While podiatrists can certainly benefit from the streamlined administrative functions offered by electronic health records (EHR), the use of this form of health information technology provides a means of capturing and transmitting various clinical quality measures. In addition to being one of the requirements to meet Stage II meaningful use requirements to be eligible for incentive payments from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the American Board of Podiatric Surgery (ABPS) now requires podiatrists to report variety of clinical quality measures as part of their Maintenance of Certification program.

It's clear that electronic health records (EHR) help enhance patient care. However, they do so much more! Our informative whitepaper, "Increasing Revenue and Efficiency" highlights the many benefits that EHR provide medical staff and practices.

Most behavioral health providers have some degree of familiarity with capturing and reporting clinical quality measures as CARF, COA, and the Joint Commission have required this data as part of the accreditation process. Clinical quality measures are the metrics used to measure the efficacy, efficiency, and safety of the services that patients receive from providers. As part of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), behavioral providers are required to report a certain number of clinical quality measures in order to qualify for incentive payments. While providers can reports these metrics by using the attestation process through 2013, in 2014 healthcare professional will need to provide their clinical quality measures electronic through the use of electronic health records (EHR).

One of the specialty areas that have been slow to adopt electronic health records (EHR) is the addictions field. Part of the reason is that some addictions professionals, such as Licensed Clinical Social Workers and psychologists, are not eligible for incentive payments from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The good news is that there is some movement in correcting this oversight. Additionally, addiction centers that employ physicians and licensed nurse practitioners can receive the CMS incentive payments as long as their caseloads include at least 30 percent Medicaid patients. By participating in the CMS EHR incentive payment programs, a substantial part of the cost of entry of the EHR software can be offset.

One of the greatest time sinks and cost centers in the management of any medical practice is the billing of patients and third-party payers for services. Each of the different health insurance providers has slightly varied billing practices, which increases the complexity of filing claims. These variations, along with the intricacies of ICD-10 coding, make the billing process highly prone to errors when claim processing is done manually. These errors can disrupt the cash flow of the practice due to denied or delayed claims. Additionally, billing errors are also one of the triggers for payment recoupment during Medicaid and Medicare audits.

According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2011, obstetrics and gynecology practices are one of the ten medical specialties at risk for malpractice suits. The primary way that these practices can defend themselves in these suits is having detailed and well-organized documentation of all the services provided to their patients. Given the complexity of ob/gyn services, documentation in paper charts is likely to be lost or misfiled, which can be problematic in the event of a malpractice suit. With electronic medical records (EHR), all critical patient information is entered into a patient’s chart electronically, which minimalizes the risk of missing patient data in the event of a legal chart review.

If your radiology practice uses the first generation RIS software, it is very likely that you can reduce your overhead and increase your productivity by switching to the latest RIS software. There have been several advances in RIS software that radiologists have found to enhance the revenue of their practices. In addition, the new RIS software is H7 compliant, which facilitates the sharing of patient health information with other healthcare providers. The use of health information technology to transmit patient information is one of the key objectives that radiologists and other healthcare providers need to achieve in order to receive Stage II incentive payments from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

While the rate of adoption of electronic medical records (EHR) among healthcare providers is on the rise due to the EHR incentive payments offered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), general practitioners and family practice offices lead in the adoption of health information technology. Based upon the results of a recent survey, experts expect that 80 percent of general and family practices in the United States will have implemented EHR, which is a much higher rate of adoption than that of specialty practices. The primary reason that these general practice are ahead of other areas of medical practice is that until a few years ago, EHR software was not specialized, so it tended to be onerous for specialty practices to customize EHR software.

As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) received a mandate to establish an incentive program for healthcare professionals and hospitals for the adopting, implementing, and demonstrating meaningful use of electronic health records (EHR). The reason for this program is to leverage the efficiency that health information technology brings to the coordination of medical treatment in order to reduce both costs and medical errors. The purpose of the incentive payments is to defray the costs of implementing EHR.

Are you satisfied with how well your medical practice is running? The hallmark of any good executive in healthcare is an unwillingness to settle for the status quo, especially when new tools are available to streamline and otherwise improve the way you do business.