All practices have felt the push to Electronic Health Records(EHR). Whether you have already complied or are holding off, there are definite benefits to making the change.

The first and maybe the most important is legibility. We have all heard the jokes about “doctor's handwriting”, but handwriting in general is typically far less readable than a typed record. Illegible records can definitely be the cause of patient mistreatment. It is commonly known to cause inaccurately filled prescriptions. Legibility and how it can prevent medical errors is one of the main “pros” for the implementation of EHR.

As the health and safety of the patient is always first and foremost, it is important to also consider how easily read medical records can assist your practice in maximizing your claim reimbursement in several ways.

All Commercial payers as well as CMS, reserve the right to deny any service they deem not reasonable and necessary.

By utilizing an EHR system, you can avoid claim payment denials by having decipherable clinical notes and supporting documentation. The EHR system will automatically assign the date, time and appropriate service provider to the medical record. It will also update this information as necessary when changes are made to the record insuring complete and accurate tracking of the patient's treatment process.

In many instances, an EHR can walk you through a process, such as an Evaluation and Management service, prompting the provider to fully complete one part of the evaluation before moving on to the next.

As an EHR many times is completed “real time” with the patient face to face, it will record all procedures and services performed. When this record is reviewed by the medical coder all appropriate procedure codes can be collected and billed, eliminating any forgotten check marks on those old super bills.

So, when you have decided it's time to select your EHR, keep something else in mind. The ability of your EHR to communicate electronically with your medical billing software. At Medical Business Systems we have developed the “Connectivity Clearinghouse” allowing our billing software, Iridium Suite, to import patient data directly from the EHR eliminating the need for double data entry.