Shared Genius for November 2014

Shared Genius Practice Solutions From one Genius to Another.

November 2014 support special includes:
seasonal patient addresses, patient waiting list, new EHR update, and more!

Available now!

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Thanks, Penny (newsletter editor)  :D

Got Scribe?

If not, you might want to consider one (or more).

With documentation becoming more than just a word and EHR becoming a reality, most offices are trying to find ways to work more efficiently.  EHRs just don't seem like awesome replacements for sliced bread, especially if you've been practicing just fine without them for your entire professional career.  However, they are taking over, whether you want them to or not.  One of the best ways to cope with and EHR and its additional documentation and coding, yet still keep your sanity and your patient satisfaction can be for the doctor to continue being a doctor and dealing with patients face-to-face, while someone else scribes (or documents) patient encounters for the doctor – getting down all of the vital patient information, the doctor findings and responses, and any work done, as well as the recommended treatment plan.  

Shared Genius October 2014 Edition

Shared Genius Practice Solutions From one Genius to Another.
October 2014 support special includes:
claim status, custom reports, updating, & more!

Available now!

CMS Re-Opens 2015 Hardship Exceptions Through November 2014

Per the ONC:

CMS announced that it is going to reopen the submission period for hardship exception applications for eligible professionals and eligible hospitals, allowing them to possibly avoid the 2015 Medicare payment adjustments for not demonstrating (via attestation) EHR meaningful use with Certified Electronic Health Record Technology (CEHRT).

The new deadline will be November 30, 2014. (The previous application deadline was April 1, 2014 for eligible hospitals and July 1, 2014 for eligible professionals.)

This is especially noteworthy for anyone who missed attesting for stage 1 year 1 attestation last week.
For more information about the payment adjustments or hardship guidelines, visit the CMS page HERE.

Here is the application form.

"Error" in eTHOMAS for ICD-10?

If you are receiving a message in eTHOMAS when posting charges or payments regarding ICD-10, you can disregard it.  This message was programmed into THOMAS when the ICD-10 deadline was still October 1st, 2014.  The new ICD-10 deadline is now October 1st, 2015.  To remove the reminder to bill out in ICD-10, you will need to autoupdate your eTHOMAS software.  You must be on version 9.4.06 or higher.  (You can check for your version of eTHOMAS in the upper right corner, under the "E", when the program is open.)

New EHR Meaningful Use Webinars

New EHR Meaningful Use (MU) Webinars for Stage 1 and Stage 2 users. Click Here for the New Dates and Times. Additionally... We are in the process of putting a page together for "EHR Meaningful User" under "Resources" where we will have a home for all of the information I'm going to list in a minute, up-to-date schedules for webinars, and a place to put evolving information as it becomes available.

• If you are in Stage 1 Year 1 and started reporting your MU numbers on July 1st, please remember that the end of the reporting period is coming up (October 1st). Additionally, you must attest by Oct 1st to avoid payment adjustments. 
• If you did not start your reporting for MU on July 1st, and are still Stage 1-Year 1, you are still able to receive your incentive payment if you start reporting from Oct1st - Dec 31st.
• If you are Stage 1- year 2,  or Stage 2- year 1, your last reporting period this year is Oct 1st - Dec 31st. If you are a Stage 2 office, it is important that you read up on all the new measures for Stage 2. 
•  It is very important for ALL of you, regardless of what stage you are in, to perform a Security Risk Analysis during their reporting period. This is part of the HIPAA requirements for meaningful use. Here are some good links regarding that measure:

1. http://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentivePrograms/Downloads/SecurityRiskAssessment_FactSheet_Updated20131122.pdf 
2. http://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentivePrograms/downloads/14_Protect_Electronic_Health_Information.pdf 

• We have webinars/documents that will help them through whichever stage they are in. (Click here for the webinars and visit the GS website next week for additional information and documents.) 
• Here are some additional helpful links:

1. The decision “Widget” from the CMS website 
2. Available Systems 
3. Also, if your office is "less than prepared" you may qualify for a hardship exemption. Unfortunately, it’s probably too late this year to get it in but just in case for next year - Here is the information.

Shared Genius September 2014 Edition

Shared Genius Practice Solutions From one genius to another.
September 2014 support special includes:
rejections, pre-billing errors, reconciling patient accounts, & more!

Available now!

CMS Issues Final Rule for 2014 EHR Incentive Program Participation

CMS just released a final rule regarding provider EHR incentive program participation for the 2014 program year.

It has been a long haul for those trying to implement and use an EHR program to complete the government’s incentive program.  Especially this year, as the transition from stage 1 to stage 2 meaningful use is supposed to be occurring.  Nothing is ever easy. Even for those providers who started their EHR journeys a couple of years ago, there was change that needed to occur.  Most had hoped that the EHRs they’d invested in would progress and roll with the government changes.  Many found out that this was not going to happen without additional work, frustration, pain, and money from them, so many have dropped out. 

Shared Genius August 2014 Edition

Shared Genius Practice Solutions From one genius to another.
August 2014 support special includes:
THOMAS date tricks, billed claims, and more!

Available now!

It Takes a Billing Class to Train Some Geniuses

PR Henriksen, the character

You might not know this but here at Genius Solutions the vast majority of our software support staff and all of our trainers have worked in various healthcare settings:  offices, hospitals, support staff, billers, office managers, multiple office managers, and more.  Basically our Genius support is made up of practical medical office specialists, software geeks, and hardware tech specialists who are hardware, networking, and software geeks.  There is a lot, and quite a variety, of expert knowledge on call, for your calls.

Me? I started at Genius in support, as part of the software geek zone (with some generally nerdy hardware tendencies).

Transparency and Leaving Doctors’ Data Hanging out in the Breeze

The Sunshine Act was passed as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (health care reform) in 2010, but CMS decided to delay data collection in connection with the act until 2013.  The Act was designed to give transparency to the money and dealings between physicians, pharmaceutical companies, medical device and other medical supply manufacturers, as well as ownership or investment interests in group purchasing organizations.  Physicians and manufacturers are to report (or disclose) any and all such incentives and payments they receive to CMS.  Payments need to be reported by date and amount as well as list the nature of the payment or incentive (i.e. gifts, meals, speaking honoraria, etc). 

The thought was that if these little promos, pluses, gifts, and payments were known, it would cut down on things like drugs being dispensed because doctors got good gifts and perks, rather than prescribing what would be best for their patients or possibly lying about results or usage for drug reporting purposes.  That’s not giving doctors very much credit in my book. 

Finally! CMS Announces New ICD-10 "GO" Date

FINALLY!  CMS announces ICD-10 "GO" date IS now October 1st, 2015!

Interesting, the article doesn't note anything about a comment period, it simply says, this is the date.  I guess nothing but bumping the date ahead, might not need an additional comment period as it had been done before.

So, what are you doing now to prepare?