President's Message
By Cindy Pittmon, RCC, CHBME, FRBMA
Wow, what a year! I saw a comment yesterday that said, “If 2020 were a drink, it would be a colonoscopy prep.” While not an eloquent statement, it sums up what many of us have experienced these past few months during the COVID-19 outbreak.
News from Around HBMA
Are You Maximizing Your HBMA Membership; New HBMA Members; CHBME Quiz Questions
Feature Story
By Cindy Pittmon, RCC, CHBME, FRBMA; Becca Goare, MPA, CHBME; Kyle Tucker
3 HBMA members tell their stories.
What 10 years of trends can tell us about a COVID-19 world.
When the Trends in Healthcare Payments Annual Report was first published 10 years ago, the tidal wave of consumer healthcare payment responsibility was beginning to take shape. At that time, the data from the report pointed toward growing payment responsibility for patients and showed the beginning shift in preferences for payment options to be streamlined and electronic.
Billing companies should focus on six main areas to help their clients increase their patient collection rate.
As a billing company, you have most likely heard from some of your clients about the negative financial impact the COVID-19 crisis is having on their practices. With fewer patients visiting their doctors for regular visits or having medical procedures for fear of contracting the virus, it is even more important for practices to receive all monies owed to them.
The use of more robust patient communication and electronic engagement tools is on the rise.
2020 has been a year of change for most healthcare organizations. Regardless of size or specialty, everyone has had to make changes. From closing completely to switching to telehealth services to reopening with new processes, there has been a lot to manage.
Taking your remote workforce to a higher level of capability through virtual desktop infrastructure optimization.
Before COVID-19 created a new reality in which everyone has become a remote worker—at least for the foreseeable future—various industry reports indicate that 30% of organizations already had a work-from-home strategy in place.
Where is your business heading, and what people will you need to get you there?
By Claudia St. John, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
As states start to open up from their COVID-19 shutdown orders, it’s a great time to start thinking about where your business is heading and what people you will need to get you there. With changes to the business landscape and dramatic upheavals in the labor pool, now is a perfect time to start thinking critically about your talent.
Compliance Issues
Since the time COVID-19 was declared a public health emergency on Jan. 30, 2020, and later declared a pandemic, healthcare organizations were faced with challenges they had not ever encountered before. Government agencies such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recognized there would be challenges for healthcare organizations.
Coding Corner
By Melody W. Mulaik, MSHS, CRA, RCC, RCC-IR, CPC, COC, FAHRA
The COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) has brought about some rapid-fire changes for everyone, but those who work in healthcare may be the most impacted. Providers and clinicians have had to adjust their clinical practices during this PHE while keeping up with the ongoing regulatory changes being made to coding and billing practices.
From the Road
The world will never be the same. The coronavirus has disrupted everything, including the entire medical billing industry, and I don’t think anyone could have predicted the damage that’s been done.
