It is a fact that technology is being used heavily in the healthcare industry, although a bit later than other industries and health informatics is one evolving specialization.  Health informatics is a term given to the process of acquisition, storage, retrieval and use of patient information by various healthcare providers of a patient with a combined use of communications, information technology, and healthcare. A major factor in the increased use of health informatics is the increased use of electronic health records as a result of incentive programs for ‘meaningful use’.  Electronic health records are designed with a view to collect, store and share a patient’s health information from all providers who are involved in the patient’s healthcare. In a scenario where healthcare providers are quickly adapting EHR solutions in their facilities, health informatics will see a tremendous growth as facilities implement new systems and upgrade their existing databases. L...

Picture courtesy:  patient.info For a health organization to enjoy a good financial position, its revenue cycle management should be efficient enough to bring in timely payments for the claims submitted and collect the amount due from patients. When either the claims submitted are denied or patients are not paying their dues, it results in unpaid collections and bad debts for the healthcare provider.  One of the ways to reduce revenue losses is having smart patient access. By providing smart patient access, healthcare facilities can see reduced claim denials and improve their revenue cycle management performance. To be able to do this, the RCM services professionals have to collect all the necessary information at the registration process itself. Usually, patients feel that all the work related to registration process is time-consuming and unnecessarily delays the diagnosis and treatment procedure. However, hospital registration process is very critical to colle...

Picture courtesy: Google Images Healthcare documentation as the name suggests deals with the documentation of healthcare procedures and treatments provided to a patient. As a way to minimize the workload of physicians in documenting their processes in providing healthcare to patients, healthcare documentation plays a critical role in the healthcare industry and gives the physicians much-needed extra time to spend on looking at a more number patients. For the people in healthcare documentation jobs, it is not just sufficient to master the English language skills and medical terminology to be able to do their work efficiently. There are certain points related to the federal rules and regulations that are to be taken care of while transcribing the data accurately within the set time limits. Professional healthcare documentation specialists are expected to be aware of these legal requirements and act accordingly. Confidentiality of patient information: Medical details of a...

Picture courtesy: careeraddict.com M edical transcription or healthcare documentation deals with the documentation of voice files which is prone to many errors due to the kind of work it involves. Healthcare documentation specialists have to listen to various physicians’ voice files with different accents and document them in a prescribed format. Often there are issues with the voice files regarding the background noises, the clarity in the physician’s speech etc. that give a challenge to the medical transcriptionist. Moreover, many people in healthcare documentation jobs work remotely without any immediate supervisor to rectify errors if there are any. This kind of work needs that the medical transcriptionist is independent, self-motivated and responsible towards the work being done. Being an indispensable part of the healthcare industry, the healthcare documentation specialists take pride in their jobs and work relentlessly for the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the docume...

Picture courtesy: toolshero.com T o engage in effective communication, one needs to listen properly and respond. We all know there’s a difference between hearing and listening. When a sound is sensed by the ears, hearing happens; this doesn’t require any special efforts. However, listening happens only when we consciously put efforts to understand the meaning of the words.This requires concentration on what others are saying. Listening by itself requires efforts, so one can understand that listening well requires much more efforts and concentration. To be able to mingle with others easily and actively participate in conversations, it is important that we listen well. Many people wrongly assume that if they are not talking much and letting others do the talking, they are good listeners. What happens in such cases is that they might be hearing to what others say rather than listening well. Listening is an art in itself that needs the practice to perfect. Here are some pointers...

Picture courtesy: pimsyehr.com T he task of assigning alpha-numeric codes to the medical procedures and diagnoses performed on patients called medical coding requires specialized skills in performing medical coding jobs. Although medical coders find it a bit challenging initially, they can gain expertise in medical coding profession if they have an eye for detail. With a combination of knowledge of human anatomy and medical terminology with analytical and organizational skills, coders can achieve good experience and expertise in this profession within a short time. There a number of companies in Hyderabad that provide medical coding services and offer medical coding jobs . For the convenience of coders who have just taken up this profession, here given are some commonly used procedure codes that fall under the category of evaluation and management codes, a part of the CPT codes.   Codes for new patient office visit: The codes from 99201-05 are used to bill a new ...

