In today’s day and age, it’s fair to say that immunizations could be one of the most costly aspects of pediatric healthcare (and perhaps healthcare overall). The cost of vaccinations has skyrocketed in the last decade. In 1986, the average cost to fully vaccinate a child with private insurance to the age of 18 was just ...

Artificial intelligence has been the stuff of stories for years - it’s a buzzword that has infiltrated conversations about technology in all industries. Thought leaders have lauded the possible uses of AI in chat bots, virtual assistants, when interpreting lab results, by improving clinical documentation, when treating ...

On October 12, 2017, President trump issued an Executive Order that alters some of the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a.k.a Obamacare.  The objective is stated as “promoting healthcare choice and competition across the united states.” The administration has chosen three aspects to ...

Ideally, an EHR manages any messages sent between the patient and the doctor through patient portals or telephone calls; messages about the care coordination between the provider facility or outside providers; referrals and feedback; incoming lab results through electronic interfaces or through faxes; and a series of ...

EHR System usage is cited as one of the causes increasing burnout in healthcare providers, which could lead to a number of other issues like “rise in unprofessional behaviour, a drop in patient satisfaction and a greater chance that a doctor will make a major medical error.” According to Dr. John Rogers, MD, one ...

More than 300 million people around the world suffer from depression. 264 million suffer from anxiety. Today, our society is gradually chipping away at the stigma surrounding mental health and illness. It’s becoming an increasingly important focus in our technological world. The World Psychiatry journal recently ...

An EHR is meant to help and ease the lives of doctors. According to a recent study by the Annals of Family Medicine, they’re having the opposite effect. During an 11.4 hour workday, primary care physicians end up spending 5.9 hours on EHR related tasks. As a result the American Medical Association (And Others) is unhappy ...

  By: Shameem Hameed Today, it’s American citizenship day, a chance to reflect back on the last couple of decades. In 2001, I was living an Indian expatriate’s life in Saudi Arabia, trying to put my entrepreneurial skills to work in a software startup. This wasn’t my first rodeo in the software ...

Many of you already know what a clearinghouse is. For the uninitiated, a claims clearinghouse is the conduit through which claims are submitted to various insurance companies. However, most clearinghouses do much more: they enable providers to check eligibility, check the status of and scrub claims, and retrieve payment ...

  Natural disasters can’t be avoided. Sometimes they come at us when we least expect it. They wreak havoc and then leave us to pick up the pieces. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma brought this issue to the forefront: during a storm, or, really any other natural disaster, people get hurt. More than ever these are the ...

When the government passed MACRA in 2015, our law makers moves away from pay-for-performance programs that focus on volume of care, and adjusted to reemphasize quality of care instead. The regulation establishes standards that, if done properly, can truly improve quality of care across the industry. The primary purpose of ...

Every practice is different. Every patient is different. And yet the healthcare tech industry tries to apply the same few solutions to every practice, provider and patient. This issue presents itself in a few different ways but for the sake of our readers (and myself as a writer) we’ll just focus on and discuss one: EHR ...

What if we lived in a world where no matter your background, where you lived,  or what your income, you could get the best healthcare a doctor could provide? What if, just because you didn’t have internet, it didn’t stop a doctor from having your latest info? What if instead of having your data stored on a piece of ...

Stealth, secrecy, cool code names. These are all things you would find in a Bourne movie - and they’re also things that you would find when in Amazon’s quiet, exploration into the EHR market. “Amazon has started a secret skunkworks lab dedicated to opportunities in healthcare, including new areas such as ...

We’ve been writing about the gender gap in the tech field for – by now – decades, but the last few days have seen a dramatic resurgence in the conversation. If you haven’t heard of the male Google employee who wrote and circulated a 10-page document on diversity and gender bias, here’s a link. A lot of ...

Healthcare, like many other industries, is going through a transformation as technology becomes more affordable and big data becomes more useful. As a result, this healthcare IT crossover has led to several relatively new regulations that force providers to work closely with their associated IT teams. Many are struggling ...

