APRIL MARKS the coming of spring, and with the new season, many of us think of where we’ve come from and where we are going. This time of year also marks a very special new beginning that we started four years ago — this publication! In April 2011, we launched the very first edition of […]
Publisher’s Closing Thoughts: Happy anniversary, Central Florida Health News! Read More »
Healthcare Providers Prepare for Major Billing Code Change Medical providers are grappling with ideas and making plans for a major change to their bill coding system on October 1, when an upgrade from ICD-9 to ICD-10 will affect all diagnoses and inpatient procedures. Learning the code is like learning a foreign language, and they have
Getting ready to flip the switch on ICD-10 Read More »
Avoiding the ‘Deer in the Headlights Look’ When it Comes to Compliance Oftentimes, a client asks me why I can’t just make a “simple” HIPAA solution. That is what they really need and want because they are just too busy dealing with all the other obligations in their office and life to take on HIPAA
Simple HIPAA check list (well, sort of) Read More »
Over six million Americans abuse prescription opioids, stimulants, or sedatives, and more men and women now die from prescription drug overdoses than die from all other drug or alcohol overdoses. This epidemic is often attributed to the skyrocketing numbers of prescriptions being written for these medications, which not only puts more of them directly in
How physicians can prevent prescription drug abuse through education Read More »
Recovering Funds, Preventing Fraudulent Activity, and Exercising Compliance The federal government has revved up its battle against Medicare fraud, recovering more than $14.9 billion during the last three years. Now a new proposed rule from the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Department would increase rewards to those who help the government recover funds. The
War on Medicare fraud intensifies Read More »
Calling it Quits: Planning to Retire from Your Medical Career Physicians can put in 12+-hour days, then be on-call during the weekend. Vacations may be punctuated by interruptions to check on patients via the Internet or take phone calls from office staff. So doctors may secretly— or not so secretly— long for the day they
Avoiding the rabbit holes of retirement planning Read More »
Moving your office from fax to encrypted email Physician’s offices are under increasing pressure to produce a more efficient, compliant, and secure workflow to handle all aspects of patient communications. Industry risks, government regulations, and staffing costs drive the savvy Office Manager to continually scout out better processes for communicating critical information and building a
Modernizing patient records workflow Read More »
What Medical Offices Can Do to Protect Patients and Staff Identity theft. When our credit card is lost or stolen, we usually can count on our credit company as an ally. But when someone uses our medical records to tap into our insurance benefits or defraud the government, we can’t just order a new
Investigating how to thwart medical ID crimes Read More »
Electronic medical records are meant to save time and money, but they also can create liability issues for doctors. Reprinted with permission from American Medical News. Copyright © 2012 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Defense attorney Catherine J. Flynn knows how electronic medical records can overwhelm — and often change — the course
Legal risks of going paperless Read More »
When asking, “What’s the standard of medical advertising?” That’s a simple question to answer: new medical staff, the latest equipment, or latest ratings from U.S. News and World Report are just some of the qualities we look for in a medical ad. But what other messages can the medical industry send out to the public?
Breaking the mold of medical advertising Read More »
