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H.I.M. ON CALL Launches Dual Coding Service to Help Hospitals Prepare for ICD-10

ICD-10 Testing Requirement Now Supported by Outsourced Coding Firm

Allentown, PA, March 26, 2013: H.I.M. ON CALL, a technology-driven outsourced services company for health information management (HIM), coding and revenue cycle, announces the availability of its dual coding services for hospitals migrating from ICD-9 to ICD-10. Dual Coding is a precursor to end-to-end testing of ICD-10. Payers want to test with providers that can submit ICD-10 codes. The new, dual coding service from H.I.M. ON CALL provides the people, processes and technology required for dual coding and supports ICD-10 testing with payers. The announcement was made by Manny Peña, RHIA, President, H.I.M. ON CALL.

Expert, outsourced coders from H.I.M. ON CALL perform ICD-10 coding via remote or onsite options; allowing the hospitals’ internal coding team to focus on day-to-day production or ICD-10 training, education and ramp-up.  The firm generates dual coding data output and analytics to identify gaps in clinical documentation for ICD-10. Back-up ICD-9 coding services are also available.

“Dual Coding’s data and analytics support our customers’ clinical documentation improvement (CDI) ramp-up for ICD-10,” explains Peña. Specific documentation weaknesses and target areas for revenue loss under ICD-10 are identified.  Some of the features of the new dual coding service include:

  • Perform dual coding (ICD-9 and ICD-10) for up to one year prior to October 1, 2014.
  • Support end-to-end testing initiatives by providing ICD-10 coded cases.
  • Provide monthly summary, data and analytics of CDI issues (ICD-9 and ICD-10).

“In addition to opening the door for end-to-end payer testing, our data and analytics are a tremendous support to ICD-10 teams,” adds Karen Karaban, RHIT, CCS, Director of Coding Integrity at H.I.M. ON CALL.  Accurate, complete and specific clinical documentation is the foundation for correct reimbursement, quality reporting and continuing care. The H.I.M. ON CALL service provides a summary of documentation findings by ICD-10-CM/PCS chapter, patient type, medical service and physician. The potential financial impact due to the lack of specificity in the documentation is also identified with actual and projected decreases in coding productivity by patient type and medical service.

More information about the firm’s dual coding service can be viewed at the firm’s blog or by contacting Joseph J. Gurrieri, RHIA, CHP, Vice President & COO at: 610.435.5724 Ext. 131.

About H.I.M. ON CALL:

H.I.M.ON CALL is a technology and outsourced services company for health information management (HIM), coding, clinical documentation improvement (CDI) and revenue cycle. They offer data-rich technology tools and outsourcing services to make better coding decisions and prepare for change. Service offerings include coding, coding audits, CDI consulting and ICD-10 education. Their AVIANCE Health™ suite of web-based software applications includes audit management, DNFB management, coding analytics and electronic document management. Founded in 1998 and based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the company is focused on the future and willing to embrace new ideas; delivering financial value in everything they do.

March 26, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

ZyDoc Expands NIH SBIR NLP Grant for EHR Usability Research Study to Other Facilities

Islandia, NY February 8, 2013 – ZyDoc, an Islandia, NY-based medical informatics company, has been awarded Phase I SBIR grant funding by the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health for a study involving ZyDoc’s NLP-powered MediSapien™ knowledge management platform.  James M. Maisel, M.D., Chairman of ZyDoc is the Principal Investigator (P.I.) for the project, entitled “Applying NLP to Free Text as an EHR Data Capture Method to Improve EHR Usability.” The study compares the documentation quality, efficiency, and user satisfaction resulting from a method of EHR data capture involving MediSapien NLP (natural language processing) with results from standard methods. ZyDoc was among only 16% of NLM grant applicants to be awarded funding in 2011. The $150,000 project is funded entirely from the grant and is a potential precursor to Phase II funding.

ZyDoc has received IRB approval from a prominent New York-area teaching hospital for the research study, and additional test sites are now being sought. Researchers at Columbia University will be participating in the study, which also measures the accuracy of ICD-10 coding generated by MediSapien NLP. Facilities interested in participating in the study, including public or private hospitals and physician groups, are invited to contact James Maisel at grant@medisapien.com.

MediSapien was launched at the HIMSS Annual Conference in February 2012 expanding the ZyDoc family of documentation and knowledge management solutions featuring NLP-powered generation of structured codes from unstructured text.  Those codes are formulated in industry standard HL7 CDA Level III R2 messages suitable for insertion in any ONC-certified EHR. MediSapien solutions are primarily marketed through its channel partner network, which includes EHRs, Billing and RCM providers, Analytics companies, and MTSOs. For EHR Channel Partners, MediSapien offers a value-added service to provide objective third-party usability evaluations. For clinician end-users, MediSapien can be utilized in conjunction with existing or planned EHR installations, and can facilitate compliance with Meaningful Use mandates.

