How EHR Billing and Coding Can Improve Revenue Cycle

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• How EHR Billing and Coding Can Improve Revenue
  Cycle
• Billing is a vital part of medical practices,
  providing the funding that helps keep them
  operating.
• Because billing is so critical, its useful to
  have help. Electronic health record (EHR) tools
  could provide such assistance.
• EHR billing helps medical offices manage revenue,
  handle coding, and perform other operations in
  several ways.
• Document appointments and other care
• Electronic health records (EHRs) are, well,
  records.
• Its an obvious statement, but their name
  illustrates what theyre capable of doing.
  Theyre capable of many things.
• As records, they could contain extensive
  documentation of a patients history with a
  medical practice. Similar to medical charts, EHRs
  often include records relating to
• Appointment information, include dates of visits
  and notes
• Procedures, tests, and lab results
• Immunizations
• Allergies

members when they implement or update systems,
but after some initial
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• orientation, the best medical billing and EHR
  software is mostly or wholly intuitive.
• Intuitive functions allow people to easily use
  software systems and extract and apply
  information from them. They also make it easy to
  add and store information for future use.
• Billing, filing and tracking claims, and
  collecting revenue are just a few of the tasks
  that efficient and productive EHR solutions could
  enable.
• Share information with patients
• Medical professionals arent the only people
  interested in using EHRs.
• Patients want their health information. With
  growing numbers of electronic devices and
  internet use, patients are able to retrieve and
  use it themselves.
• Sharing information could start during their
  appointments. To facilitate this sharing, the
  authors of one study suggested that medical
  practitioners
• Review background information in the EHRs before
  they see their patients.
• Greet and interact with patients to strengthen
  personal interactions.
• Allow patients to see aspects of their records,
  such as lab
• results or x-rays.
• Enlist patients to participate in the charting
  process.

management systems to transmit it.
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• Of course, since its so easy to share
  information, its also easy to hack it. When
  using protected health information, medical
  providers are required to protect patient
  privacy. To protect it, they could follow Health
  Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of
  1996 (HIPAA) guidelines.
• Some HIPAA guidelines include
• Sending the minimum amount of information needed.
• Encrypting health information, which is changing
  readable text into text that consists of random
  letters and numbers that requires taking special
  measures to decipher.
• Creating data safeguards such as using pass
  codes.
• Taking such measures could help transmit
  information not only safely, but more
  efficiently.
• Track and manage the claims process
• When compiling, sending, checking, and resending
  insurance claims, keeping track of the process is
  vital.
• Since it contains all parts of a patients health
  record with a practice, an EHR could help medical
  practitioners track whats happening with a
  persons claim.
• As the claim moves through the billing process,
  office workers could make notes about whats
  happening.
• If theres a deadline for taking certain actions,
  an EHR could inform employees.

professionals. Instead of sorting through page
after page in a paper file,
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employees could use search functions to find
insurance claim documentation and evidence that
could support such claims. EHRs also contain all
of a patients information in one digital place,
so offices can share it and are also less likely
to lose it.