Medical Coding Infographic

PRN Funding provides custom accounts receivable factoring solutions for medical coding services.

If your medical coding business struggles with cash flow due to slow paying hospitals, medical clinics or doctors’ offices, PRN Funding can help. We’ve spent the better part of a decade in the medical services industry and understand your unique funding challenges. Let us fix your cash flow and get back to expanding your medical coding business.

Whether you run a medical coding business or are looking to break into the field, we think you’ll enjoy this medical coding infographic courtesy of TopMedicalCodingSchools.com.

Medical Coding
Source: TopMedicalCodingSchools.com

New Bill Delays ICD-10 Again, Indefinitely

Despite claims by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that the October 1, 2014 deadline for the final transition to ICD-10 was firm, President Obama has signed a new law that will push ICD-10 back until at least October 2015.

H.R. 4302, “Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014”, is primarily the latest in a series of patches to Medicare’s sustainable growth rate; however, Section 212 of the bill prohibits the Secretary of Health and Human Services from replacing the current coding standard, ICD-9, with the new ICD-10 any time before October 1, 2015.

The delay has caused significant frustration and may compound difficulties for providers racing to be ICD-10 compliant. Providers at various stages of preparation for ICD-10 will have to maintain both their ICD-10 systems and their current ICD-9 systems until the switch takes place; in addition, many providers who are prepared to begin training for ICD-10 will have to postpone their efforts until a new deadline is announced.

Because the ICD-10 mandate is unfunded, the cost of preparation has fallen to providers who may suffer financially due to a delay. There is also little indication that payers are prepared for billing changes that will take place with ICD-10. At the same time, however, providers who are not as close to full ICD-10 implementation will have at least an additional year to upgrade technology, train their employees, and update their procedures. For payers, the delay will provide additional opportunities for critical end-to-end systems tests.

Proponents of ICD-10 argue that the new system will allow for more accurate coding of a variety of medical conditions, which will not only improve the quality of care but will also streamline billing processes by reducing requests for additional documentation. Health information management professionals recommend that providers stay on track for complete ICD-10 preparation, including a complete shift to ICD-10 coding with translations to ICD-9 until the standard is changed.

ICD-10 may also have a significant impact on healthcare vendors. Medical billing and coding agencies stand to benefit from providers choosing to outsource coding in advance of changing standards, yet all vendors may face longer waits for payment from facilities struggling to meet increasing financial demands.

We will continue to monitor updates to the ICD-10 transition and report on them as they come.

PRN Funding offers alternative financing solutions for healthcare vendors that need to tighten their cash flow in the wake of extended payments. Learn more about our various healthcare factoring programs, then contact us to receive an application and to get started immediately.

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Captricity Seeks to Further Enhance EHR

Berkeley-based startup Captricity is looking to capitalize on the ACA-mandated transition to electronic health records (EHR).

Captricity, helmed by CEO Kuang Chen, is a “crowd-guided machine learning and computer vision platform” designed to convert records of all formats into easy-to-use digital records that can be imported into a variety of systems for internal use.

The system utilizes a “shredding” process in which uploaded records are divided into minute pieces of data and converted using a special set of algorithms and, when necessary, human entry. The process allows Captricity to comply with federal privacy standards, including HIPAA compliance. The converted data is then reassembled into a secure digital record that the subscriber can download or import as needed.

In addition to basic Latin characters, Captricity is capable of converting any non-Latin based languages that can be entered into a computer. The company also offers 24/7 access from anywhere in the world, via cloud-based platforms such as Dropbox as well as mobile applications currently available for iOS devices. Much like mobile check deposit (and protected by the same levels of encryption), Captricity allows mobile users to upload photos of documents for conversion.

Subscription to Captricity can allow backlogged health systems to quickly come into ACA compliance regarding EHR without sacrificing the integrity of the data or dedicating countless person-hours to manual conversion. Furthermore, Captricity can improve the accuracy of medical billing and coding by properly converting often illegible doctors’ notes in order to reduce the number of costly coding errors.

Captricity offers a pay-as-you-go service and graduated subscription services that increase the monthly page limit, length of data availability, and available features. Prices for paid subscription begin at $75/month.

Healthcare providers and medical billing and coding companies can greatly benefit from services like Captricity, but may lack the cash flow to make an upfront investment in the service. Medical billing and medical coding factoring offer access to immediate cash that these companies can then use to ease the transition to EHR in their own firms. PRN Funding has more than a decade of experience with medical coding and medical billing factoring programs, and can help your company get started today.

