. You will receive your confirmation and handouts via email by May 22.

Click here to download the full description and printable registration form

Online member registration.

Prioritize physician engagement in ICD-10 transition

15 May 2013 10:46:27 CDT

The looming transition to ICD-10 continues to be burdensome for healthcare providers nationwide, so much so that some in Congress are calling for it to not be mandatory. However, according to Bonnie Cassidy, senior director of health information management innovation at Nuance, there are several steps that can be taken to ease the process.

AAHAM webinar: 'Enrollment Solutions in the Shadow of PPACA'

15 May 2013 10:46:27 CDT

Topic: Enrollment Solutions in the Shadow of PPACA

When: June 19, 1:30-3 p.m. EST

Speakers: Michael D. Wilmoth, Esquire and CEO of Advanced Patient Advocacy

Program Focus: In this INTERMEDIATE webinar, learn how the enactment of the new healthcare law, (PPACA) will cause widespread changes in the way that enrollment is handled. This intermediate level session will review the challenges hospitals face and the politics versus reality. This interactive webinar will also provide information on risk versus opportunity and strategies for risk aversion. In this informative webinar, learn:

PPACA politics versus reality and legal challenges.
Key elements of PPACA
Risk aversion strategies
How will reform impact healthcare utilization changes

Registration Info: Payment must be received on or before June 5. You will receive your confirmation and handouts via email by June 12.

Click here to download the full description and registration form.

Online member registration.

Huge disparities found in medical billing

15 May 2013 10:46:27 CDT

The actual cost of hospital care recently became a lot clearer for consumers when the Obama administration released the average prices charged by more than 3,000 hospitals for the 100 most common medical procedures.

Obama budget signals quicker trigger on Medicare pay cuts

15 May 2013 10:46:27 CDT

Medical organizations hailed the Obama administration's efforts to boost mental and public health in its fiscal 2014 budget proposal, but provisions in the blueprint to achieve additional savings in Medicare sounded alarms about the possible impact on payment rates.

Doctors, others criticize Medicare's proposal on hospital admissions rules

15 May 2013 10:46:27 CDT

Medicare officials have proposed changes in hospital admission rules that they say will curb the rising number of beneficiaries who are placed in observation care but are not admitted, making them ineligible for nursing home coverage.

HIMSS network study shows IT challenges, priorities

15 May 2013 10:46:27 CDT

Health information technology leaders generally cite similar infrastructure priorities and challenges faced within the industry, but they disagree on approaches to addressing network scalability, executive support and cloud computing security, according to a recent HIMSS Analytics study.

AAHAM webinar: 'A Little TACT is all it takes - Improving the Process of Business Office Collections'

15 May 2013 10:46:27 CDT

Topic: A Little TACT is all it takes - Improving the Process of Business Office Collections

When: June 26, 1:30-3 p.m. EST

Speakers: Mr. Mathia, CEO & Executive Coach of Trident Coaching Systems & Tiburon Healthcare Solutions Group

Program Focus: - In this BEGINNER webinar, learn the secret behind collecting more money is found within the lost art of TACT; Training, Advocating, Connecting and Trying. Discover ways in which your office can utilize some simple strategies to help you improve collections and offer better patient care by learning how to ask for money like a nurse effortlessly asks for a person's weight. Learn all about:

Understanding of your team's role in the revenue cycle process
Why asking for payment now insures patient satisfaction through the billing process
The importance of influence through the skills of connecting
How to try, even though you may have some apprehensiveness and fears

Registration Info: Payment must be received on or before June 12. You will receive your confirmation and handouts via email by June 19.

Click here to download the full description and registration form.

Online Member Registration

A silver lining? 4 trends straining hospital cashflow in 2013 could lead to better patient billing practices

15 May 2013 10:46:27 CDT

Three years into the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, some hospitals have already begun to feel a strain on revenue from traditional payors as a result of the law's changes. Pressure is expected to grow in 2013 as CMS rolls out even more payment reforms and private payors prepare for the health insurance exchanges. This is in addition to the 2 percent cut in Medicare rates due to the federal sequestration that began April 1.