“This is an exciting time for ZyDoc and MediSapien” explains Maisel. “While we prove out our solutions in the marketplace in 2013, the grant allows ZyDoc to scientifically measure the usability, efficiency and accuracy of MediSapien.  In the study, doctors will complete typical medical encounters with dictation vs. EHR data entry with keyboard and mouse.  The text will be inserted into the EHR along with the structured coded data extracted by MediSapien. The resultant EHR documentation will be analyzed by document experts and graded for accuracy and other parameters. The SBIR-funded study is a potential precursor to Phase II-funding.”

A research collaborator on the study, David Kaufman, PhD, formerly a research scientist at Columbia University and now at the University of Arizona, offers this perspective, “Although EHRs are promising tools for improving healthcare, it is widely known that the user experience is frequently suboptimal resulting in dissatisfaction and low rates of adoption. This is partly due to the fact that clinicians spend many hours interacting with unwieldy systems documenting patient records. MediSapien is a promising instrument that may serve to reduce the cognitive burden on clinicians and enable EHRs to be instruments of clinical communication and tools that can greatly enhance patient care.”

About ZyDoc and MediSapien

Based in Islandia, New York, ZyDoc is a national leading-edge medical knowledge management company founded in 1993 to develop medical informatics solutions. Under the leadership of James M. Maisel, M.D., Chairman, the company has developed award-winning documentation and knowledge management solutions.  The e-transcription infrastructure and speech recognition solutions are now complemented by the disruptive enabling MediSapien NLP technology. The ZyDoc suite of tools can be assembled into seamless flexible solutions for documentation and knowledge management needs. Each award-winning, easy to use module offers the best-in-class performance and is designed to be seamless integrated in a scalable, interoperable, HIPAA secure customizable solution.   Cloud based ZyDoc solutions are always accessible and robust and offer enhanced capabilities for medical knowledge workers.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R43LM011165. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

February 15, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

Leading Healthcare IT Solutions Firm Sees Dramatic Increase in Outsourced Helpdesk Utilization

CareTech Solutions reports 75% spike in use of Service Desk™ in 2012; cites EHR learning curve and diversion of IT resources to strategic initiatives as likely causes

(TROY, Mich., Jan. 31, 2013) CareTech Solutions, an information technology (IT) and Web products and services provider for more than 200 hospitals, today announced that use of its Service Desk service increased by 75% in 2012. This industry-leading clinical help desk solution provides real-time IT support to clinicians and other staff from support analysts that are trained on all major hospital clinical and business information systems.

CareTech added five new Service Desk clients in 2012 with the most recent being Boulder Community Hospital and New York Hospital Queens. The company attributes the increase in utilization to a combination of clinicians coping with a steep learning curve related to the adoption of new electronic health records (EHR) and other clinical systems, and the fact that IT resources are increasingly being deployed to a growing list of strategic initiatives, including implementing and integrating new clinical systems (including EHRs), connecting to community HIEs, security enhancements driven by regulatory changes ICD-10 and more.

“Today’s IT departments are overwhelmed with overseeing implementations of EHRs and other electronic systems; and the demands of initiatives like ICD-10, Meaningful Use and audit compliance only increase their workload,” said Jim Giordano, president and CEO, CareTech Solutions. “This has created a perfect storm where there is more technology being implemented than can be supported by in-house resources, and more demand than ever for support and fewer resources available to provide it. The fact that our teams are up to speed with the latest systems and requirements has driven the demand for our services through the roof in the last year.”

CareTech introduced Service Desk in 2008 in response to an industry need for highly-specialized help desk support. As organizations continue to transition to an increasingly electronic healthcare environment, fostered by government regulations like the HITECH Act and Meaningful Use, seamless IT adoption depends on a high level of rapid, responsive support. CareTech’s trained analysts provide value to clinicians and hospital staff by making it easier to use these technologies in order to provide quality, compliant patient care.

“Clinician support calls have definitely increased and are more involved at our organization since the implementation of our EHR system last year,” said Linda Minghella, CIO, Boulder Community Hospital. “CareTech’s team is familiar with all the systems we use, is well trained as support professionals, and they are getting our clinicians back to treating patients faster and more efficiently than we ever could.”

