healthcare documentation – HEALTHCARE BEAT

ACMSS Applauds House Passage of VA Medical Scribe Pilot Act; Urges Scribe Certification

#VeteransAffairsMedicalScribePilotActof2017

ORANGE, Calif., August 24, 2017. The American College of Medical Scribe Specialists (ACMSS) applauds the passage last Friday of a bipartisan bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to create a pilot study in Veteran’s Administration hospitals to determine whether using Medical Scribes to assist physicians will help shorten the VA’s notoriously long wait times and ease other patient service problems. ACMSS only asks that the Senate modify the language in the bill to ensure the VA employs only Certified Medical Scribe Specialists.

The purpose of The Veterans Affairs Medical Scribe Pilot Act of 2017 (HR 1848), introduced by Rep. Phil Roe, M.D. (R-Tenn.), is to create a two-year medical scribe pilot program under which VA will increase the use of medical scribes at ten VA medical centers, employing 30 scribes in all. It is hoped that the use of medical scribes in the program will reduce the amount of time physicians spend on daily documentation so that they may increase the number of patients physicians can see and the amount of time physicians are spending with each patient. Every 180 days during the two-year program the VA will be required to report to Congress the programs effect’s on provider satisfaction, provider productivity, patient satisfaction, average wait time and the number of patients seen per day.

After the bill’s passage, Roe, who is Chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and a physician, released a statement on the purpose of the legislation. “Since the VA waitlist scandal broke three years ago, I’ve examined several ways to improve patient care for veterans, and one that came up repeatedly in discussions was cutting down on the time physicians spend entering data,” Roe said. “Many private-sector physicians report the use of medical scribes has a positive and meaningful impact on their ability to see patients. Scribes can help input patient data and allow physicians to focus on patient care and use their time more efficiently. That’s why I introduced legislation to start a pilot program to examine whether or not the use of medical scribes would have similar positive effects in the VA.”

ACMSS agrees with all of the elements contained in the Act, but is sending a letter to the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, asking for one change before the bill goes to the Senate for a vote. “If this legislation is approved in the Senate and the program goes forward, employing Medical Scribes to assist physicians at the VA will undoubtedly improve efficiencies and have the positive effect the bill proponents desire, and more,” said ACMSS Executive Director Kristin Hagen. “However, in approving the language, ACMSS urges the Senate to insist that only Certified Medical Scribe Specialists be used in the program. Medical scribes provide real-time documentation and increase practice efficiencies in a great number of areas outside of clinical documentation, but they must be certified.”

ACMSS is an independent certifying organization and works in compliance with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to meet national goals and initiatives of Meaningful Use of Certified Electronic Health Record Technology (CEHRT), and Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) and its Merit-Based Payment Incentive System (MIPS). Certified Medical Scribe Specialists also meet the “qualified people” standard in CEHRT and assist with the design and infrastructure to support ongoing transformative care and change.

The ACMSS certification program meets current and proposed CMS certification requirements toward use of EHRs through its Medical Scribe Certification & Aptitude Test (MSCAT). In addition to the overall certification exam, ACMSS provides specialty certifications in vascular medicine, dermatology, oncology, primary care, internal medicine, emergency medicine and general patient care, enabling access to all across the specialties.

“Employing Certified Medical Scribe Specialists is the best way that care providers get can ensure they get back the time and attention they need to join the evolution of the outpatient healthcare industry into a patient-centered system that focuses on integrative medicine, prevention, disease reversal and wellness,” Hagen said.

Please contact ACMSS directly at info@theacmss.org, visit our website at theacmss.org, or phone 800-987-3692 if you have any questions regarding the ACMSS program and/or materials.

Medical Document Services of Kansas, LLC (MDS) is a Wichita, Kansas healthcare document service specializing in Medical Billing, Medical Transcription, Scribe Services, and AzaleaHealth EHR. We provide efficient, accurate, affordable quality services for hospitals, clinics, and facilities of all sizes. Call 866-777-7264 today, or visit our website for more information. We have education programs in Medical Scribe Specialists. #MedicalTranscription #AzaleaHealthEHR #RevenueCycleManagement #MDSofKansas #MedicalBillingService #MedicalScribes

MDS Education Website

Did you know we have a site specifically for our education programs? It is a little more personal, and completely geared to answer all your questions about Medical Scribe Specialists and Medical Transcription, or Healthcare Documentation, education and careers. We are answering questions about wages, job demands and anything you can think of! Check it out today by visiting our newly designed website.

Medical Document Services of Kansas, LLC (MDS) is a Wichita, Kansas healthcare document service specializing in Medical Transcription, Revenue Cycle Management, AzaleaHealth EHR, and REAL-TIME solutions. We provide efficient, accurate, affordable quality services for hospitals, clinics, and facilities of all sizes. Call 866-777-7264 today, or visit our website for more information.

Clinical Documentation Trends – Must READ

I know you will want to read this over carefully. There are some VERY interesting points made in this study by the Health Business Group on healthcare documentation trends for the next several years. Please take time and read, as it is well worth it … (my medical transcription and healthcare documentation friends)!