AAHAM webinar: 'Biometrics: The Future of Patient Identification is Here Today at INTEGRIS Health'

15 May 2013 10:46:27 CDT

Topic: Biometrics: The Future of Patient Identification is Here Today at INTEGRIS Health

When: July 17, 1:30-3 p.m. EST

Speakers: Carl Bertrams, Principal Partner at HT Systems and Brent Grimes, Administrative Director of Patient Account Services at INTEGRIS Health

Program Focus: In this BEGINNER/INTERMEDIATE webinar, learn about:

Biometrics to include an overview of the most common biometric modalities, strengths, weaknesses, and applicability for use in healthcare for positive patient identification
Healthcare industry-specific challenges that biometric patient identification can help solve with a focus on real-life experiences from hospital's across the country over the last five years
Firsthand description of why INTEGRIS Health decided to investigate biometric patient identification and the due diligence and implementation process they experienced
Problems solved by INTEGRIS Health and a discussion of how they are measuring the ROI for the PatientSecure project, both in hard dollars and intangible benefits

Registration Info: Payment must be received on or before July 3. You will receive your confirmation and handouts via email by July 10.

Click here to download the full description and registration form.

Online Member Registration

Virtual healthcare gaining ground

15 May 2013 10:46:27 CDT

Cheaper and quicker electronic records, digital prescriptions and computers will dominate doctor visits. Technology is going to radically change your office visit to the doctor in the years ahead. An "office" may not even be associated with your visit. You may already have seen the changes: Your doctor allows you to make your next appointment online or when you arrive at your doctor's office, you sign in on an iPad instead of a clipboard.

CPAM summer webinar series

15 May 2013 10:46:27 CDT

AAHAM 2013 Professional Certification Training Webinars
This summer, AAHAM and top CPAMs & CCAMs coaches held the popular Four Part Webinar Study program for the AAHAM Professional Exams Certified Patient Account Manager & Certified Clinic Account Manager.

Whether you are planning on taking the CPAM/CCAM exams or just preparing for the future, you can still order the CDs of the sessions. Those who take this popular series have a higher pass rate than those who do not.

We covered the four parts of the exam in the 4 part series:

Patient Access: Held on July 19
Billing: Held on Aug. 2
Credit & Collections: Held on Aug. 16
Revenue Cycle Management: Held on Aug. 30

Click here to download the full description and registration form.

Online Member Registration

Healthcare blame game: What hospitals charge vs. what they get paid

15 May 2013 10:46:27 CDT

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released the prices hospitals charge for the 100 most common inpatient procedures. The idea is to provide more information to the public about how much hospitals charge and to highlight that one hospital will charge a wildly different amount than what another nearby hospital charges for the same procedure. But before we go any further, it is imperative the public understands what a hospital charges Medicare/Medicaid is almost completely unrelated to how much Medicare/Medicaid reimburses that hospital for those services.

CMS: Do EHRs lead to upcoding?

15 May 2013 10:46:27 CDT

The accuracy of physician documentation has been scrutinized for years, but a relatively new focus of complaints involves how doctors use features of electronic health record systems to support their claims. Concerns that doctors are taking advantage of EHR automation to bill higher-level services — intentionally or not — are misplaced, physicians said during a May 3 forum at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services headquarters.

HIPAA rules, outdated tech cost US hospitals $8.3 billion a year

15 May 2013 10:46:27 CDT

HIPAA and outdated communications devices can make it harder to deliver effective patient care, according to a survey of physicians, hospital administrators and IT pros. Fifty-one percent of respondents say HIPAA compliance requirements can be a barrier to providing effective patient care. Specifically, HIPAA reduces time available for patient care (according to 85 percent of respondents), makes access to electronic patient information difficult (79 percent) and restricts the use of electronic communications (56 percent).

Best practices for designing ACO financial systems

15 May 2013 10:46:27 CDT

At the Becker's Hospital Review Annual Meeting in Chicago on May 10, Daniel J. Marino, president and CEO of Health Directions, gave a presentation on the best practices for designing accountable care organization financial systems. An ACO provides a mechanism for physician-led, shared governance, cost management and quality control, while ensuring physicians remain in-network. "If we are going to transform care, we need to align with these organizations," said Marino. The healthcare system is facing a shift from a pay for service model to a pay for value model. Performance and care must be coordinated.