Although most healthcare employees understand and follow HIPAA basics, violations still occur. Protect your organization by ensuring these common compliance risks are mitigated. Keep up with regular risk assessments Given the stresses of the pandemic, it’s understandable that your annual risk assessment may have fallen off your radar. However, a scheduled organization-wide risk analysis is…
A focus on administrative efficiency can positively impact both revenue and patient satisfaction in growing organizations. Orthopedic practices have been expanding, and administrative complexity has grown with them. In 2006, nearly one-quarter of physicians were solo practitioners. The latest statistics from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) estimates the current number to be 12%. More…
Orthopedists were walloped by COVID, with drops in office visits and elective procedures. Although telehealth was used initially as an emergency measure, many ortho organizations have realized the value of virtual visits and see them as a tool to improve patient outcomes and satisfaction. The post-pandemic challenge is finding the optimal balance between virtual and…
Is Revenue Walking Out Your Door? Does your front desk sometimes need to be encouraged to collect copays, deductibles, and overdue balances at the time of service? If the answer is yes, you may want to share these facts: Patient reimbursement comprises 30% of total revenue, putting it on par with a large commercial payer in…
Non-compliant practices can result in criminal charges, fines. On January 1, 2021, the Support Act made mandatory the use of electronic subscribing for all controlled substances (EPCS) covered under Medicare Part D. However, compliance will not be enforced until January 1, 2022, to give health care organizations adequate time to adjust workflows to meet the…
Strategies for making telehealth compliant and profitable. Was using telehealth a priority for your provider group before COVID? If you are like many practices, it wasn’t even on your radar. The COVID pandemic pushed telehealth to the forefront, and a service that was little more than an afterthought became a lifeline both for practices and…
It’s that time of year again… time to make decisions regarding the Quality Payment Program (QPP) and Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) for 2021. Payments in 2023 (based on 2021 data) are scheduled to have a potential positive/negative adjustment of ±9. With so much reimbursement at stake and so much information about categories and measures, making…
The new year has certainly brought more than its share of coding updates. Here’s a quick round-up of what to know for 2021. 2021 E/M coding updates After many years of deliberation, 2021 E/M coding has been updated to be based on either medical decision making (MDM) or time as the main criteria for determining the level…
We’ve all been hearing the term population health alongside news of the pandemic so what exactly is population health, and how does it differ from public health? First, a bit of history. The awareness of the term “population health” increased with the rise of the “Triple Aim” of healthcare, coined by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in…