Clinical_Documentation_Trends_2013_2016

“CLINICAL DOCUMENTATION TODAY
• Medical transcription is the most common form of documentation in the acute care market and is also utilized, though to a lesser extent, in the ambulatory space.
• About half of medical transcription is performed by provider organizations using their own staff; half is outsourced to Medical Transcription Service Organizations (MTSOs).
• Acute care providers frequently use both in-house and outsourced resources; ambulatory practices tend to use one or the other but not both.
• Most provider organizations type their transcription directly from audio files.
• A substantial portion of documentation is done using the electronic health record (EHR), especially in the ambulatory market.
• Despite increasing EHR penetration, health care providers express some uncertainty about the ability of EHRs to meet clinical documentation needs and to tell the complete patient story.
• A significant share of clinical documentation is still handwritten.

CLINICAL DOCUMENTATION IN 2016
• The clinical documentation market will undergo substantial change between 2013 and 2016.
• Documentation volume will continue to grow at approximately 2 to 3 percent per year.
• The use of EHRs for documentation will increase, especially in ambulatory settings.
• The use of front-end speech recognition to enter data into EHRs will grow faster than the use of keyboard and mouse.
• Integrated delivery networks (IDNs) will increasingly determine the method of clinical documentation for affiliated practices.
• Documentation on paper will vanish almost completely.
• Transcription will remain an important documentation method, but more of the market will be outsourced.
• There will be increasing use of back-end technology among those who continue to perform transcription in-house.
• New technologies such as Clinical Language Understanding (CLU) will enter the mainstream.
• The introduction of ICD-10 may increase the need for high-quality clinical documentation and Computer-Assisted Coding.”

Medical Document Services of Kansas, LLC (MDS) is a Wichita, Kansas healthcare document service specializing in Medical Transcription, Revenue Cycle Management, EHR technology, and REAL-TIME solutions. We provide efficient, accurate, affordable quality services for hospitals, clinics, and facilities of all sizes. Call 866-777-7264 today, or visit our website for more information.

MDS Crosses State Lines to Partner with Azalea Health

Wichita, KS (September 19, 2013) – Wichita-based medical document services company, MDS of Kansas (MDS) joins forces with Azalea Health (Azalea) to provide clients with a billing service and complete cloud-based electronic health records (EHR) solution, Azalea EHR.

For over 22 years MDS has delivered a variety of medical document services, including transcription, editing, EHR integration, and education programs throughout the Midwest. “The merging of advanced technology with continued emphasis on efficient and accurate healthcare documentation has created new demands on physicians. We offer REAL-TIME solutions while helping to improve cash flow, margins and efficiency.” says Donella Aubuchon, CEO of MDS.

MDS chose to partner with Azalea Health to offer a full range of healthcare billing services and EHR solutions to its clients. Aubuchon explains, “The specificity of documentation in the health record significantly impacts the administrative and financial side of a practice.” Azalea’s cloud-based software suite comes with a quality support team and a fully-integrated billing and claims management module which boasts an increase in billing accuracy and aids practices in earning 15% more in reimbursements. In addition to accuracy, Azalea provides a secure portal for users to both record and transmit sensitive data.

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About MDS of Kansas:
MDS of Kansas, L.L.C. is a small business located at 205 S. Hillside and offers Medical Transcription services, education programs for Medical Transcription and Medical Scribes, as well as Medical Billing & Coding services. For more information, visit www.MDSofKansas.com or call (866) 777-7264.

About Azalea Health
Azalea Health (Azalea) is a leading provider of cloud-based healthcare solutions and services. Azalea provides Electronic Health Records (EHR), Practice Management Systems (PMS), Electronic Prescribing (eRx), Laboratory Ordering and Resulting, Patient Health Records Portal, Telemedicine and Health Information Exchanges (HIE), as well as Revenue Cycle Management Services (RCM), and Precertification Services. For more information, visit www.AzaleaHealth.com or call (877) 777-7686.

Medical Document Services of Kansas, LLC (MDS) is a Wichita, Kansas healthcare document service specializing in Medical Transcription, Revenue Cycle Management, EHR technology, Medical Scribe education and REAL-TIME solutions. We provide efficient, accurate, affordable quality services for hospitals, clinics, and facilities of all sizes. Call 866-777-7264 today, or visit our website for more information.

Copy & Paste is not okay? Say what???

“Seventy-four to 90 percent of physicians use the copy/paste function in their EHRs, and between 20 to 78 percent of physician notes are copied text, according to a September AHIMA report.”

“It’s become such a compliance and payment problem that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius together with Attorney General Eric Holder wrote a letter last year to industry medical groups underscoring the seriousness of doctors “gaming the system, possibly to obtain payments to which they are not entitled.”

