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Charge Capture Technology Receives Medical Attention

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No one can question the fact that technology is transforming the healthcare industry. Electronic Health Records have become standard in most hospital and clinic settings (though they are not particularly popular with most physicians), and mHealth is the new watchword of the telemedicine market. Despite this, many physicians still rely on paper-based billing processes which are notorious for their inefficiency and poor revenue conversions. But charge capture systems, a relatively new branch of healthcare information technology, are finally starting to be recognized in the medical community. Charge capture solutions directly address common problems with billing and coding – and a study conducted at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago (UIMCC), a tertiary care university medical center, illustrated the value of a charge capture solution in a hospital setting.

Billing and Coding before Charge Capture

The study, administered by the University of Illinois at their medical center, looked at the benefits of implementing a charge capture system. It was initially conceived to address the revenue problem posed by the increasing number of Medicare patients and decreasing physician reimbursement.

Before the adoption of charge capture, physicians relied on paper billing slips that were submitted every two weeks to the billing coordinator. The key problems with this approach were:

  • Physicians were unable to fill out the slips efficiently because of high patient volumes
  • Illegible handwritten data, causing as much as a 75% error rate in coding
  • Both the physician and billing coordinator having to rewrite billing slips
  • Discrepancy between data in the EMR and information on the billing slips
  • Manual verification process was time-consuming and flawed

Charge Capture Solution Implementation and Review

For the purposes of the study, a simple charge capture system was created with a desktop computer user interface. The key problems addressed by the study were the feasibility of implementing a paperless work flow, the practical challenges facing electronic implementation, and whether or not the addition of a billing interface for physicians (a charge capture system) would improve the billing process and increase the monetary reimbursement.

After six months of using the charge capture solution created by the University of Illinois researchers, the participating physicians were surveyed about their satisfaction. The survey indicated that the participants had a high preference for the charge capture system because of:

  • The ease of use
  • The ability to submit bills electronically
  • Online accessibility to the remote ICD-9 and CPT coding information
  • Paperless work flow
  • Clear user interface
  • More accurate and legible data

There were some problematic limitations in the study’s understanding of charge capture solutions. The brief amount of time spent developing the system meant that it was not as user-friendly or as well-designed as a commercial version would be. Their system also lacked access to patient information, meaning that doctors still had to consult charts. And there was no mobile component to their charge capture system, meaning that doctors could not use it at the point of care. Ultimately, the biggest problem with the study is that it could not demonstrate an increase in revenue, though it did make the billing process easier. But luckily for physicians who want to ease the coding process and boost their returns, there are more sophisticated charge capture systems on the market today.

Why Choose Charge Capture?

Charge capture solutions are categorized as health information systems, tools that “have been comprehensively adopted to assess the quality of care and outcomes, to improve the performance of health care providers, and to support health care information management.” [1] And as hospitals move toward a pay for performance structure, health information systems will become increasingly important not just for hospitals looking to maximize revenue but for doctors who want to ensure they are getting sufficient compensation.

Commercial charge capture solutions such as MediMobile’s mobile application directly address some of the key problems with the simple program used in this study. MediMobile’s user interface was meticulously designed over 5 years, and enables a patient to be billed in as few as three clicks. It also has a hospital interface feature that allows doctors to access face sheets from hospital feeds on their mobile devices. And the mobile component is as simple to use as the web portal, meaning that doctors can bill patients at the point of care.

The use of MediMobile can also be directly linked with an increase in physician and practice revenue. You can check out this case study on the use of our charge capture system by a Nephrology practice to see how MediMobile captured over $30,000 in lost revenue annually, per physician.If you think that your practice could benefit from a more efficient coding and billing process, get a free demo of our product today!

Sources:

[1] – University of Illinois Charge Capture System study



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