Features of CareTech Solutions Service Desk include:
•       Trained and certified support analysts based in the U.S. and available 24x7x365
•       Scalable operation (500 to 20,000 calls per hospital per month)
•       Knowledge management
•       Comprehensive implementation
•       Performance metrics tracking and reporting
•       Trend analysis to understand problems and reduce call volumes
•       Proactive infrastructure and applications monitoring
•       Physician-only hotline

About CareTech Solutions
CareTech Solutions is an information technology (IT) and Web products and services provider for more than 200 U.S. hospitals and health systems, creating value for clients through customized IT solutions that contribute to improving patient care while lowering healthcare costs. From implementing emerging technologies to supporting day-to-day IT operations, CareTech offers clients expert health information technology services earning it the 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 Best in KLAS award for IT Outsourcing (Extensive) and 2012 partial outsourcing as ranked by healthcare executives and professionals in the respective annual Best in KLAS Awards: Software & Services” report.

February 8, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

GE Healthcare Announces Centricity Practice Solution 11

New Ambulatory EMR Offering Simplifies ICD-10 Readiness with One-click Problem Entry and Mapping to ICD-9 Codes

BARRINGTON, Ill. – Jan 24, 2013 – GE Healthcare today announced the release of Centricity* Practice Solution 11, the next generation of its fully integrated EMR and Practice Management solution.   With a dynamic search engine and one-click problem entry, Centricity Practice Solution simplifies the data entry required for medical providers to comply with new the ICD-10 coding requirements and reduces the number of clicks required to enter a problem by 75%.  Combined with the ability to customize workflows, this new solution will help ambulatory practices adjust to healthcare reform and embrace new care models.

With the mandatory transition to ICD-10 codes in October 2014, US providers face a daunting challenge.  While the new coding system has many benefits, including measuring the quality, safety and efficacy of care, it multiplies the ICD-9 dataset by a factor of five and will require a significant amount of training and effort for providers to successfully navigate. With today’s release of Centricity Practice Solution 11, GE Healthcare helps ease the transition to ICD-10 for its customers.

“I’m impressed with the mapping functionality between ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes,” said Dr. Jay Prakash from South Atlanta Medical Clinic. “When our practice has to go through the coding transition next year, the bulk of the learning curve will already be behind us. We are already making use of the one-click problem entry and the search functionality is exceptional.”

Both ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes come pre-loaded in the patient chart, and are delivered through a dynamic search engine, enabling providers to efficiently assign the diagnosis code. Additionally, the search engine uses an algorithm to both predict common search terms and map ICD-9 codes to ICD-10 codes using guidance from CMS where there is a one-to-one correlation, so providers can see the links between the two systems. Problem codes are fully searchable and, once the provider selects the appropriate diagnosis, correlating codes are automatically mapped to both ICD-9 and ICD-10,where there is a one-to-one match.

“The transition to ICD-10 represents one of the most significant changes to clinical documentation since EHR adoption.   Providers that don’t manage the transition well will face high levels of denied claims, delayed payments, inconvenience to patients and potentially legal exposure in the event that improper coding is audited,” said Judy Hanover, research director with IDC Health Insights. “Products that help ease the pain of the transition should do very well in this market.”

Robust features enable providers to spend more time with patients

Centricity Practice Solution offers enhancements in three key areas that help to improve clinical and financial productivity for ambulatory practices:

  • Customizable: Centricity Practice Solution offers flexible workflows that providers can configure to mirror how their specific practice operates, thus reducing the amount of time spent on data entry. Additionally, CPS allows exceptional customization and decision support tools that enable  efficient patient encounters.
  • Progressive: In addition to the predictive search engine and one-click problem entry, Centricity Practice Solution includes a portfolio of pre-built reports and access to GE’s database of nearly 30 million de-identified patient records, so that providers can gather information to prepare to attest for Meaningful Use, benchmark clinical outcomes and adopt new care models like Patient Centered Medical Home.
  • Interoperable: Centricity Practice Solution is available as a fully-integrated EMR/PM package, or either module can be configured to operate as a standalone solution. Centricity Practice Solution also has the built-in tools and forms that enable it to connect to virtually any hospital EMR or revenue cycle system, thus enabling providers to share data with multiple delivery networks in order to offer more coordinated, data-driven care.

“Centricity Practice Solution gives our customers a leg up on transitioning to ICD-10 coding standards,” said Mike Friguletto, vice president and general manager of GE Healthcare IT.  “Our customers that choose to upgrade will be thrilled with the one-click problem entry and ability to continue to customize workflows. It’s truly a game-changer.”

*Registered trademark of General Electric Corp.

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About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems.