On June 26, Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a huge opportunity for community health centers across the United States - $195 million of an opportunity. The funding is specifically allocated and meant for community health organizations to expand access to mental health and substance abuse services. The ...

  We understand that healthcare technology - let alone electronic health records - is a niche field. Regardless, there are giants within our industry who were revolutionizing this kind of tech from the start. Their work has a big impact on the systems we use today and how we treat healthcare, in general. One ...

“How do I motivate my team in a positive way?” I’ve received this question from a number of our team leads and, although I did reply from a lot of my own experience, this most recent time the question really made me wonder what motivates our people, and workers in general. I am sure some you have heard about ...

  Patient portal is essential for patient engagement and patient engagement is integral to successful healthcare management. Giving patients access to their own health data means that doctors’ practices and hospitals can prioritize care for those with more pressing concerns. However, even with the mandated ...

  The EHR business is one of the fastest growing businesses in the world today, with an adoption rate that has gone up 27% in only five years. Due to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), doctors in the U.S. have no choice but to rely on them, and in turn, more EHR companies are rising to meet the need. But, perhaps ...

What if someone gets a hold of your banking information? What if your account passwords are stolen? These are worries that plague every person who has ever had their information online -- they are also relevant to the world of Electronic Health Records(EHR). EHR might not be something that the average person uses on ...

During EHR implementation, it can become confusing to successfully navigate federal and locally-mandated requirements for regulations concerning HIPAA and Meaningful Use. For many healthcare practices, Meaningful Use attestation has become less of a collaboration in good patient care, and more of a headache - but it ...

Electronic health records (EHR) systems are now one of the most important investments a hospital or independent practice will make. EHRs influence practice management, information security, the organization's bottom line, and even patient safety. But EHRs can also be difficult to decode, particularly for smaller ...

  EHR and EMR have been in our vocabulary for nearly 20 years. Since the 1990's, clinical environments have increasingly relied on technology to function and improve patient care. Today, our methods are becoming incredibly sophisticated, particularly following the application of Stage 3 of Meaningful Use in ...

The advent of electronic health records (EHR) systems was built on a foundation of improving patient care. Establishing infrastructures that support highly accurate patient data, closing gaps in communication between healthcare providers, and securely storing records are all among the goals of a certified EHR system. To ...

EHR systems did not appear overnight. Since the Institute of Medicine's strong endorsement of computerized medical records in 1991, developers and providers have worked closely to employ the use of information technology to improve patient care. Modern applications like today's integrated and robust EHR systems is simply an ...

Every component of a successful electronic medical records system implementation requires a thoughtful, strategic approach. Naturally, this includes EMR training, and one of the best places to start is to establish roles and expectations for all parties involved to ensure smooth implementation and effective training. It's ...

The importance of end-user training cannot be over emphasised for a successful electronic medical records system implementation. While this information is nothing new, administrators and providers may still find it difficult to determine when EMR training has been effective. Fortunately, there are performance indicators and ...

It can be difficult for a healthcare organization to estimate the cost of an EMR implementation, let alone individual components such as training. However, the ability to predict and estimate EMR training costs can immensely influence training road maps, expectations, and even the overall success of an electronic medical ...

Transitioning to a new EMR system is more than simply swapping hardware or adding computers to exam rooms; it changes the way you do healthcare. But despite the well-known importance of a thoughtfully designed implementation process, end-user training is often under-emphasized. From small, single-provider practices to large ...

More than ever before, healthcare organizations and medical practices have access to resources and evidence-based EMR training programs developed from years of implementations across the globe. These insights contribute to best practices in EMR training that can help ensure an effective training period and overall ...

  Electronic health record (EHR) systems are an enormous investment. This investment comes in the form of time, labor, and of course, money. Whether a medical practice chooses to host an on-site EHR system or subscribe to a web-based system, these costs demand significant planning and preparation. Understanding ...

Whether for practice administrators, health records system vendors, or providers themselves, anyone in the medical community affected by EHR systems should keep an eye on cost-affecting industry trends. The reason is simple. Predicting EHR Cost impact can not only save on financial investments down the line but also help to ...