Maintaining health records is a serious business that was a boring job some years back with jam-packed files that took a whole lot of office space. Those files not only ate up space but also took away enormous time to organize and then search when needed. Electronic health records have entered the healthcare space to declutter the files mess and save the precious time of healthcare practitioners and the patients. With electronic health records being handy physicians are able to get more time to see patients and provide care. We can understand the good EHR solutions have done to the healthcare industry by looking at the benefits EHRs have brought. Minimized use of paper : Although paper is still used for some purposes, its use has been minimized in the maintenance of health records. Using less paper leads to clutter-free office and helps in speeding up processes. Convenience of storing data : With the EHR systems in place convenience of storing huge data at one place in a...

Picture courtesy: Google Images T here are many reasons for the failure of a healthcare facility and claims denial is a major concern for the facilities as it results in missing out on huge revenues that are due. Thus, it becomes vital for healthcare facilities to monitor the claims on a daily basis as a part of revenue cycle management. Usually, it is a practice to review the claims on a periodical basis such as weekly, monthly or quarterly which is very beneficial to analyze the effect of claims on the revenue cycle management and the financial prospects of the facility. But, reviewing the claims on a daily basis has its own plus points and helps in improving the revenues of the facility. By reviewing the claims as and when they are processed and examining all the claims submitted on a particular day at the end of the day ensures that the claims process is being followed appropriately and analyzed for a better revenue cycle management. Incorporating a daily review of t...

Picture courtesy: explorehealthcareers.org W ith ever-changing legal and medical requirements, it is mandatory that all the procedures and processes performed by healthcare practitioners are recorded accurately not just for evidential purposes but for future references also. However, it is not possible for the physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to keep documenting each and every process performed by them in a written format. Hence, physicians take advantage of the technological advancements and record the procedures performed by them in audio files using an electronic device. Although these can serve as records, it is not easy to comprehend a physician’s voice file when the information is required. So, these voice files are transcribed into electronic documents and this process of transcribing is called medical transcription or healthcare documentation .   The voice files given by the physicians for healthcare documentation include their office ...

We all communicate daily – we nod, talk, interrupt, advise, criticize, judge, argue and do many more things which reinforce that we communicate daily. But, are we communicating effectively and productively? This is an important concept because effective communication is an important step towards success. Good and effective communication is that where we don’t interrupt unnecessarily, don’t give unsolicited advice, we don’t argue, judge and criticize just for the sake of doing it. Effective communication is all about being on the same page. It often happens that the speaker says something with a thought and the listener hears and understands something different altogether. Good communication is more than having a conversation that involves comprehending the real emotions and intentions behind the conversation. To develop effective communication skills you have to develop some of these skills. Listening is the foundation for an effective communication. The first thin...

Healthcare is an industry that has evolved a lot over years and is seeing a tremendous transformation in the manner the services are provided. This kind of transformation is a result of numerous innovative technologies that impact every aspect of the healthcare industry; especially the health information management and electronic health records. One of the key elements of these technologies is the use of software products in providing health and maintaining the healthcare information. The major benefit of these software products’ use is that both the care provided by facilities and the experiences of the patients will improve over some time in the coming years. Here are some software trends that are going to influence the way healthcare industry works. Patient portals : With almost everyone using information technology and the internet these days, patients are becoming more active in participating in their healthcare treatment. This tendency of patients showing interest i...

One of the biggest problems that healthcare practices are facing is delayed payments from insurance providers. The problems related to collections regarding treatment and services provided may occur due to various reasons and these reasons could be from the side of a healthcare provider or the patients. Every healthcare facility’s aim is to improve its revenue cycle management so as to maintain its financial health and provide quality care to its patients. Healthcare providers need to follow some best practices to improve revenue cycle management by increasing the on-time payments from patients or insurance providers.  Concentrating on collections at the point-of-service is one of the most rewarding practices of revenue cycle management. It is a fact that less than 1/4th of healthcare providers collect patient fees at the point-of-service i.e. at or before service. Many of the healthcare providers even accept the fact that it gets overwhelmingly difficult for them to c...

Medical transcription or healthcare documentation has evolved a lot in the last few years that has been made possible due to the innovations in the health information technology. Healthcare documentation profession’s main intent is to provide accurate medical reports to the stakeholders and this is being achieved to a great extent. Still, there are chances of some errors in transcribing medical reports that may give rise to several health risks which could be even dangerous at times.  To ensure that patients get safe and improve quality care, people in healthcare documentation jobs should follow certain steps that eliminate any chances of errors and hazards resulting thereby. There are few crucial elements that can impact the quality of transcription reports and the quality care these reports can bring in. Data Accuracy : Accurate data that is free of any errors and that does not provide information in such a manner that it misleads the diagnoses or treatment proce...

