Did You Know: Medical Billing and Coding Blog is part of a network of blogs that discuss careers in the allied healthcare field. Check out our friends over at Medical Administrative Assisting Blog.
President Obama won a hard-fought battle last week. After months of stalled progress and fiercely partisan debate, the House passed a sweeping health care reform bill with a vote of 219-212. The $940 billion plan will completely reorganize the American medical system, extending coverage to roughly 32 million additional Americans.
There is coverage of this bill from every major news organization: CNN, NPR, and New York Times to name a few. The topic is also being discussed across Twitter and the blogosphere.
So how exactly does the bill affect people working in the allied healthcare field? Whether you agree or disagree with Obama’s policies, it is important to know how they affect you as a medical biller and coder.
The bill increases coverage to 32 million additional Americans by requiring most Americans and businesses to have some kind of insurance plan or pay a fine.
Parents will be allowed to keep their children on their health care plans until they are 26.
Reform will eliminate discrimination based on pre-existing conditions or medical history. If an individual hasn’t been able to get coverage because of a pre-existing condition, a ban on discrimination for adults will take effect in 2014. Additionally, a pool will be set up for high risk adults to get coverage until 2014. For those of you who have a child with a pre-existing condition, a ban on discrimination for children will take effect immediately.
Prediction: All of these provisions, combined with the billions going to electronic health records, predict an increased need for billing and coding specialists in doctors’ offices. The sudden spike in the number of patients seeking care combined with rapidly changing electronic health records systems could mean more jobs in the allied healthcare field.
As we mentioned in a previous post, Five Reasons Why Medical Billing and Coding is Booming, General Electric is one of several major corporations who have invested in creating the best, and most efficient, system of electronic medical records (EMR). The video below was released by General Electric to provide a glimpse into one of its EMR systems at Westchester Medical Group. Dr. Simeon Schwartz discusses the benefits of digital health records to individual patients, as well as to the American healthcare system as a whole.
Do you have any insight into any system of electronic medical records? Let us know about your experiences!
In this field we talk a lot about HIPAA, and many call it “the privacy act” or “security rule”. Its true intention is the portability of the insurance coverage in order to provide continuity of coverage for workers and their families when they lose or change jobs.
The law covers several items related to safety and security of a patient’s information – things like responsibilities, verification, validation and training, amongst others.
One area that is worth mentioning is Safeguards; this is the ensuring that confidential information remains secure.
All entities must have in place appropriate safeguards to ensure the protection of a person’s confidential information. These security measures as described by HIPAA include administrative, technical and physical safeguards. And many times we assume these are taking place. But do we really focus and protect our patient’s information on a continual basis?
Administrative safeguards require us to verify a patient and or their due representative. Do we have signatures on file? Do we verify these every time we’re asked to provide information to persons other than the patient? A good idea would be to include in the patient’s record a photocopy of their identification; this ID should be state issued. Read the rest of this entry »
“Hot Jobs: Medical Coders Are in Great Demand,” an article by Scott Andron in The Miami Herald, reports encouraging news about the growing need for medical billers and coders in Florida. “Health information management might be for you, and a job as a medical coder might be the place to start,” Andron writes.
The Miami Herald is not the only publication that is optimistic about opportunities for medical billers and coders in Florida. According to Orlandojobs.com’s Employment Outlook for Central Florida report, healthcare jobs are among the fastest growing employment opportunities in Florida. The report points to fast-growing opportunities for physical therapists, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, medical coders and medical billers.
What’s driving this growth? One significant force is the construction of new medical facilities in the state. One of the more promising could be the planned “medical city” in Orlando’s Lake Nona area. According to a recent article in The Orlando Business Journal, the development of this medical and research park has the potential to create 30,000 high-paying jobs in just a decade.
So, is Florida a good place to start and grow your career as a medical biller and coder? It certainly seems to be. We’ll be watching the trends in Florida and other states in the coming months and reporting on them here.
This is a wonderful and exciting time to be entering the allied health field. No matter what work setting you are in, allied health professionals are in demand. As costs continue to rise, there are greater demands for improved quality and safety in patient care. To tackle these problems, the U.S. healthcare system is turning to technology.
Why do allied health students need to know about electronic medical records? The answer is simple – because you will use electronic health records to accomplish tasks once on-the-job. The transition from paper records to electronic health records affects everyone working in health care today. Consider just a few examples of the changes electronic health records bring to these jobs:
Medical assistants enter patient information, such as vital signs, into the electronic health record.
Coding professionals review electronic documentation in the electronic health record to determine the appropriate code for an encounter.
