[October 06, 2010]

Universal EHR Solutions: Maximizing Reimbursements in Healthcare

Outpatient CXO Summit 2010
Las Vegas, October 24-26

Interview with: Mitchell C. Shapiro, President and Chairman, and Aaron Wachspress, Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Universal EHR Solutions, LLC

Doing more with less is on every healthcare provider's agenda. How that can be achieved when costs have already been cut in most areas is another question altogether. Healthcare organizations must now work even faster and smarter, and, according to Mitchell C. Shapiro, President and Chairman, and Aaron Wachspress, Founder and Chief Technology Officer, at Universal EHR Solutions, utilizing advanced electronic medical record systems may be the best way of maximizing reimbursements. As a solution provider at the marcus evans Outpatient CXO Summit 2010 taking place in Las Vegas, October 24-26, Shapiro and Wachspress deliver their thoughts on how healthcare organizations can take full advantage of electronic medical record systems to boost revenue streams.

How can Outpatient Service CEOs maximize revenue streams?

Mitchell Shapiro: "Healthcare providers are facing reductions in their revenue streams and reimbursements from insurance companies and the government. They need to see more patients in order to make the same amount of money. To do that, they mustwork faster and smarter, and make use of technologies such as an advanced electronic health record system to maximize their revenues and to seamlessly integrate with their revenue cycle management. There are ways to capture the data required for the highest insurance reimbursements in far less time, actually improving the doctors' quality of life while maintaining or increasing their revenue and profit margins as well as the efficiency and level of care provided to their patients.

Health care providers can also position themselves to capture their maximum available reimbursements under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) stimulus plan. To do so they should implement a 2011 CCHIT certified EMR system with a company that guarantees that its EMR product has passed (or will pass) the test for ARRA Stage I Final meaningful use criteria and will qualify them for their maximum ARRA stimulus dollars."

How can this be done efficiently?

Aaron Wachspress: "Family history, surgical history and personal information need only be entered into a system once; these are all contributing factors for obtaining maximum reimbursements. Improvements in efficiency come from not having to re-enter data time and time again; the system populates the new record and prompts a quick and easy review of the patient's history, qualifying the visit for a higher level of coding (often moving from a two or three to a four or five). The higher the code level, the higher the reimbursement."

What are some of the features that doctors are looking for?

Aaron Wachspress: "Ease of use and acclimation is one of the most important features for doctors. UniEHR's Physician's Solution 5.0^® is browser based and uses Internet Explorer to navigate through records and to message colleagues, staff, referring physicians, patients and tech support through the EMR - skills that most people have already.

Mitchell Shapiro: Avoiding an interruption of their business during deployment is another important feature. Doctors have been slow to accept the need for an EMR system because of the fear that a new system would be expensive and would slow them down. Vendors need to provide affordable, intuitive solutions to avoid such results. Our EMR system was truly designed for doctors by doctors to perfectly fit the way doctors think and work, and can be modified for any practice's idiosyncratic work flow. It only takes six hours for an entire office staff to be up and running at full speed. This helps doctors eliminate the highest real costs of setting up an electronic medical record system, which is the money they lose during installation and implementation. They do not need to cut back on a single patient or lose any revenue to acclimate to this system. That is the most important feature that providers should look for - a track record of smooth deployment."

Summit Website: www.outpatientcxosummit.com/MSAWBW

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