Another Client Joins the AMS Community

Posted by AMS at 28 OCT 8:00 am

American Medical Software is pleased to announce the addition of Subhash Patel, MD from Gastonia, NC to the AMS client community.

Dr. Patel was referred to AMS by another doctor through our rewarding Client Referral program. After going through a personalized web demonstration that included psychiatric evaluation templates, Dr. Patel and his associates were very impressed. The doctor indicated that he would be using Dragon Natural Speaking to dictate into the AMS software. He was also interested in a data conversion, taking data from his previous software to be converted into the AMS system. Dr. Patel purchased AMS and has since then begun implementing the software in stages.

Welcome Dr. Subhash Patel from all of the staff at American Medical Software.

Grant To Enable Electronic Health Records Research in SC

Posted by ams at 25 OCT 9:45 am

Duke Endowment renews funding for statewide health care initiative

COLUMBIA, S.C. –
A statewide biomedical research collaborative will use a grant, announced Wednesday, to continue searching for better ways to deliver health care and spreading that knowledge to the state’s hospitals.

Health Sciences South Carolina (HSSC) will receive $11.25 million, as the organization is working toward all hospitals using electronic medical filing systems.

HSSC has brought together researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina, the University of South Carolina and Clemson University as well as the state’s seven teaching hospital systems since 2004. The program received a first grant of $21 million from the Duke Endowment, which serves both North and South Carolina, in 2006.

HSSC President and CEO Dr. Jay Moskowitz said that on top of collaborating to find solutions, the group partners with the South Carolina Hospital Association to get new standards of best practices used across the state right away.

“When we get that information it goes to the South Carolina Hospital Association and it goes to every single hospital in South Carolina,” Moskowitz said. “We have the partnerships so we can get information out as soon as possible so there is no lag in what we can do versus what is happening at the curbside at a physician office.”

One issue that network has already helped solve is hospital infection rates in patients who need central IV lines.

“HSSC has managed to bring everyone together to come up with solutions,” Moskowitz said. “Now every one of our hospitals has a lower infection rate than the national average, so that’s a wonderful accomplishment.”

Currently the organization is looking at the best ways for all of the state’s health care providers to use electronic filing systems to securely share patient data, by engaging informatics researchers at MUSC, an operations group at USC and Clemson Information Technology experts who focus on storage, privacy and security.

“We need to get all the hospitals to the point where there’s meaningful use of the systems out there and that would be e-prescribing, so there would no longer be a written script. This would be sent directly to the pharmacy of the patient’s choice so there would be very few mistakes. It would also have a listing of allergies and the person’s history for a specific disease.”

Amy Martin, the Deputy Director of the South Carolina Rural Health Research Center, works with HSSC to see how rural hospitals fit into research and developing care plans and said that properly using electronic filing would benefit rural patients the most.

“Most people in this state use their local hospitals, but there are times that small rural hospital cannot provide the level of care a patient needs, say if they are recovering from a stroke or need an Intensive Care Unit, so they get transferred to bigger hospitals,” Martin said. “But when you jump from system to system that opens an opportunity for integral info needed to manage the patient’s care to get lost or not follow that person in its entirety.”

She said that though the vast majority of the state’s hospitals have or are working on electronic filing systems, being able to quickly share more uniform electronic information will help patients get the specialized care they need at larger institutions, and make for better discharge plans back at home when their records go back the other way.

The South Carolina Health Information Exchange (SCHIEx) is currently in beta testing she said, but gives doctors a better way to share information, and is not a database for any physician to access.

Neither she nor Moskowitz could predict when the system might be used statewide.

Source: www2.wspa.com

Another Client Joins the AMS Community

Posted by AMS at 21 OCT 8:00 am

American Medical Software is pleased to announce the addition of Thomas Smith, MD from Paintsville, KY to the AMS client community.

Dr. Smith had been using the same medical office software and electronic medical records for the past 15 years but realized his practice could benefit greatly from a more up-to-date, fully integrated, certified system instead. He contacted AMS to schedule a web demonstration with one of our software specialists to see if our system could replace the one he had been using for so many years. After going through the demonstration, Dr. Smith felt comfortable with the system and knew that he was making the best choice for his practice. Knowing that our software package comes with personal, online training sessions, encounter note templates, and complete “meaningful use” certification was more than enough to help the doctor decide on AMS.

Welcome to Thomas Smith, MD from all of the staff at American Medical Software.