Most of us feel that we lack something in our life and constantly keep trying to discover what it is that is eluding from us. We ask ourselves what it is that differentiates us from the successful people. If we take some time and ponder over this, we find that there are few things that are common to almost all of the successful people and those are the things that make their life different and lively. Whenever we feel that we are stuck in time and situations we should make conscious efforts to motivate ourselves and see some progress in what we are doing and get ahead.  Time Management : The first thing to do is take control of your time. The biggest complaint we always have is lack of time to do any work. When there is a financial crisis, we try to sort it out by preparing logs of income and expenditure. We try to figure out the areas we are spending on unnecessarily and that can wait for some time. Likewise, to get the maximum work done in the 24 hours we have, we s...

It is a shocking fact that medical errors are a major cause of deaths that need to be addressed by both the healthcare providers and the government. While the first concern of healthcare providers is always providing the best-quality care to the patients, they are also human and they may err. Mistakes involving treatments and medications prove to be dangerous and even fatal at times. One thing that can minimize the medical errors is the efficient use of the electronic health records .  It is established that patients receive better medical care when their healthcare providers have full access to their accurate information in the form of electronic health records.  With effective EHR solutions, the healthcare providers improve their capabilities in diagnosing diseases and reducing medical errors that prove to be costly for the organization, their revenues and the public health in general. Studies have shown that more than 3/4th of the physicians who are implementing...

Healthcare documentation or medical transcription is one field in the healthcare industry that has seen a lot of changes and adapted to those changes very well for a period of more than three decades. A healthcare documentation specialist also known as a medical transcriptionist has been; is and will be a critical and valuable resource in the healthcare industry that is always ready to evolve as per the needs of the industry.  A healthcare documentation specialist is one that takes up one of the healthcare documentation jobs involving listening to a voice recording made by a physician and capturing that in an electronic document. At some times, the healthcare documentation specialists may also need to review or edit a report generated by speech recognition software. The reports created by the medical transcriptionists serve as legal medical records and form the basis of decision-making regarding the treatment procedures and healthcare to be provided to a patient. Thes...

Two functions of a healthcare organization that prove to be very vital for its operational and financial success are - medical coding and medical billing. Although professionals in medical coding jobs and medical billing jobs don’t serve the patients directly, they do interact with patients and handle a wide range of responsibilities in the healthcare facilities. A typical day of a medical coder or biller may include interacting with patients, physicians, nurses or health insurance providers. They ensure that they record all the patient information thoroughly and at the same time secrecy of the information is maintained. People, who wish to get into these jobs, have some wrong notions about medical coding and billing. Medical coding = medical billing : One myth about these jobs is that medical coding and billing are the same. No, both these professions are different and need different skills sets. It is true that both medical coding jobs and billing jobs require understan...

In the kind of digital life we are living, we are using distinct devices that make us stare at their screens often. The previous week we had seen the ways to reduce screen time. But, why should anyone reduce screen time? We should minimize our screen time to benefit our health, relationships, and lifestyle. We all know we need to give up something to gain something. That way, when we give up screen time, we gain on something else or rather many things.  More time within 24 hours : We all have the same 24 hours but some of us keep fretting that we don’t have enough time for anything. When we limit our screen time, we have much more time to do things that we couldn’t spare time for. Usually, we waste a lot of time on watching TV or social media. When we limit this time, we can spend much more time with our family, friends and even indulge in our favorite hobbies.  Improve concentration levels : When a lot of time is wasted on scrolling screens, one thin...

In the digital age we are living in, we are seeing a lot of information being exchanged in a matter of seconds which is very beneficial for many industries and to people in general. In these times, it is getting important for people and healthcare providers as well to share patient information with relevant people when necessary. It is in these cases that electronic health records and their interoperability play an important role. With the incentives provided by the government to those who are implementing electronic health records, the number of physicians and healthcare facilities that have started using EHR solutions to maintain records has increased. However, the interoperability of EHR solutions among various healthcare providers and patients has not improved. This lack of interoperability is limiting the efficiency of EHRs considerably.  Is Interoperability difficult? Interoperability among various EHR solutions has become difficult as there is no standard f...