,

eClinicalWorks® Revenue Cycle Management: Helping Meet the Challenge of High Deductible Plans

The medical billing arena is seeing massive changes in 2015. While having more patients with health insurance is a positive step, many health leaders are concerned about the number of patients that purchased high deductible plans through state and federal marketplaces. Their decisions were often made because these plans have the lowest upfront cost. However, many do not have a thorough understanding of how the plans work. Essentially, high-deductible plans place more accountability on the patient. Unfortunately, self-pay can often lead to greater risk for the provider, significantly impacting collections and billing. How can providers meet this challenge?

Patient Education

Providers are often left with the burden of explaining health plans to their patients. Medical offices are finding that patients made health plan decisions based on the monthly premium cost. However, they don’t quite understand how it works. In their defense, many plans are complicated, having deductible components, co-pay provisions and services that are covered via co-insurance. It’s difficult for them to understand their financial responsibility and they often look to the provider to explain. Providers are finding it benefits them to be proactive in providing education. It’s better to deal with a thankful patient than one that is irate later. Providers are also coming up with payment plans for patients with high deductible plans.

Use eClinicalWorks® to Meet Challenges

Proactive patient education makes sense, but many offices struggle to find the staff time to dedicate to patient advocacy. EMR Billing Solutions helps your office utilize eClinicalWorks® to make the education and billing process as efficient as possible. When you subscribe to our PLUS service, we become your billing department. Patients call a dedicated number that goes directly to our staff, professionally trained billers that can answer questions about co-pays, deductibles and all the details on the patient invoice. Our staff is committed to spending the time necessary to help each patient understand his or her obligation. In fact, we don’t wait for the patient to call us. If payment is not received within 14 days, we call the patient to confirm they received the invoice and answer any questions they have.

Let EMR Billings Solutions help your office through this challenging time of health care reform by using eClinicalWorks® revenue cycle management. Contact our experts to learn more.

/by
,

eClinicalWorks® Practice Management News: Does HIPAA Allow Providers to Charge Patients for Access to Their EMR?

For many years, patients have paid a fee for copies of their medical records. These fees are often in the form of a flat rate or a per page charge. Some providers simply use their state’s fee for public records requests, which is usually $1 per page. However, in light of the emergence of Electronic Medical Records (EMR), is it really fair to continue to charge the same fee that was previously applied to paper records? More importantly, are traditional fees in line with HIPAA requirements?

What Does HIPAA Say?

HIPAA allows providers to charge patients a “reasonable, cost-based fee” for obtaining their medical records. This is not new verbiage. However, the definition of “reasonable, cost-based fee” has changed somewhat now that the Affordable Care Act has required EMR conversion. Simply put, providers can’t charge an unreasonable rate for medical records. What’s reasonable? That is up for debate. One dollar per page doesn’t seem unreasonable when you consider the administrative time to find and send records. However, if you are a patient with a chronic condition, you may have hundreds of pages of medical records. In this case, is charging such a high rate to transfer electronic records to the patient “reasonable?”

Survey Says Most Providers Stick to Old Fees

The American Health Information Management Association recently surveyed health care providers about their fee structure for obtaining medical records. Fifty-three percent charge patients for electronic copies of their medical records and 65 percent charge for paper copies. Sixty-five percent charge less than $1 per page and 24 percent follow their state’s public records fee, which is usually $1 per page. Are these providers in compliance with HIPAA? That question has not been specifically addressed. However, if an office follows state public records rates or the same rate they used to charge for pulling manual paper records, are they really basing the fee on their actual cost?

In light of EMR conversion, it is likely we’ll see some discussion on just what constitutes a “reasonable” fee in the future. For now, it would be advisable for providers to evaluate the fees they charge patients for medical records. Are the fees based on the actual cost to the practice? eClinicalWorks® provides the perfect platform for easy access to patient records, reducing the administrative time required and actual cost for providers. Examine this topic as part of your eClinicalWorks® practice management strategy.

/by
,

What is eclinicalworks ® and How Does it Work?

The name, eclinicalworks ® is gaining much popularity, it seems to be heard over, and again, still many people are asking, what is eClinicalWorks ®? With growing popularity, this company now services more than 100,000 different providers across the United States, and is continuing to grow at a rapid pace.

eClinicalWorks ® is a company that sells electronic medical record (EMR), practice management (PM) and personal health record (PHR) software and services to health care providers.

Benefits of the eClinicalWorks ® system include:

Integrated Modules: Modules let providers review patient histories, past visits, current medications, allergies, labs and diagnostic tests while also managing patient accounts and verifying eligibility for services. Thanks to this integrated module, patients have more control over their health care than ever before, and there is no longer a need to pick up the phone and call the office; with benefits such as, requesting prescription refills, sending messages to their physicians, and viewing their lab results, and appointment reminders.

Mobile Browser: eClinicalWorks ® also offers a  mobile browser that health care providers can access using a smart phone and an embedded messaging service based on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). These features compliment our on-the-go way of living.

Because of the amazing benefits of eClinicalWorks ®, it is changing the way healthcare is done, for the better. Health care providers, and their customers are much happier using this system.

For more information on eClinicalWorks ® and how it can benefit your practice, please contact EMR Billing Solutions. We would be delighted to help you make your business better, and add to the lives of your patients.

/by

What is eclinicalworks® and How Does it Work?

The name, eclinicalworks® is gaining much popularity, it seems to be heard over, and again, still many people are asking, what is eClinicalWorks ®? With growing popularity, this company now services more than 100,000 different providers across the United States, and is continuing to grow at a rapid pace.

eClinicalWorks® is a company that sells electronic medical record (EMR), practice management (PM) and personal health record (PHR) software and services to health care providers.

Benefits of the eClinicalWorks® system include:

Integrated Modules: Modules let providers review patient histories, past visits, current medications, allergies, labs and diagnostic tests while also managing patient accounts and verifying eligibility for services. Thanks to this integrated module, patients have more control over their health care than ever before, and there is no longer a need to pick up the phone and call the office; with benefits such as, requesting prescription refills, sending messages to their physicians, and viewing their lab results, and appointment reminders.

Mobile Browser: eClinicalWorks® also offers a  mobile browser that health care providers can access using a smart phone and an embedded messaging service based on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). These features compliment our on-the-go way of living.

Because of the amazing benefits of eClinicalWorks®, it is changing the way healthcare is done, for the better. Health care providers, and their customers are much happier using this system.

For more information on eClinicalWorks® and how it can benefit your practice, please contact EMR Billing Solutions. We would be delighted to help you make your business better, and add to the lives of your patients.

/by