Typically speaking, technological advancement drives down costs.  This trend leaves many in the medical profession scratching their heads as to why EHR systems still cost so much. It is important to understand this phenomenon to both adequately prepare for the future of electronic health records and to understand the ...

Typically speaking, technological advancement drives down costs.  This trend leaves many in the medical profession scratching their heads as to why EHR systems still cost so much. It is important to understand this phenomenon to both adequately prepare for the future of electronic health records and to understand the ...

Choosing to adopt a SaaS (Software as a Service) EHR model has significant benefits over implementing your EHR using in-house technology and servers. This is particularly true for smaller practices. But not all models of web based EHR services are identical. There are numerous combinations of scope and price, making the ...

Following the implementation of an electronic health records (EHR) system, EHR optimization should be the next critical objective for a medical practice. One way to plan a road-map for optimization is to generate benchmarks. Below are three important benchmarks to help your practice determine if you're getting the most ...

Customizing an EHR system can be one of the best ways to improve workflow and efficiency in a medical practice. But the impact of designing and implementing tailored systems doesn't end at providers and their staff; a well-planned and implemented EHR can positively affect practice administration, medical partners, and ...

Customizing an EHR can offer incredible benefits to a medical practice, but it is critical to understand the cost-benefit analysis of customization before implementation for the benefit of the practice and the health of its patients. Customization is a common path for modern practices; research from Medical Economics ...

One of the most critical steps in mapping an ideal EHR system is to evaluate processes and workflow in a medical practice. A thorough and well-defined process map lays the foundation for the tools, features, and modules an EHR system will need to elevate the efficiency and productivity of providers and their staff. The ...

Like any practice-wide implementation, a successful electronic health system relies on leadership and coordination. Because an EHR system impacts an entire practice, an effective leadership team should comprise a number of individuals from practice administration to physicians, to nurses or technicians, to billing, and ...

Electronic health records shouldn't be frustrating. However, many providers are finding themselves disappointed or aggravated by EHR systems that don't provide the tools they need to support the very best care for their patients. In fact, the American Academy of Family Physicians has noted a 30 percent decrease in ...

While the primary function of an EHR is self explanatory, there are myriad uses of your EHR data that can be tapped by a medical practice. Tools that put data to work can be beneficial not only for patients, but can improve the functionality, efficacy, and revenue of the practice. Getting the Most out of Your ...

The concept of healthcare and EHR data ownership carries many implications for patients, providers, and medical practices. While experts agree that EHR vendors do not own the data, this has not prevented vendors from winning court disputes that resulted in serious financial losses for medical providers. Because of this, ...

It's common knowledge that the EHR Data Backup for your medical practice is critical for protecting against devastating losses of patient data in the event of a natural disaster, system glitch, or hardware failure. But practices should go further than simply backing their data up; testing these backup and restoration ...

EHR Data Migration can look daunting. But there are many reasons a practice may wish to migrate its EHR data. But even after weighing costs and benefits of porting data elsewhere, some practices choose to avoid a potentially beneficial migration because of the complicated nature of the transition. However, there are many ...

Gathering EMR implementation lesson learned from other practices EMR implementation projects is a way to ensure you are not making the same mistakes. If your small medical practice has finally committed to an EMR implementation, you must now do your homework to identify the pitfalls of EMR projects and make plans to ...

As the medical sector moves into a new age of digital patient data, the transition brings with it a crop of new challenges for medical practitioners to overcome and new questions to be answered. Among the most confounding questions is that of EMR patient data and who has the right to control it. Why You Should Care About ...

Every person loves technology just because it makes your life easy. Each day a new problem is discovered, a solution is also researched for. This is how the tech world is growing each day. Just like the synapses connecting neurons in the human body, every doctor would like an interface which connects his entire clinical ...

In the world of big data and analytics it is important that every sector gets a sip of ‘being data-driven’. The global market is looking for space which will increase their reach and reduce pressure in utilizing resources in a cost efficient way. The health industry is under pressure to reduce costs but at the same time ...

