The following excerpt is from an article by Julie Bird. It originally appeared on Fierce EMR. Primary-care clinics recovered their financial investments in electronic health record (EHR) systems in 10 months on average, a recent study found, in part because EHRs allowed them to see more patients.

The following article is an excerpt from ICD-10 Monitor. It was written by Sherry Wilson and Tina Greene, co-chairs of the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) Property & Casualty Subworkgroup. Even Captain Obvious knows that you need to “book reservations” early for external ICD-10 testing. A successful organizational transition to ICD-10 by the compliance date of Oct. 1, 2015 will require good planning. Preparation is crucial to allow your organization to leverage its ICD-10 investments to meet compliance requirements and achieve a strategic testing advantage. It is highly likely that those stakeholders who do not engage in early external ICD-10 testing, including payers as well as other trading partners, will be faced with a last-minute rush of requests to test from multiple stakeholders.

Any healthcare entity mandated to comply with HIPAA regulations have to be ready to use the ICD-10 coding system on October 1, 2015. While hospitals and corporate-run practices are likely to have few issues making the transition because they have the budget and the people to dedicate to devising and implementing a transition plan, small clinics, group practices, and solo practitioners face challenges with the switch to ICD-10.

The following is an excerpt from an article by Carl Natale. This article originally appeared on Government Health IT. Next week marks another ICD-10 milestone: One year left to go. For those of you just deciding to take it seriously now, start with education. Educate Thyself You can start with some free resources to help you understand what the ICD-10 transition means for your medical practice.

Medical billing software provides increased convenience for providers, less tracking of paperwork, and a more streamlined office. Physicians no longer spend valuable administrative time looking for records and retrieving past patients medical records from off-site storage facilities. Medical billing software can save money by avoiding claim denials and avoid the possibility of submitting incorrectly formatted claims.

Electronic Health Records, known as EHR, are real-time, digitized versions of traditional paper-based medical files. Digital medical records are cloud-based systems, meaning that the information entered into the electronic medical records software is stored in secure, remote servers to ensure patient privacy and system reliability.

The following is an excerpt from an article by Craig Greenberg, Practice Director for Strategic Services at Consultancy Beacon Partners. This article originally appeared on Health Data Management. "The fall is fast approaching and with that brings the reminder that the new ICD-10 compliance deadline of October 1, 2015 is a little over a year away. Before the delay, healthcare organizations were working diligently on their transition plans and many were making progress on addressing key implementation challenges.

The following is an excerpt from an article by Stephanie Ocano of Healthcare Global. This article was originally written by Adam Groff and appeared on healthcareglobal.com. The paperless revolution is taking the world by storm, so it's no surprise hospitals across the United States are jumping on the paper-free bandwagon. From digitized patient files to paperwork and documents sent by email, the medical community is embracing a paperless lifestyle.

Whether you like it or not, your medical organization is going to have to make the switch from the International Classification of Diseases version 9 to ICD-10. Some healthcare providers may have grown complacent because they have seen the U.S. government declaring that the deadline for the switch would be a few years ago, only to see an extension until 2014. The latest deadline is October 1, 2015, and we should work under the assumption that this will be the last extension from the government. As a prudent leader in your healthcare group, you’re not likely going to want to delay any further in getting your team ready for the impending transition. With that in mind, here are some tips to help you move beyond ICD-9.

As you already must be aware, a big change is coming to the healthcare industry, now that the U.S. government is requiring us to switch from ICD-9 to ICD-10. Version 10 of the International Classification of Diseases has already been adopted by many countries around the world, but our government has granted a few extensions so that providers can spend more time preparing for the switch.