Technicians working in blood and chemistry labs, radiology, nuclear medicine, cardiovascular medicine and other areas respond to electronic orders and send test results electronically using an electronic health record.
Billing professionals use information in the electronic health record to prepare insurance claims and patient statements. Read the rest of this entry »
While America’s eventual transfer to electronic medical records (EMR) is a foregone conclusion, the ways in which we accomplish the shift is still being debated. The key is to create a system that makes doctors’ lives easier, and not more difficult. To achieve this goal, medical coding professionals are crucial to the future of electronic medical records.
The most logical interface to aggregate all medical records is the internet. Individual computers that contain medical record information is a method of the past; to maintain all medical records – a huge amount of information – a web-based system is the only option capable of immediately updating and maintaining the digital system.
Aside from changing a paperwork-based system that has become standard practice for them, doctors are often times unfamiliar with the pages of coded medical terms that are central to electronic medical records. This is another obstacle that stands in the way of the full adoption of digital health records, and highlights the necessary inclusion of medical coding professionals in healthcare facilities.
Professionals who are trained and experienced in medical coding facilitate the full implementation of electronic medical records. President Obama guaranteed that every American medical record will be electronic by 2014; this means huge job growth for medical billers and coders. Read the rest of this entry »
According to a December 30, 2009 article in the NY Times, entitled “Bonus Planned for Digital Medical Records”, Medicare officials have outlined a plan to reward medical offices and hospitals that maintain systems of electronic medical records. Under the proposed stimulus, billions of dollars will be handed out across the country to healthcare providers that keep updated digital medical records of their patients. The announcement is just a proposal, however, and the plan does not expect to be completed until the spring.
The article features a quote from David Blumenthal, the national coordinator for health information technology, who says that “Widespread adoptions of electronic health records holds great promise for improving health care quality, efficiency, and patient safety”.
The proposed plan will provide bonus payments to health care professionals who use electronic medical records for at least 80 percent of their medical instructions. These incentives will facilitate America’s full transfer to electronic medical records, which President Obama has promised by 2014. According to Obama administration officials, using digital health records will reduce costly medical errors and duplicate testing.
The national implementation of electronic medical records will also result with a high demand for healthcare technology professionals, such as medical billing and coding specialists, who can help medical offices and hospitals maintain these systems of electronic medical records.
b. John Kerry’s recent legislation “The Small Business Health Information Technology Act of 2009” will make family doctors and small medical offices eligible for Small Business Administration loans to cover the costly transition to electronic medical records.
2.Obama has called for mandatory digitization of medical records by 2014.
a. When Obama was elected president, he guaranteed that all health records in America will be digital by 2014.
b. As electronic medical records become standard in medical offices and hospitals, so will medical billing and coding specialists.
3. Major corporations are also helping the cause.
a. General Electric recently launched a program to increase access to technology, and reduce the cost of transitioning to electronic medical records. Read the rest of this entry »
How will your career be affected if healthcare reform becomes law? If you’re a billing and coding specialist or student, questions like these have probably been on your mind:
• Will I see a big increase in demand for my services?
• If coverage is increased for eldercare, women’s care and other targeted needs, will that create new opportunities for me?
• If Medicare changes, how will that impact on my career?
Because the healthcare bill is still being modified and debated, there is no way to know definitive answers to those questions. But some predictions are still possible.
Let’s look at what we do know . . .
Millions of additional Americans will be covered if healthcare legislation passes. “The $1.1 trillion bill would expand insurance coverage to an additional 38 million people over the next decade by requiring that almost all citizens have insurance and providing subsidies to those who can’t afford it,” writes Emily T. Walker in MedPage Today.
Senator John Kerry recently introduced “The Small Business Health Information Technology Financing Act of 2009″, a piece of legislation aimed at aiding family doctors switch to electronic medical records. The Act would make family doctors and other small medical practices eligible for Small Business Administration loans that would cover the costly transition from paper to digital health records. As a senior member of the Finance Committee and former Chairman of the Small Business Committee, Kerry is committed to helping President Obama achieve his goal of digitizing all American health records by 2014.
“Electronic medical records and prescriptions are the common sense solution to restricting costs, reducing errors, and reforming a broken system, Kerry said. “Doctors don’t need convincing — they’ve seen the results. This legislation helps small practices acquire the technology that will allow them to be more efficient and to focus on patient care.”
Kerry is not a newcomer to healthcare technology legislation; in 2007 he introduced the Medicare Electronic Medication and Safety Protection Act of 2007, which required physicians to employ electronic prescription technology.
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