MACRA providing expanded opportunity to drive higher quality, lower cost care Discovering that Medicare and private sector claims data have a great role in providing an improved care, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed rules that aim to drive quality and patient care improvement. According ...

“The technology you use impresses no one. The experience you create with it is everything” -Sean Gerety The Doctor may say "I’m not a techie" but no one has to be a techie to try a technology. The eyes of a doctor are strong enough to discover the most deadly disease in a human being, and then why not try the eyes ...

The Practice Profitability Index, a survey of more than 5,000 physicians provides an annual window into the issues affecting the financial and operational health of physician practices across the US. This year’s PPI revealed room for cautious optimism, with the share of physicians forecasting a negative ...

Telemedicine benefits when your patients are remotely located, you have a unique expertise or you want to add a secondary service to your medical group. The concept of tele-health is spreading faster than expected and the American College of Physicians is giving advice to doctors who connect with patients remotely. The ...

Linking high blood pressure and cognitive impairment. The National Institute of Health’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is launching a public health education campaign named ‘Mind your risks’ to create awareness about the link between blood pressure and cognitive ...

The Middle East and Arabs have been part of American politics for the better part of the last 100 years. We have influenced the course of their history like no other nation, and they have influenced our foreign policy substantially for almost the same amount of time. We have always looked at them with curios apprehension ...

It is important to comply with HIPAA for medical providers and medical groups because non compliance can cost fines of up to $50,000 or more for a violation. As per HHS’ OCR (Office of Civil Rights) which implements HIPAA, correction actions are mostly needed in private practices. Other medical facilities that require ...

In February 2015, around 80 million people were affected by healthcare data breach at Health insurer Anthem. In January same year 11 million patient data was compromised at the Premera BlueCross BlueShield. Recently more than 10 million protected patient record was illegally accessed at Excellus BlueCross Blue ...

You know it is complicated to run a medical practice, try to follow the innumerable rules and regulations and supervise the medical billing staff all by yourself. The administrative task of a well maintained medical group takes away the valuable time of practice administrators, physicians and CFOs. The change to ICD-10 ...

Total health expenditure increases as millions obtain coverage and the cost of prescription drug increases; spending growth remains at low rates as seen prior to the Affordable Care Act Per-capita health spending increased by 4.5 percent in 2014 and overall health spending increased by 5.3 percent indicates a research by ...

If you want to know about the practice profitability Index sentiments of over 5000 physicians in the United States, here are few points: Physicians are starting to feel more positive about their business profitability. It is true that there are many challenges, but solutions are also coming up to help them, according to ...

This is a statement from Dr. Griffin P. Rodgers, Director, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases on the National Diabetes Month. November is National Diabetes Month and November 14 was World Diabetes Day. In significance to this month’s observation for Diabetes the National Institute of ...

Health industry is now Mobile! And we know that there is no looking back, since the use of mobile in the health industry is set to increase and the FDA has put regulations in place for health apps to suit the changes. The use of mobile apps is so popular that the number of health apps has exceeded 100,000 especially for ...

Texting is the most popular feature of a smartphone and 97% of Americans sent texts to their friends and family because texting is easy, quick and an effective method to communicate. However, texting is considered as an unsafe method of communication for healthcare purposes. In the healthcare world there are many rules that ...

Picture this scenario from a doctors’ perspective. A 61 year old man comes into the room complaining of his feet slowly changing shades to a brownish red.  On examination there is swelling of both feet, the marks are scattered brown flecks on otherwise normal colored feet, however it is definitely spreading from the ...

Most practice managers and providers are busy with daily operations of medical practice but monitoring the financial performance of a clinic is important for a medical practice to gauge its success as a business. Clinicians responsible for the business progress of the clinic must invest time to evaluate the performance from ...

Medical specialties have different software requirements depending on the functionality of the practice. The following are the details pertaining to the demands of internal medicine in 2015 and how health IT solutions can help internists minimize efforts and complexities. Internist’s Perspective A software solution that ...