New 5010 Standards, Electronic Health Records and the ICD-10

Posted by AMS at 18 OCT 8:09 am

Q. What must chiropractic offices do to be prepared for the upcoming ANSI 5010 standards, electronic health records and the ICD-10?

A. As you know, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to adopt required standards for covered entities to use when conducting certain health care transactions electronically, such as claims, remittance advices, and requests and responses for eligibility and claims status. Covered entities include health plans, health care clearinghouses and health care providers.

What you may not know is that American National Standards Institute (ANSI) 5010 is the new version of HIPAA transaction standards that regulates the electronic transmission of health care transactions – the format of electronic claims and how they are transmitted to the carrier. The 5010 standards will replace the existing 4010 / 4010A1 version of HIPAA transactions and are designed to fix the shortcomings in the current version, including the fact that the current version does not support forthcoming ICD-10 coding.

In many ways, the 5010 format is clearing the way and formatting health care information into one standard, which will allow for a universal electronic health record system compatible for all health care providers and payers. The goals of 5010 implementation are to:
•    Increase transaction uniformity
•    Support pay for performance
•    Streamline reimbursement transactions
•    Support ICD-10 codification

Once implemented, 5010 will feature substantial changes in the data you submit and the data you receive in response to your electronic inquiries. Implementation may require changes to the software, systems, and perhaps procedures you use for billing Medicare and other payers. However, in most instances these changes are the direct responsibility of the clearinghouse and may require no or minor updates to your current software. The older your current version of billing software is, the greater the possibility of a more complex and potentially costly upgrade.

This would be a good time to evaluate your current system and assess whether an upgrade is necessary. If so (and if the cost is high), it may be beneficial to change to a newer system that is Internet based and has no costs for upgrades. Upgrading to a more current and updated product is also an option to consider.

There are also several services for electronic billing that are no cost to the provider and are compliant with the 5010 standard. However, any change must be thought through thoroughly. For example, consideration must be made to patient information already in your current database being compatible and easily transferred or mapped to the new system.

For electronic billing under 5010, the date of implementation is Jan. 1, 2012. Testing should have been done or currently is being done by all clearinghouses and software manufacturers to ensure compliance and accuracy by the January deadline.

It is likely you have already received information from your current software manufacturer or clearinghouse for needed updates. If you have received no information from your software or clearinghouse vendor, take it upon yourself to contact them and ensure that you have all that is needed to be compliant and that they are transmitting your information in the correct manner as of January.

This 5010 standard is also setting the groundwork for the universal use of electronic health records (EHR), as it creates a standardization of how the records are encoded, shared and transmitted. EHR implementation is currently not mandated (the date is set for 2014), but chiropractors who are using EHR meaningfully are eligible for an incentive bonus – as much as $18,000 in 2012. Keep in mind that this bonus is paid based on Medicare claims submitted. To receive the maximum $18,000, a chiropractor must provide at least $24,000 in covered services on Medicare patients.

The 5010 standards also affect the use of the upcoming (October 2013 implementation date) ICD-10. The new code set will allow for greater specificity in defining diagnosis. For instance, there is designation of right and left, as well as initial encounter to subsequent encounter. The ICD-9 codes number about 13,000, while the ICD-10 has 68,000 codes, all having alpha beginning and variations of 3-7 digits. The codes are much more specific in the ICD-10 and providers will enjoy a much greater ability to give more precise diagnoses. Implementation of ICD-10 in European countries is already providing indications that its use will lead to improved health care services at lower costs with fewer errors and improved results.

If you are still billing on paper, implementation of 5010 will have no effect, as there are no scheduled changes to the 1500. However, ICD-10 will and must be used by all providers, regardless of billing format (paper or electronic); as mentioned, those codes take effect in October 2013.

Source: www.dynamicchiropractic.com

Another Client Joins the AMS Community

Posted by AMS at 14 OCT 8:00 am

American Medical Software is pleased to announce the addition of American Mobile X-Ray from Cincinnati, OH to the AMS client community.

American Mobile X-Ray evaluated several different medical billing systems before choosing AMS. Their initial impression of AMS was very positive so they decided to schedule a personal, online web demonstration to go through the software. Once the demo finished, American Mobile expressed how the software was extremely user friendly. They recognized how beneficial AMS would be to their practice and could not afford to pass on our software solutions.

Welcome to American Mobile X-Ray from all of the staff at American Medical Software.