Call us toll-free: 800-878-7828 — Monday - Friday — 8AM - 5PM EST
A Consultant, HIM Professional, and Vendor Weigh in on the Real CAC Impact By Mark Crawford for Journal of AHIMA HIM professionals have been looking for some truth and straight talk on computer-assisted coding (CAC). The technology has been billed as everything from the savior of coding-based bottom lines due to ICD-10-CM/PCS (ICD-10) to the…
By Kate Pickert for Time-Swampland The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is one of the most powerful institutions in Pennsylvania, employing some 55,000 people at more than 20 hospitals and 400 outpatient clinics. Like many powerful organizations, UPMC has detractors. The health care system is under fire from local labor organizers who want to…
By Kimberly Leonard for U.S. News & World Report U.S. News & World Report has released its seventh annual Best Children’s Hospitals rankings, a guide to the best care for children who face life-threatening, rare or demanding conditions or procedures. In the 2013-14 rankings, 87 different hospitals are listed among the top 50 in at…
Supply of skilled coders key to ICD-10 transition It’s all about numbers as hospitals, physician practices and health plans move forward with preparations to meet next year’s federally mandated switch from the current 36-year-old system of coding for diseases, diagnoses and clinical procedures to a new, more comprehensive standard. It’s not just the right code…
By Joseph Goedert for HealthData Management A new survey from the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange on ICD-10 preparations-the seventh survey since late 2009-finds a disturbing lack of industry progress during the past year. WEDI in February 2013 surveyed 974 industry participants, comprising 87 vendors, 109 health plans and 778 providers, and compared results with…
By Dan Munro for Forbes I’ve recounted the story behind this headline before (here) but there’s a longer, more detailed version – and lesson. I attended a healthcare event last year that needs to remain nameless. It wasn’t a big event. In fact, it was very focused and relatively small. That’s about as much as we need to…
By Evan Steele, CEO SRSsoft on EMR Smart Talk A significant portion of the physician market has still not adopted an EHR, despite the lure of government incentives and the fear of the penalties looming on the horizon. The stock prices of most publicly traded ambulatory EHR companies are down sharply, as sales are lower…
By Sandra G. Boodman for Kaiser Health News This story was produced in collaboration with The Washington Post At a critical point in a complex abdominal operation, a surgeon was handed a device that didn’t work because it had been loaded incorrectly by a surgical technician. Furious that she couldn’t use it, the surgeon slammed…
Association cites negative impact EHRs have on docs By Tom Sullivan for HealthcareITNews As the healthcare industry moves to EHRs, the medical record has essentially been reduced to a tool for billing, compliance and litigation that also has a sustained negative impact on doctors’ productivity, according to Steven J. Stack, MD, chair of the American…
By Jennifer Bresnick for EHR Intelligence As CEO of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), Lynne Thomas Gordon, MBA, RHIA, FACHE, has been charged with the task of overseeing the 70,000-strong organization during its efforts to help providers gear up for ICD-10 implementation. Thomas Gordon sat down with EHRintelligence to talk about some of…