Health IT took a massive step forward when the then President George W. Bush passed an executive order in 2004 to establish a national coordinator. The vision of such a measure was to create a nationwide, secure interoperable network that would enable authorized users to access medical records of any patient, anytime, ...

A copy of electronic medical record is of great use for patients in the course of their treatment, but physicians and hospitals are reluctant to provide it free of cost. Taxpayers have already paid partly for hospitals to maintain electronic health record systems to reduce the cost of creating copies. However, hospitals ...

 Here are answers to questions that may arise after the transition to ICD-10. What if a provider has a problem due to the transition to ICD-10 after October 1, 2015? CMS knows that migrating to ICD-10 would be a challenge to medical practices. Therefore CMS is set to implement a communication and collaboration ...

Medicare and Medicaid celebrate the 50th anniversary of protecting the well being and health of seniors, low-income individuals and people with disabilities. On the occasion, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have released the new state wise Medicare enrollment numbers that show more than 55 million Americans ...

It is common for most people to know the price before making a purchase. Similarly, patients like to know the cost of a new medication, physician visit or stay in a hospital before deciding where to go for healthcare. This is because people do not like to be surprised with a pricey bill after the treatment. Consumer ...

Affordable Care Act has been working towards increasing the number of insured Americans. If this becomes a reality, are the U.S. physicians equipped to handle the influx of newly insured patients? Since ACA open enrollment began in 2013, the number of insured Americans continues to increase. A comparison of uninsured ...

There are different ways for checking insurance eligibility of patients based on the process and procedure of your office and the insurance carrier. Patient eligibility is important for the income and productivity of a medical practice. The process involves important questions you should ask and verify with the insurance ...

Patient no-show is same as getting stood up. However, the difference is no-shows result in loss of practice money, instead of the waste of time. Estimates indicate that patient no-shows cost $150,000 per year for an individual physician. When the cost is put together for the U.S.healthcare system as a whole the amount is ...

How to find a HIPAA compliant Data Backup Service Nowadays you have to make prudent decisions while purchasing a practice management system, a user-friendly EHR, and also while choosing the type of computer the practice staff will use. It is common for us to think of data backup in terms of a hard drive or an external ...

About 17 million more Americans are now eligible to get health insurance coverage since the enrollment started following the Affordable Care Act. The number includes around 11 million people who have enrolled through the state and federal insurance exchanges and a few through the new employee-sponsored health ...

In the first 3 years the system has saved $820 million from flowing into the wrong hands CMS (Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services) has reported that the agency’s Fraud Prevention System (FPS) has prevented fraudulent Medicaid payment in the amount of $820 million with the help of its advanced analytics ...

By: Sajeesh Jinaraj What is ICD-10? ICD-10-CM is the 10th revision of an international coding system used around the world, the International Classification of Diseases. The United States, which as of now uses ICD-9, will be one of the last developed nations to move to ICD-10, which much of the world has been utilizing for ...

Patient no-shows are one of the most vexing issues in managing a medical practice. When a patient doesn’t cancel in advance with adequate notice or simply doesn’t show up for their appointment, the practice loses a block of billable time they could have used to see other patients. THE TRUE COST OF NO-SHOWS According ...

Stage 3 of Meaningful Use, more than 25% of a healthcare provider’s patients must actively engage with their electronic health records, presumably via a patient portal in most cases. Many of the inefficiency problems plaguing doctors and hospitals will allegedly be solved with the help of patient portals, as they’ll ...

Meaningful Use of electronic health records (EHR) began as a goal of the 2009 Hitech Act. Healthcare providers were instructed to not simply adopt EHR, but to leverage EHR as a tool for improved efficiency and, ultimately, superior patient care. A total of $30 billion in incentives is to be paid out to providers who meet ...

SECURITY When dealing with highly sensitive patient records security should be your number one concern. A do it yourself approach is not recommended.  If one were to ask on the message board what the HIPAA requirements are for security, you would get answers ranging from “lock it down like area 51” to “just keep ...

