All Blog Posts Tagged 'Healthcare' (99)

Electronic Health Records (EHR) or electronic medical records (EMR), as they are called, are of enormous use in the fields of healthcare and medical sciences. They have a number of features that enable the patient; the medical professional and the healthcare provider have complete and unimaginably easy access to all important records that relate to the patient.

A direct result of the…

The American healthcare industry is a curious mélange. On the one hand, it is the world’s largest industry, with an estimated size of around $ three trillion. It is a system in which any treatment option that one can think of is available to the patient. Yet, it is characterized by a high degree of inefficiency and exorbitant costs. Many treatment options are out of reach of a large number of patients. It also suffers from non-implementation of many best practices that would have ensured a…

A Claim Adjustment Reason Code (CARC) is a code used in medical billing to communicate a change or an adjustment in payment. CARCs have to be used to communicate why there was a difference between the amount paid in a claim or service line and the amount that was billed against it. CARCS are to be mentioned only if there is an adjustment of this kind. If there is no adjustment to a claim or…

One of the major fallouts of the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare is the phenomenal rise in the number of physician practice acquisitions. These are some of the reasons for this rise:

-        Because of physician practice acquisitions, healthcare providers can consolidate and integrate their business better, since acquisition brings about alignment between the business prospects of the referral networks with the hospital’s strategic goals

-       …

The Comprehensive Error Rate Testing (CERT) is a program used by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) for calculating the rate or extent of improper payments of Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS). The method used by the CMS under CERT is to pick up a stratified random sample of some 40,000 claims that are statistically valid and calculate and audit it to determine if the payments were made in accordance with the rules relevant to items such as coding, Medicare coverage, and…

Nanotechnology, a part of Quantum Physics (QP), is growing fast and has myriad uses. Nanotechnology is all about size and self-assembly. While QP deals with subatomic particles and waves; Nano relates to the atomic and molecular level. Atomic behavior and properties get dramatically changed at the Nano level. Of note are properties such as color change due to refraction of light. Gold, packaging and chemistry are some of the well-known areas into which…

The final regulations for the new HIPAA Breach Notification Rule place a far greater burden on Covered Entities and Business Associates than earlier. It is not enough for them to just notify individuals whose Protected Health Information (PHI) have been affected. For them to determine if a breach occurred, they must follow and document a very specific process. Their work does not end here. If no Breach occurred, then documentary evidence to this effect must be compiled and kept for…