Better Clinical Documentation Is Important and How Medisoft Can Help You Achieve It

Eleven months may seem like a long time, but don’t be fooled. According to most medical billing experts, most medical practices will be pushing hard to implement ICD-10 by October 2014, and they’ll need most of the upcoming year to come close. McKesson Medisoft is on board to help smaller practices get up to speed faster – and more efficiently. One of the major points the EMR and medical billing software provider emphasizes is the importance of good documentation by physicians.
Why Documentation Is Important
One of the biggest changes between ICD-9 and ICD-10 is the increase in diagnostic and billing codes – from 24,000 to 155,000. The reason for the increase is to allow medical providers more precision in diagnosis and billing. The more precise the diagnosis, the more accurately payers can match the payment to the care provided. In addition, better documentation with more detail can help improve the care delivery model both for your practice and overall across the country. A better understanding of what causes patients to seek medical care, what care is provided and what outcomes are seen will have a major impact in shaping medical best practices for the future.
When Documentation Goes Wrong
Medisoft Clinical is designed to help minimize the places where documentation can go wrong. Some of the most common errors include:

• Transcription errors: when you have to transcribe encounter notes into paper charts and look up and transfer diagnostic codes and billing codes, it’s easy to make small errors. A transposed number or a code on the wrong line can mean a rejected claim and delays in payment. Medisoft EMR handles this in a couple of ways. First, Bright Note technology provides one-note entry. All of your encounter notes are automatically populated throughout the patient chart, reducing the opportunity to introduce errors into your claim forms and other documentation. Medisoft also allows you to choose ICD-9 or ICD-10 coding for each payer, and will warn you if you’re entering the codes from the wrong system, which reduces the chance that you’ll submit claims in the wrong format, again, delaying payments. Finally, Medisoft Clinical includes automatic error checking which checks your forms for errors before sending, so that you can be sure that all of your claims are properly formatted for all of your payers.
• Insufficient detail: ICD-10 requires much more detailed documentation than ICD-9. Medisoft Clnical v19 is completely ICD-10 ready, and includes the new CMS 1500 form, which allows providers to enter up to a dozen ICD-10 codes as of January 6, 2014, and will allow providers to specify whether they’re submitting forms in ICD-9 or ICD-10. This gives physicians and medical coders an opportunity to get experience using the new codes in real world practice.

McKesson Medisoft Clinical also integrates with optional add-ons that can help lookup and convert ICD-9 to ICD-10 codes, includes a free app to help you stay connected with your data while you’re on the go.
Learn more about the many ways that Medisoft can help your practice ramp up to the new challenges and capabilities of ICD-10, as well as the requirements for meaningful use and ANSI-5010 through a certified Medisoft reseller and get started on compliance today.