Obamacare Greatly Boosting Areas of Healthcare Staffing

Obamacare has been receiving plenty of criticism due to accusations that the health care law will hurt employees by eliminating positions or reducing hours to part-time. While the actual effects are still relatively unknown, staffing recruiters and HR professionals are confident that Obamacare will help drive job growth in certain areas.

Since PRN Funding works with numerous healthcare staffing companies, let’s take a look at the positions that are prepping for fast growth in the healthcare realm.

1. Nurse practitioners and physician assistants
Due to an increased demand for routine checkups and preventative medicine, physician services are set to increase at least 2 to 3 percent by next year. Nurse practitioners and physician assistants can perform similar services for the fraction of the cost of a doctor. Not to mention, general physicians are still in short supply and take much longer to enter the workforce. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) predicts the demand for PA’s will swell by 30 percent and staffing for registered nurses will increase 26 percent by 2020.

2. Medical billing coders
Healthcare IT staffing will be huge. Combine the requirements for healthcare facilities to transition to electronic health records and comply with a new medical coding system (ICD-10) with millions of newly insured patients and you have a recipe for lots of jobs to fill.

The International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) will include a staggering 69,000 diagnostic codes and physicians will be required to submit claims with the new codes starting Oct. 1, 2014 if they want to get paid. Lots of healthcare IT staffing will be necessary to build these codes into the electronic health records software. According to Staffing Industry Analysts, medical coding is one of the hottest jobs right now.

3. Occupational therapists
Occupational therapists make appropriate modifications to the homes and workplaces of the disabled to accommodate their mobility needs. Since Obamacare prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage, more disabled people will be able to take advantage of health insurance coverage. The BLS forecasts a 43 percent spike in occupational therapy employment by 2020.

4. Wellness and fitness coaching
The need for health education specialists is expected to rise by 37 percent in 2020, according to the BLS. Many employers will want to encourage healthy lifestyles, so the demand for workplace wellness programs will skyrocket.

Aside from healthcare staffing, Obamacare is also expected to help spur career growth for payroll service providers, computer programmers, lawyers, insurance consultants, customer service reps and human resources professionals.

Demand for Medical Coding is High, While Supply of Coders is Low

With so many clinical and regulatory initiatives in limbo, numerous hospitals that are already operating with thin-stretched staffing are finding their resources being further taxed. While the demand for quality medical coding healthcare professionals is high and getting higher, the supply of these individuals is at historic lows. Some professionals in the coding industry believe the challenges and obstacles created by this medical coding staffing strain will be one of the worst healthcare has faced in around 10 years.

Health Information Management (HIM) departments are also affected by these challenges and for years, they’ve operated under an ever-worsening scarcity of qualified medical coders, a situation which will be exacerbated by looming changes to the industry. Though no one can project how widespread the shortage will be, some expect nationwide medical coder deficiencies as high as 30 to 50% as soon as later this year.

Medical coders typically review patient information for preexisting conditions, like diabetes, and also retrieve patient records for medical personnel and act as a liaison between the health clinician and billing offices.

One of the upcoming changes in the healthcare world is the expanding elderly population that will need more healthcare services and extensive care, which will increase the demand for trained medical coding workers. A second change is that the medical coding industry will lose many qualified professionals due to retirement over the next decade because of an aging medical coder workforce whose average age is currently projected at 54. Further aggravating the situation is the shifting environment in which coders are working, characterized by shorter days to bill, the ICD-10 transition, and other regulatory enterprises.

Unless the healthcare industry can draw the interest of a younger workforce, this combination of factors indicates that hospitals will face an uphill resource battle to uphold high levels of medical coding quality and acquiescence.

Hospital HIM departments are in a rare position to lessen the impact of the degenerating coder shortage. They have the ability to train internal medical transcriptionists, of which there is now an excess with technological advances in the field, to be medical coders. The change to coder is possible for many medical transcriptionists and is a win-win for hospitals looking to streamline costs without firing staff and for transcriptionists looking for job security. Medical transcriptionists trained in coding make themselves more valuable asset to their organization as they can be tapped to manage fluxes in volume and planned or unplanned staff deficiencies. However, it is the hospitals that ultimately must decide whether they want to spend resources and energy finding new coders or leverage the skills of good employees who are already associated with the organization.

Since faster than average growth is predicted in the medical coding field through 2020, it’s a good idea to be sure you’re prepared to handle any sudden growth spurts in business. Learn more about PRN’s medical coding factoring programs and how they can help manage cash flow with zero debt.