We have spent a lot of time educating our students and MTs about the deadliness of the copy/paste function in medical transcription. There can be serious errors made and the veteran healthcare documentation specialist has learned this over the last decade or two. However, it is apparently common to see this going on in the EHR. Take a look …

EHR copy and paste? Better think twice
Healthcare IT News
Who would have thought that something so simple as copy and paste could have such serious consequences? Speaking at the MGMA annual conference in San Diego, Diana Warner, director at AHIMA, confirmed the seriousness of inappropriately using copy and paste functions in electronic health records. And the government agrees — it’s no laughing matter.

Medical Scribe Details … salary details and job description

Medical Scribes are certainly the new buzz in many parts of the country, and making their way into the Midwest! We are halfway through our 2nd accelerated class and we look forward to sharing more information soon. In the meantime, so many inquiries are coming in about what the salary and future looks like, as well as a good job description.

This is a very good resource:

“There are many different jobs that can be done within the medical field. One such job is that of a medical scribe. A medical scribe is similar to a medical transcriptionist and a medical assistant rolled into one. You will be working side by side with a physician.

As a medical scribe, your main job will be to follow the doctor side by side and work with him to document all the procedures and interactions that the doctor has with the patient. In essence, they are a personal assistant to the doctor. The number one job of a medical scribe is to transcribe all that is happening into the medical records using a WOW or workstation on wheels system. This is wheeled around with the scribe so that they can document everything accurately into the medical records of the patient. This makes the medical records more accurate and allows the doctor to provide a higher level of care and attention to the patient. A scribe may also assist the doctor by ordering labs and other types of studies as ordered by the doctor. They will also notify the doctor when studies and labs are complete. They also provide discharge and admit orders for the patient.

Medical Scribe Salary:

The average medical scribe salary is about $12 an hour or $33,000 a year. This will depend on several factors such as the type of facility that you work in, the area that you work and even the amount of experience you have in a job. The starting medical scribe salary is around $22,000 an hour or about $10 an hour. The amount that you make will increase with the level of your work and also the more experience that you have. Highly trained and educated medical scribes can make as much as $46,300 a year. This is the same as an hourly medical scribe salary of $13 an hour. The medical scribe wage can also vary depending on the area of the United States that you live in. The best states to work out of that offer the highest medical scribe income are Texas, California and Florida.”

Medical Record for Medical Scribe learning

Do you know your E/M codes? How well do you know the medical record? Check out our presentation.

Re-Tooling … Medical Scribes

Are you thinking about bridging a career? Are you concerned about where healthcare is going in terms of the electronic medical record? There are so many questions, concerns and still unknowns in this industry, but one thing is sure: There ARE job opportunities in healthcare.

While there are still job opportunities in medical transcription, there are unknowns and plenty of competition. However, there are implications that ICD-10 will create more demand for transcription because of documentation requirements. Even if you are just not sure what you are doing and you are riding out the storm with medical transcription, or healthcare documentation specialists, getting your credentials could never be more important. More education is NEVER a bad idea! The time is right to RE-TOOL. Why not add another dimension to your skill-set.

MEDICAL SCRIBES – we have classes starting in September with online delivery!

See what The ACCIM has to say:

“Certified medical scribes are a key facet in solving today’s healthcare challenges, and employment dilemmas, utilizing effective model and solutions through real-time partnership with clinical documentation encounters.” read more …

Dear lawmakers: This is what it’s like to be a doctor today

This is a really good article, please read it! It’s a letter from Matthew Moeller a gastroenterologist. This article originally appeared onCaduceusBlog.

I am writing this letter because I feel that our leaders and lawmakers do not have an accurate picture of what it actually entails to become a physician today; specifically, the financial, intellectual, social, mental, and physical demands of the profession.

You may ask why do we do all of this? It’s because we have pride in what we do. We truly care for the well-being of the human race. We have been conditioned to think, act, talk, and work as a very efficient machine, able to handle emotions, different cultures, different ranges of intellect, all to promote the health of America. We are doctors.

My true wish is to illustrate the sacrifices doctors do make because I feel we are not represented when laws are made.

MDS’ Wichita State University Coop Student … Sydney Blanton!

Entrepreneurship and Management Experience Combined

Sydney Blanton’s experience atMDS of Kansas, a 22-year-old Kansas grown, document service business specializing in healthcare documentation, has been beneficial since the beginning. “Since day one, I have been helping with the marketing and growth of the business through forming and organizing potential client lists, brainstorming and working with direct mailers and newsletters, making cold calls, and working on the business Facebook and Twitter page,” said Sydney, a senior at WSU majoring in entrepreneurship and management.

This experience has giving her the opportunity see both the management and entrepreneurship side of starting and running a successful business. “I see that running your own business requires a strong, motivated, unique person with the drive and energy to see it grow. You need a strong talented team with their own unique experiences and talents to bring to the table. I have learned a lot about what kind of work environment I would like to be a part of,” said Sydney.

This co-op experience has solidified Sydney’s choice of study while at WSU, and she has her eyes set for the future. “Majoring in entrepreneurship and management was the best choice for me. I have had the opportunity to gain experience that will help me transition from college into a career that love,” said Sydney.