You might have come across words such as medical billing and medical coding and wondered what these terms mean. Similarly, you must have heard about the software named Electronic Health Records (EHR), but you possibly don’t know where this software is used. Before going into the depth of EHR and explaining how it can be beneficial for you, let us understand what the above-mentioned terms mean, i.e., Medical Billing and Medical Coding.
Overview of Medical Billing and Coding
Medical Billing is the process of obtaining patient’s demographic data as well as the health records, gathering information about the healthcare services provided to the patients and their respective costs, generating claims for the services, following up the requests, and finally getting paid by the insurer. This is a tedious process that requires a lot of hard work. Small errors in the collection of data can ruin all the effort that has been put in. Medical billing requires a thorough understanding of medical coding. There are thousands of medical codes used by different insurance companies and having knowledge about the changing trends requires a lot of effort. Medical coding is; therefore, an intricate process and a slight error can require you to perform the whole task again from where you started. There is some electronic health records software that offers unique documentation processes that can significantly reduce the amount of time and struggle manually required for this chore. One of these processes includes integrating your medical billing process with Electronic Health Record (EHR).
What is the Electronic Health Record (EHR) System?
Electronic Health Record (EHR) is an integrated process of documentation that collects the patient’s electronically-stored data and saves it in digital form for health records. EHR can significantly affect the efficiency of the medical billing process. It does not require manual data entry and can consequently save your time. It can also reduce error margins to a great extent. Explained below are some of the ways through which Electronic Health Record can serve both hospitals and the clinics:
Improve efficiency
Medical billing being a long and demanding process becomes quite inefficient when done manually. It requires much more time to record the data by hand. On the other hand, EHR requires much lesser time and effort to record the data of a large number of people. Similarly, manually transferring the records can be a risky process since there is always a chance of human errors. EHR can save institutions from human errors and boost the efficiency of the system. It can also save the cost of paper used in traditional documentation, thereby making the process more productive.
Transparency
EHR software can bring in clarity in the system. All the data can be easily accessed by a healthcare provider as well as the payer. You can easily track all the data, i.e., patient’s demographics, services provided to the patient, cost of services, claims generated, approved claims denied claims, and the amount paid. This data can also be made available to patients so that they no longer have confusions about the medical billing process. A vast majority of the patients do not understand what their medical bills say or how the process of billing occurs. EHR can help them understand the complexity of the system. This can help you build trustworthy relationships with your patients and other stakeholders.
Consolidation
Integrating your medical billing process with Electronic Health Record can help you make your administrative and clinical workflow smoother. The employees don’t have to search for data at different places and can access all the information at one platform. There is also no need to enter data more than once, which can save you from losing time and energy. Consolidating the data of the patient can assist in increasing the accuracy of the claims generated. It saves you from the hassle of manually transferring data from one place to another, which is quite a risky process. It can improve communication between internal stakeholders as well as external stakeholders.
Interoperability
Integrating the medical billing system with Electronic Health Record makes the process interoperable. The term implies aggregating the information from all sources and making it available for all the people who are involved in the billing process. The process is still secure, and no data is breached, which further builds the trust among patients, the institution, and all the stakeholders.
Detailed Financial Reports
This software can be used to generate customized reports about patients having an outstanding balance for a long time and can also be used to make charts indicating error rates on the bills of some patients. You can use this information to detect where the problem exactly lies and to find a steady solution. This can help you increase the accuracy and precision of the system.
Improved Patient Care
EHR not only helps the institution to carry out its activities smoothly but also facilitates the patients. With the increased efficiency and productivity, doctors can conveniently transfer the patient’s data to each other and look for potential improvements in the health of the patient. It provides the physicians with more time to focus on their patients and direct their energies towards one essential task, i.e., patient care. Electronic Health Records provide access to information that was not readily available previously and help physicians in taking a better approach to treatment.
Medical Billing is an important concept in today’s age, and you cannot hold a reputable standing unless your medical billing process is carried out efficiently. For your patients to be treated well and your stakeholders to be satisfied, you must make sure that your billing process is accurate and up-to-date. There are some companies providing medical billing services that have integrated Electronic Health Records to their systems. SybridMD is one of the very few companies that offer medical billing services integrated with practice management solutions. It not only helps to upgrade the efficiency of a medical practice but also medical practices can manage all their revenue cycle by outsourcing to a single billing partner.
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