Archive for The Month of July, 2020
Archive for the Month of July, 2020
Welcome to the medical billing blog archive for the month of July, 2020.
Here you will find links to every article added to the Outsource Management Group web site during the month of July, 2020.
You can browse this month's archives by clicking the "More" button from any of the excerpts below.
ICD Code Classifications for COVID-19
At the time I am writing this article, the U.S. has confirmed over 4.2 million cases of COVID-19 and 144,000 deaths nationwide, and as the threat of Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to seemingly increase daily, The World Health Organization had to develop codes for classification of Covid-19 cases. The World Health Organization Family of International Classifications (WHOFIC) Network Classification and Statistics Advisory Committee (CSAC) had an emergency meeting on 31st of January 2020 to discuss the creation of a specific code for the new coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). World Health Organization (WHO) has established a new International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) emergency code (U07.1, 2019-nCov acute respiratory disease). The virus …
Tips for Recouping Lost Revenue From COVID-19 Pandemic
Craig Adkins of AdvancedMD gives HealthIT Answers some tips of how to recoup some of the revenue lost during the pandemic in this article mention. “The past few months of the pandemic have brought many challenges to physician practices, especially small, independent providers operating outside the domains of COVID-19 treatment. While mandatory shutdowns and quarantines have slowed the spread of the virus, the economic impact has been substantial. Fewer outpatient visits—and even fewer procedures—over the past several months have led to serious financial hardship for many providers. Practices that will stay afloat during this challenging time are doing so strategically. In some cases, practices planned for a “rainy day” and …
EHR Training and Experience Lead to Decreased EHR Use by Residents
Are you satisfied with your EHR? Do you spend 40% of your day in your EHR? Research shows that some physicians do.. “Physicians at large community hospitals spend nearly four hours during work hours, or roughly 40 percent of their day, on the EHR, according to a study published in the Public Library of Science (PLOS ONE). Additionally, researchers found a significant decrease in resident EHR use with increased training and experience, although the overall amount of time spent on the EHR remained high. “Studies exploring EHR use emphasized extensive time as one of the significant drawbacks to EHR,” wrote the study authors. “It has been reported that physicians …
Recent Implementation of a New Set of COVID-19 Dataset Codes
Information from EHR Intelligence… “There will now be over 150 new LOINC dataset codes that are linked to COVID-19. Health IT professionals at Regenstrief Institute have added new COVID-19 standardized codes for laboratory testing and clinical observations to the Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC) dataset. LOINC aims to streamline health data standardization for more efficient EHR use and health data exchange, which is key when a pandemic such as COVID-19 occurs. As one of the most widely-used code systems, LOINC seeks to provide standardization in medical test result identification, observations, and a variety of other clinical measures. LOINC promotes interoperability with new terms for tests and clinical observations …
How Do We Improve Data Collection and Exchange Following COVID-19?
How Do We Improve Data Collection and Exchange Following COVID-19? Christopher Jason answers this question in an article at EHR Intelligence. Reducing measurement burden, addressing the lag in reporting data quality, and improving data standardization will be key to boosting clinical quality measurement, according to a recent journal article published in JAMA Network. “There is a lack of information that would help clinicians improve care delivery in the moment and learn for the future,” J. Matthew Austin, PhD, and Allen Kachalia, MD, wrote in the article. “This situation highlights how the current approach to quality and safety measurement remains too labor intensive, contains significant data lags, and lacks sufficient …
