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March 10, 2011

Latest from Kareo

Denial Management 101: Remember the Basics

By Sara M. Larch, MSHA, FACMPE

Every medical practice experiences claim denials. Better performing practices have denial rates below 5%; other practices are seeing claims being denied 10%, 20%, or in the extreme, 30% of the time. Each of us look continuously for an idea and an opportunity to improve our financial performance. One of the best ways to evaluate your performance is to know why claims are being denied... Read More

You are invited to join us for a complimentary one-hour webinar:

Medical Billing Compliance - How to Keep CMS Out of Your Business

Tuesday, March 22, 2011
1:00 PM EST/10:00 AM PST

Speaker: Betsy Nicoletti

Billing and coding staff can decrease the risk of all types of government audits by avoiding the five deadly - and all too common - sins of compliance, by implementing effective, regular coding education and using comparative data to select audit targets. Learn how to reduce the risk of CMS audits and improve your billing compliance with Betsy Nicoletti, author of The Field Guide to Physician Coding and founder of Codapedia.com. You'll gain insights on how to:

Avoid the five deadly and all too common sins of compliance. Compliance is like aging - it's not for sissies. But avoid these five mistakes and decrease your risk substantially.
Develop an effective education program for staff and physicians. Coding and billing education is not a one time event. Develop strategies to keep staff and clinicians updated.
Beyond E/M auditing. Use comparative data and government target lists to select areas of audit. Audit claims, not lines and audit the claim comprehensively.
And much more

Register Now

Best Practices

ICD-10 and 5010 — What These Changes Mean for Your Practice, and How to Implement the Transition

By Judy Capko

Regulatory requirements that affect the medical practice are changing rapidly. The primary focus may seem to be on EHR systems and meaningful use to obtain those stimulus funds, but there are other mandatory system changes that need to be addressed now, starting with the conversion to both the 5010 HIPAA and the ICD -10 code set... Read More

Medical Billing Incentive Plans that Inspire: 10 Tips for Success

By Elizabeth W. Woodcock, MBA, FACMPE, CPC

The best performance incentive plans are the ones that work, of course, but what works for employees – cash or days off – might not be what your organization can afford. Incentive plans that are effective at motivating billers must be affordable and targeted to specific results. Most importantly, they must be finite - that is, not a permanent entitlement. Put careful thought into the design, goals and timing of any incentive plan – big or small. Use these 10 tips... Read More

ICD-10 Training Camp

How to Survive the ICD-10-CM/5010 Transition

By Nancy Maguire, ACS, PCS, FCS, HCS-D, CRT

Physician practices and hospitals know a change is coming on October 1, 2013, that will dramatically impact current business processes. The mere mention of ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes cause anxiety in the minds of coding professionals as well as practice administrators. Implementation of the Procedural Coding System (PCS) will be a double whammy for inpatient facilities. Life is full of changes, some daunting and others not as life-changing. Transitioning to ICD-10 diagnosis codes will be life-changing... Read More

Win a Free Kindle — Just “Like” Kareo on Facebook

At Kareo, we like having friends — and we’d like to add you to our friends on Facebook. To give you one more reason to like us, we’re going to give away one free Kindle each month, by selecting a name from our list of friends and “likes” on Facebook. It’s that simple... Read More

Case Study

"Staying Organized Is Important For Success. Kareo Streamlines Everything."

Jose Hernandez, MA

Jose Hernandez knows more than a little about the healthcare field. As a medical assistant for nine years, he engaged in providing patient care before he ever decided to add “biller” to his resume. That was 16 years ago, and not a workday goes by that he doesn’t call on his medical knowledge.... Read More

Case Study

"Kareo Helps Us Increase Revenue for New Clients by 10 – 20 Percent."

Jos’Anne Longshore, Contract Medical Billing

Jos’Anne Longshore has spent her entire adult life in the medical billing profession. She started working in billing for a family practice when she was 17, and for the last 11 years she has owned and operated her own billing firm, Contract Medical Billing in Arizona. Longshore chose Kareo five years ago as her primary billing software when she decided her previous system was cumbersome and antiquated. ... Read More

Billing Tip of the Month

Use the Alert Screen to Notify Staff of Global Periods

By Samar Khoury, AllDocuments Inc.

When a patient is within a post op period, you can put the global days (10 or 90 global days) in the alert screen. I put Global period the day we billed out the procedure and for any future claim we know to... Read More

Top News and Ideas from Industry

Health Plans Face Suits Challenging Collection of "Overpayments"

Emily Berry, Amednews, March 4, 2011

Three class-action lawsuits fighting health plans' efforts to collect so-called overpayments on behalf of self-insured companies are pending in federal court, including one against UnitedHealth Group. The lawsuits could have implications for physicians who are the target of the same kind of collections, even though the plaintiffs are chiropractors... Read More

Meaningful Use Updates Available by E-mail

Pamela Lewis Dolan, Amednews, March 3, 2011

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has launched a listserv to share information quickly about the government's meaningful use incentive program. CMS will use the listserv to disseminate information about meaningful use directly to subscribers by e-mail. Users can join the listserv by... Read More

How to Maximize Patient Flow Through the Office

Victoria Stagg Elliott, Amednews, Feb. 14, 2011

Do patients arrive at your office and flow smoothly from one point to another while getting the care and services they need? Or are patients, physicians and staffers frustrated by the way the office is run? Read More

Survey: 41% of Consumers Lack Confidence in the Accuracy of Their Medical Bills

Rachel Fields, Becker's ASC Review, March 7, 2011

Forty-one percent of consumers lack confidence in the accuracy of their medical bills, according to the second annual HealthCare Check-Up Survey from Intuit Health. The survey, compiled by Decipher Research for Intuit Health in Jan. 2010, polled 1,000 American adults online. The survey found that 57 percent of respondents have seen at least one medical bill go to a collection agency, and 45 percent of respondents wait more than a month to pay their medical bills... Read More

GAO Report Addresses Electronic Prescribing

HIMSS News, March 4, 2011

The Government Accountability Office recommends several strategies “to help improve the effectiveness of the Electronic Prescribing and EHR Programs to encourage the adoption of health information technologies among Medicare providers” in a recent report... Read More

Federal Stimulus Driving Healthcare IT Spending, Activity in 2011

HIMSS News, Feb. 21, 2011

Federal government initiatives are the driving force behind current healthcare information technology (IT) spending, suggest results of the 22nd Annual HIMSS Leadership Survey, sponsored by Citrix Systems. Half named achieving meaningful use as their top IT priority over the next two years. Implementation of ICD-10 was named as the top financial IT focus by nearly half of survey respondents... Read More

AAPC Opens ICD-10 Resource Site

ICD-10 Watch, Feb. 25, 2011

At the same time ICD-10 was a hot topic at HIMSS11, another industry body, AAPC, was gearing up to help healthcare entities comply with the new code sets. The American Academy of Professional Coders on Wednesday launched an ICD-10 resource site to help payers and providers comply with the mandated code sets... Read More

5 Best Practices for Ensuring Full Payment from Patients

Jaimie Oh, Becker's ASC Review, Feb. 10, 2011

The economy is only slowly starting to turn around, and Medicare reimbursements are taking a hit as well. It's no wonder, with the future looking so grim, that ASCs are nervous and anxious about how to remain competitive and financially viable. One way ASCs can maintain profits is ensuring ASC services are always paid in full. Here are five proven tactics for ensuring full payment from patients... Read More