A certain doctor’s practice had been using EHR software for many years; they had been paying a pretty penny too.  For their own reasons they wanted to change their software. They were going to brave the uncertain and scary world of transitioning their current EHR to another one. A round of applause for that decision ...

On New Year’s Day, I bought myself a double espresso at a Starbucks using their app. You see, a couple of days ago I had lost my credit cards and cash. I had no cash or credit cards in my possession and still I was able to pay for a variety of things in order to stock up and weather the next ten days, until my new cards ...

Recently, news broke in Modern Healthcare about the “American Medical Association calling for an overhaul of a federal program to test and certify electronic health-record systems for suitability in the EHR incentive-payment program. Its request has been joined by 34 other medical specialty societies and healthcare ...

Being the lead developer of OpenEMR,  I field calls on a daily basis from people who want to implement the open source EMR.  As part of the due diligence to discover and deliver the best possible outcome for the client I give them different options that they could consider. Part of that option is blueEHR.  to which I get ...

When you consider a new EMR, it’s natural to focus on the software and the technology. However, it’s important to remember the people who will be using the system. Your practice might as well be throwing money down a hole if the staff members don’t adopt the new system and revert to their old methods of doing things. ...

In my previous blog I wrote about the unenviable position of the physicians community in the United States. Continuing in that vein, I want to give you this image of how impossible their position is. Most doctors are small business owners. So they not only have the responsibility of providing care to their patients, but ...

Rumors about the death of OpenEMR are greatly exaggerated Recently I found an article online that posed the question, “Will OpenEMR die?”  The author was trying to explain why he chose to cut his own path into developing a proprietary EMR.  He says that OpenEMR lacks critical pieces and he found the community had ...

“Hey, the EHR market is saturated, we don’t really think there is any play left there,”  this comment came from a reputable VC in the healthcare industry.  And I sat there wondering what it is that he is talking about.  Every single day I am taking calls from doctors who want an EHR that suits them, and they ...

Quality health care isn’t always affordable to those that need it. Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and free health clinics provide services to nearly 20 million patients in under served populations. Delivering high quality patient care on a tight budget is hard so ZH Healthcare has created a new program to help ...

A patient portal is one of the important features for an Electronic Medical Records system.  ZH Healthcare is proud to present an offsite patient portal that is secure and boasts features that are state of the art.  ZH Healthcare’s Patient Portal service may be used with any OpenEMR based system and accessed from ...

Health care providers have relied on paper records since the birth of modern medicine. Each practice was an island unto itself, and the transfer of information was slow and cumbersome. Even when practices began moving to electronic records, there was no easy way to transmit patient data from one provider to the next. Now ...

Just a few years ago, practices had very little choice when selecting a Health Information Exchange (HIE) provider. Some areas were only covered by a single provider. Now practice managers can choose from federal, state or private HIE vendors, all vying for your practice’s business. The number of choices can be ...

WHAT IS EMR INTEROPERABILITY? EMR Interoperability is the ability to effectively communicate health information electronically.  There are two fundamental components.  The first is the ability to securely transport the data and the second is the ability to interpret and use that data.  Stage 2 Meaningful Use sets ...

When choosing an electronic health record (EHR) system, providers have the choice of hosting the software on their own network (client-server) or an EHR system where the software is hosted on a remote server accessed through the Internet (cloud-based). While both systems have advantages over paper records, cloud based ...

Rising healthcare costs are a huge concern for everyone, but many small medical practices suffer from self-inflicted injuries that could be avoided.  Failure to fully capitalize on the services performed, poor revenue cycle management, and underutilized resources are just some of the examples.  Here are five problems that ...

Independent research firms Aeffect and 88 Brand Partners conducted a nationwide online survey of 1,000 Americans ages 25-55 in December 2012. The respondents were patients who had some form of health insurance, had seen a physician within the previous three years, and had a regular doctor. The survey consisted of 40 ...

When choosing an EMR, it’s important that the software is well organized and fits into your existing workflow. An EMR is not a one-size-fits-all solution, and while the software may work on a basic level out of the box, the cost of an EMR that doesn’t suit your needs are high. An ill-suited EMR can lead to pushback from ...