Our “healthymagination” vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on increasing access and improving quality and affordability around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employees are committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com. For our latest news, please visit http://newsroom.gehealthcare.com.

January 24, 2013 I Written By

John Lynn is the Founder of the HealthcareScene.com blog network which currently consists of 15 blogs containing almost 5000 articles with John having written over 2000 of the articles himself. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 9.3 million times. John also recently launched two new companies: InfluentialNetworks.com and Physia.com, and is an advisor to docBeat. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can also be found on Twitter: @techguy and @ehrandhit.

UCare Selects Edifecs as Strategic Partner for ICD-10 Migration

Today Edifecs announced a new ICD-10 customer partnership with non-profit Minnesota health plan, UCare. Edifecs will support the healthcare system’s transition to ICD-10 through its solution which will ensure operational and financial neutrality. Edifecs’ ICD-10 Solution will prepare the health system’s technical team and clinical staff with the risk associated with the transition and provide a clear picture of how the technology will help them manage the migration without disrupting service to our members.

Nonprofit Health Plan Deploys Edifecs ICD-10 Solution to Mitigate Risk and Achieve Mandate Compliance 

Bellevue, Wash. — December 17, 2012  Edifecs, Inc., a leading healthcare software provider specializing in regulatory compliance solutions for healthcare providers and health plans, today announced that Minnesota-based UCare health plan (UCare) has chosen Edifecs as its strategic partner for ICD-10.

UCare will deploy the Edifecs ICD-10 solution, which is designed to help health plans achieve operational and financial neutrality after the ICD-10 transition by providing greater ability to understand and mitigate risks during each transition stage. UCare will use the Edifecs ICD-10 solution for impact analysis to prioritize remediation and testing efforts, and then use its code-mapping capabilities to speed up the process and improve accuracy.

UCare is the fourth largest health plan in Minnesota, serving nearly 300,000 members in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Its Medicare health plans cover nearly 100,000 Medicare-eligible individuals.

“UCare is known for its high-touch approach to serving its members, and Edifecs brought that same level of customer care and expertise to solving our ICD-10 transition challenges,” said Rob Beauchamp, CIO at UCare. “After our initial training sessions, our technical team and even our clinical staff were enthusiastic about the Edifecs ICD-10 solution. The mapping and analytics capabilities provide a clear picture of how the technology will help us manage the transition without disrupting service to our members.”

The team at UCare was not only impressed with the Edifecs ICD-10 solution, but also the level of support and ICD-10 education provided by Edifecs. In helping UCare develop its overall ICD-10 transition strategy, the Edifecs team has shared best practices and lessons learned from previous deployments—particularly those that help smaller health plans manage risks and resource constraints that wouldn’t faze larger plans.

“UCare is taking a leadership role among regional health plans by effectively managing its transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 in a thoughtful, business-neutral way, and Edifecs is committed to ensuring UCare has the tools and expertise it needs to succeed,” said Sunny Singh, CEO of Edifecs. “Our partnership will help UCare manage the complexities of ICD-10 and quickly achieve compliance, while still maintaining the customer service focus the organization is known for.”

The conversion from ICD-9 coding standards to ICD-10 is one of the most comprehensive migration projects the country’s healthcare system will undergo. Because the vast majority of IT systems and many healthcare policies will be affected, the Edifecs’ ICD-10 solution is designed to help healthcare organizations understand where the impact will be greatest and then mitigate the financial and operational risks. The deadline for implementing the ICD-10 system is Oct. 1, 2014.

About UCare

UCare is an independent, nonprofit health plan providing health coverage and services to nearly 300,000 members in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. UCare serves more people from diverse cultures and more people with disabilities enrolled in Medical Assistance than any other health plan in Minnesota. Working in partnership with health care providers and community organizations, UCare serves Medicare-eligible individuals, families and individuals enrolled in Minnesota Health Care Programs such as MinnesotaCare and Medical Assistance, and adults with disabilities.

About Edifecs, Inc.

An industry leader since 1996, Edifecs provides healthcare software solutions that improve operational performance by streamlining the exchange of information among health plans, hospitals, and other healthcare organizations, while enabling compliance with current mandates such as HIPAA 5010 and ICD-10.

Today, more than 250 healthcare customers use Edifecs technology to unify transactions from any information channel source and input mechanism, while automating manual business processes such as enrollment, claims and payments management.

Edifecs is currently recognized as one of the 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies in the state of Washington, 100 Best Places to Work in the state of Washington, an Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private company and one of the 500 Fastest Growing Companies in North America by Deloitte. Edifecs is headquartered in Bellevue, WA. For more information, please visit www.edifecs.com.

December 31, 2012 I Written By