CMS Threatens to Slash Medicare Payments by 27.4%

Ok, technically CMS just issued a teaser of their final Medicare payments rule which is due to finalized and out November 28, 2011.  But when you really look at it and think about it, it really is a threat of you vs. the federal government.  At the beginning of this month CMS (Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services) released a final rule stating that unless Congress does something by January 1, 2012 physicians and non-physicians (who receive reimbursements under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule) will have subsequent payments slashed by 27.4%.  Although this number is down from the 29.5% cut CMS had estimated would occur earlier this year (because Medicare physician services have fallen below increased practice costs).

Permanent EHR Certification Program Delayed by ONC

Dr. Farzad Mostashari the coordinator for the Office of the National Coordinator for Heath IT (ONC) announced last week (click here for the posted announcement) that the permanent EHR certification would be delayed about 6 months, from January 1, 2012 to mid-2012.  This shift also coincides, deliberately, with implementation of the Phase 2 meaningful use standards.

We're Back - Focus Group 2011!

Focus on 5010 and More!  Click Here for more details and registration.

Happy Birthday to Us, & to You!

Visit Cupcake Obsession for more cute cupcakes.

Today is our birthday!  Genius Solutions is 25 years old.  Wow.

There have been so many changes over the last 25 years in healthcare, with computers and technology, and maybe even with you.  Whether you’ve been with us since the beginning or are just joining us now…. Thank-you!  You’re part of our Genius extended family and we’re glad to know you and have you with us.  Treat yourselves to a cup of something you love and a piece of cake today while offering up a toast.  We’ll be toasting each other and you with cupcakes at lunch.

Here’s to working together for the next 25 years and seeing where this great healthcare adventure takes all of us!

And thanks again for being part of our family and our 25th Birthday-- We love you!

Save a Life Doc

Ok, you are probably going to have raised an eyebrow by now.  Good.  You doctors are trained to help people and save lives and we all know this, but what about the rest of your office staff?  Patients don’t come to your office because they feel good.  Heck, if they’re as bad as me, they won’t show up until they are dying or practically dead.  That being the case, are your staff trained as first responders?  When minutes count can they act until you can be grabbed or reached to help?  How about an AED machine?  Do you have one in your office?  Is it easy and quick to get to from the front or from one of your exam rooms?  You care about your patients enough to be there long hours every day; do you care enough to make sure your whole office is prepared to assist you in your work?

Worried about ICD-10? Relax, ICD-11 is on its way!

Picture courtesy of http://icanhascheezburger.com

Yes, just when you thought your life couldn’t get any more complicated and governmentally annoying, someone just had to say it… ICD-11.  Yes, after a 23 year process to integrate ICD-10 codes, from their inception, into our United States vernacular, there are already newer codes looming on the horizon.  Perhaps if we hadn’t waited so long to move into ICD-10, this wouldn’t be like dripping ice water down your sun-warmed backs. 

Stimulus Payments and Meaningful Use, Preparing for 2012

Guess what?
If you haven’t already registered and if you are not meaningfully using your EHR 2011 is no longer an option for you.  You needed to report for 90 days this year and you would have to have registered and been using by the beginning of October to qualify for the 2011 payouts.

Is it worth it?  Really? 
We can’t speak for each of you, but I can direct you to this nifty article “CMS pays out nearly $90M in MU incentives in September” at HealtcareITNews.

ICD-10: Gone are the Days

ICD-10—Potpourri:
General State of Readiness- How you can & should be Preparing for the Inevitable, Part 4 of 4

ICD-10 Heralds the Death of the Superbill 

 
This article goes into a bit more detail, but I think you can gather from the above discussions that a superbill just isn’t going to be super enough to cut it for ICD-10.  Gayl Kirkpatrick, from 3M HIS Consulting Services, gave an example from a hospital her team consulted with. "We took a two-page superbill in ICD-9 and translated that into ICD-10," Kirkpatrick said. "It became a 48-page superbill." (1)

ICD-10: Concerns & Preparations

ICD-10—Potpourri:
General State of Readiness- How you can & should be Preparing for the Inevitable, Part 3 of 4

“When healthcare transitioned to ICD-9 on Oct. 1, 1984, there was still great confusion 18 months later on how to submit the codes. There was great deal of frustration both on the provider side as well as the health plan side. There was also a huge lack of training to prepare the doctors for the transition to ICD-9. As a result, for almost a year, there were large drops in revenue.

I am seeing things now, for ICD-10, that I witnessed back then for ICD-9. A great deal of people have not even started their processes.” Ben Michelson, of Hayes Management Consulting ...(1.)

Why ICD-10?

ICD-10—Potpourri:
General State of Readiness- How you can & should be Preparing for the Inevitable, Part 2 of 4

This article “ICD-10 Implementation: Top concerns for healthcare providers” quotes Jim Jacobs, senior vice president and product management and health information management for QuadraMed. "If you want to understand outcomes and understand the protocols that are working, the protocols that have measured benefits, then you need quite a bit of specificity."

What is ICD-10?

ICD-10—Potpourri:
General State of Readiness- How you can & should be Preparing for the Inevitable, Part 1 of 4

The message is, as always, begin to prepare now and begin making the changes to how you document now, so that you are better prepared as a provider for ICD-10 and so your coders and billers will have the information they need to take care of you and the patients properly.

The International Classification of Diseases system will be updated from the ICD-9 to the ICD-10 standard on October 1, 2013.  These are the codes that are used in healthcare as a common language to describe the diagnosis, condition, or other reasons for a patient visit to the doctor or healthcare facility.  Now around the world ICD-10 has been used for years, the United States is one of the last places to implement this coding.

Do you have an Off-Site Back-Up and is it Current?

Hello east-coast!  We know you’ve been getting constant reminders about the hurricane all week.  Heck, I’ve received no less than 10 bulletins in the last two days from the CDC, FEMA, National Weather Service, and many others- And I’m in the MID-WEST!

Anyway- we just wanted to remind you (while you were packing to run away or boarding in to hunker down) to back up your data.  BUT, we don’t just want you to back it up- we also want to make sure that you have at least one off site copy as well.

The CDC is right:  have a plan, be prepared, and by golly make sure you have an extra off-site back up too. 

Oh, yeah- and stay dry!