With government incentives on the line and the threat of potential penalties, many practices are rushing to purchase and implement an EHR system. Unfortunately, a few common mistakes can scuttle your EHR implementation before you even getting started with the software. 1. NOT ENOUGH PREPARATION Many practices rush into ...

Due in part to government incentives, many small medical practices are switching from storing paper records to keeping electronic copies of their patients’ medical records in a computer system. These systems are called Electronic Medical Records (EMR) or Electronic Health Records (EHR). Many people use the terms ...

No business can survive long without income.  Healthcare practices are no different and have heightened revenue risk due to the complexity and variations of different payers. There are several ways a healthcare practice can maximize collections and minimize the amount of time and money lost to non-payment or delayed ...

The Affordable Care Act will add approximately 32 million previously uninsured patients to the health care roster in 2014. These new participants in the healthcare system will be looking for doctors willing and able to accept new patients.  Some providers will see this as a crisis, while others will see it as an ...

In a recent article we identified challenges that small practices face when they are looking to upgrade to a modern EMR system. Here we will identify actions that will help you ensure your EMR implementation is successful. SELECTING THE RIGHT EMR PARTNER Not every EMR is suitable for every practice. The right EMR partner ...

Electronic medical record (EMR) systems can offer real benefits to health care providers of all sizes, but small practices face challenges larger providers can hand off to an internal IT department or external consultants.   Here are a few of the biggest challenges and how they can affect your practice. TIME ...

Revenue management is one of the top concerns of small medical practices.  Disruptions, even small ones, can have a huge impact on your financial health.  When you rely on a billing services provider to manage your revenue, you display a tremendous trust in them, but tolerating poor performance from your billing service ...

In 2005, RAND Corporation released an influential report on Electronic Medical Records that predicted adoption rates up to 90% and health care savings of $81 billion per year. In a new report released in January 2013, RAND revisited the subject of EMRs and found an overall lack of progress. “We’ve not achieved the ...

According to a 2012 report published by the Centers for Disease Control, in 2011 41% of the office-based physicians who used electronic medical records were using a cloud-based EMR. The lower cost, security against media theft and ease of sharing information between medical personnel and institutions will ensure more ...

Practices using OpenEMR have an invaluable feature in ZH Healthcare’s Patient Portal. When practices transition to OpenEMR either from paper or by converting from expensive or advertisement-oriented EMR’s, the inclusion of ZH Healthcare’s Patient Portal is straightforward and manageable. All practices using OpenEMR ...

While many people think of electronic medical records as a recent development, EMRs have been around in one form or another for decades. Whether you're looking to replace a legacy EMR or a newer system that doesn't fit your practice, you're not alone. A survey of 17,000 EMR users conducted by Black Book in February 2013 ...

Although the compliance date is not until October 1, 2014, it is time to begin planning and preparing for the transition.  The following are the questions, along with our response, that you can use in your planning process when speaking with your vendors regarding their ICD-10 readiness. 1. WILL I HAVE TO PAY ANYTHING TO ...

If you are covered by the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA), and all medical providers are, then you will be required to transition to ICD-10 on October 1, 2014.  Now is the time to begin the planning process.  The process to transition will vary depending on the type of organization you are. Here ...

  Selecting the right billing service provider is easier with the right criteria in mind. When small practices seek to improve their financial performance, they are often faced with the decision to outsource billing services or maintain them in-house.  If you are trying to make the decision to outsource your billing ...

ZH OpenEMR Patient Portal is the dynamic engine that is rapidly changing and enhancing the patient-physician connection.  With most patients becoming more and more fluent with personal computers and being online, the conversion into Patient Portal has been one of ease and convenience. Patients have felt empowered with the ...

If you’re looking for a way to reduce costs and narrow the communication gap between patients and healthcare providers, welcome to the Internet portal service that renders itself available at any time of the day or night. Provide your patients with preventative care twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week in a ...