A Month Without Consultation Codes

It's January and Medicare no Longer Accepting Consultation Codes

I found this great Q & A document from the American College of Cardiology (ACC) regarding the handling of consultation codes.  I thought the cardiologists would find it very useful, and that other specialists might learn from it to.  I especially liked how they stressed that it is Medicare that has stopped the use of consultation codes, not everyone else.  You should check with your carriers, but it looks like you will still probably bill your consults for everyone but Medicare (which no longer accepts them).

Today is Genius Solutions' Anti-Virus Awareness Day!

Monday, Monday, Monday, and a new year ta' boot.  Have you re-upped your anti-virus subscription?  Have you updated your anti-virus program this week?  Have you scanned your computer recently?  Do you have a good back up, in case things have gone wonky since last week?

I'm here as your friendly hardware support fairy today, to give you these reminders.  Per the hardware boys we've seen a rash of infected looking computers over the last week.  I myself, on my personal computer, do run and regularly update my anti-virus.  I am also very careful about what I click-on and where I visit.  I ended up with a virus over the last month or so that needed to be expunged.  So be aware, there is no such thing as too cautious with your anti-virus.

If I could wave my magic wand and make you instantly all virus free and virus resistant I would.  However, I can't, so all I can do is strongly recommend that you take a look at, update, re-subscribe, and run your anti-virus today.

Be safe, computer vaccinate!

Last Chance to Sign-up for the eTHOMAS Focus Group

Last Chance

The eTHOMAS Focus Group will be meeting in Grand Rapids 2/2 at 9am.
You must be registered to attend.
For more information: eTHOMAS Focus Group Flier

eTHOMAS Focus Group Jan 19 & 20th a Fun Success!

Hey, thanks to everyone who came out to the Focus Group meetings this week.  It was a lot of fun to meet you and put some friendly, happy faces with the names and voices we've come to know.  We appreciate all of the comments that were shared with us and each other.  We had a great time at the meeting with you.  Now, we are all geared up and looking forward to the Grand Rapids meeting in a week and a half (on 2/2).

eTHOMAS Upgrade Special!

Be ready for the technology of today and tomorrow with eTHOMAS. Upgrade now and make your practice run even better this year, for less.

Genius Solutions' January 2010 News Flash is out

Genius Solutions' January 2010 News Flash e-mail was just sent out.  If you missed it, you can click here to view it:  January 2010 e-News Flash.

“Meaningful Use” and “Certified” EHRs: The first round of official documentation is out.

They made their end of the year deadline, releasing information on December 30, 2009.  The CMS document on meaningful use is a 556-page set of proposed regulations for meaningful use.  Its companion piece , from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT), is 136 pages on data standards, implementation, and what they want for an EHR to be certified”.  Both are considered as interim final rules. Both are subject to a 60-day public comment period. HHS then will review the comments and produce final rules sometime this spring.

The Big Healthcare Squeeze

Are you feeling the pressure yet?  PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) Health Research Institute just released their well researched and considered opinion of the “Top 10 health industry issues in 2010:  Squeezing the juice out of healthcare” (December 2009).  As they note, the entire healthcare industry is trying to squeeze out “inefficiencies and duplication”, reductions are being tried and made from the top, middle, sideways, and trickling down.  Standing in the shadow of impending healthcare legislation, their first paragraph contains the ultimate in understatements by mentioning that the government is taking an active role in healthcare. 

dTHOMAS and THOMAS Lite Clients Need to AutoUpdate now!

Back about 11 years ago when Y2K was a problem, we added a date check to prevent clients from entering an invalid date.  Unfortunately that date was 2010 or higher, and clients running dTHOMAS or THOMAS-Lite may get a message saying their "date is invalid 2010", and you may not be able to run THOMAS this morning.

Get everyone out of THOMAS and AutoUpdate NOW.

If you cannot AutoUpdate yourself for some reason, call into the Support Department for help and tell them this is your problem.

Phone: 586-751-9080 or 800-645-0955
support23@geniussolutions.com