The Positive and Negative of Osmosis Pur Medical Skin Care

Osmosis Pur Medical Skin Care is made with Chirally correct ingredients that are made with the safe left handed molecules that are not harmful to the skin. With products that are chiral, you will find you receive a very result oriented outcome and feel confident you are protecting your skin. No harsh ingredients to make your skin irritated or sensitive. Dr. Johnson is a big believer in not bringing trauma to the skin by overly aggressive ingredients that may harm the skin's protective barrier. Osmosis takes it a step further and uses the very best ingredients and brings them to the consumer at a price they can afford.

The Positive Reasons for using Osmosis.

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The whole premise for the Osmosis skin care line is to remodel the skin and help to heal skin conditions below the surface of the epidermis. This entails usage for anti-aging, acne, rosacea, melasma and psoriasis. There have been many testimonial from clients that have used these products successfully. It is important to follow a good regime to bring the best results for each individuals particular skin issues.

As with good medical grade type skin care, it is best to purchase from your esthetician or physician. It is very beneficial for the consumer to understand the products correctly and how to use them. Osmosis has made this easy with the products they manufacture. Their kits are put together with the proper products to use for each skin type. Having someone to guide you to find the best results for your skin is important.

At times when you start a good regime for your skin, you may find that your skin may go through a transition period.. This is not unpleasant. Underlying bacteria or pigmentation may come up from below and positive changes start happening. With proper guidance, this will pass and beautiful skin will appear. The total outlook is lovely, healthy, vibrant skin. Skin you may feel proud of and know you look more youthful. There are many products that sit on top of the epidermis and do not make any significant changes to the skin. With Osmosis you can be sure it is working from within the dermis where it counts.

It is possible to be ageless today. You do not need plastic surgery or botox. By using the proper products and routine, you can turn back on clock on aging. Repair sun damaged skin, acneic skin and that red irritated skin from rosacea or psoriasis. Osmosis helps to rid the skin of the bad skin cells and restore them to give you a healthy vibrant complexion.

As you age, you must keep your skin hydrated and exfoliate the dead skin cells. Osmosis will do this for you. The older you are, the less your skin exfoliates naturally. Let products such as Mend, Correct, Renew or Boost do this or you. The key ingredient in these products is Retinaldehyde. Stronger than retinol and more gentle on the skin. No negative side effects, just safe noticeable results. The exfoliation is very mild as not to bring distress to the skin.

Two of the latest products Osmosis has brought to the public are Catalyst and Skin Nutrition. Both can help repair the DNA of the skin. You will see improvement in pigmentation, acne, rosacea, and for everyone, anti-aging. Both products are far superior to many ingredients on the market and way ahead of their time. They are made for all skin types. The most popular of all the Osmosis products is Replenish. Replenish is an antioxidant, which brings all the nutrition your skin is craving for.

The Negatives of using Osmosis

The negatives of Osmosis is using the product for a week and not giving it a chance to work. When you repair the skin, you have to give your products time to work. Osmosis Skin Care recommends a full 30 days to start seeing the type of results you have always dreamed of. It is important for recommendations on the right products for your skin type. Products that will be effective for your skins special requirements. Start with an easy simple regime, and add a new product when you are ready to take your skin to the next level. Not using Osmosis is the negative. Look younger each day. Turn the hands of time back.

The Positive and Negative of Osmosis Pur Medical Skin Care

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Medical Emergency Alert "Panic Buttons" - Failure to Work

This is, or could be, of vital importance to those of you who have emergency call systems or what is commonly known as "panic buttons" for contacting emergency help. If you have one of these plans, they appear to have a basic flaw under these conditions:

The "telephone" line used to send the panic signal to the monitoring station operates via a cable system, and There is a power outage at the time the emergency occurs.

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Some providers are: LifeLink, LifeWatch USA, Pioneer Emergency Medical Alarms, Medical Alert, Life Station and Philips LifeLine, to name a few, and under most circumstance provide fantastic protection. However, if the electrical power goes out and an emergency happens where the wearer of the signaling device or "button" activates it, NO telephone call goes through.

Why, you ask? Because when the electricity goes out, so does the cable connection box which is powered by household current. This prevents the system from sending the emergency signal.

When these emergency systems were first developed, everyone had the "old" telephone systems provided by the Bell System, a subsidiary, a sister company, or an offshoot. They all carried the phone call through a dedicated telephone line, which is powered by the telephone company.

Many people have subsequently switched over to other types of providers, in particular cable companies who sell "bundled" services including TV cable, Internet and phone service. Unfortunately for our discussion, these require household power to operate. If the power goes off, so do the phones and with them the "panic button" stops working.

What happened for me to be writing this article? My mother has one of the emergency call systems. She lives independently, so it gives her a level of confidence that if she needs emergency help, it is as near as the necklace she wears in the house around her neck. And it gives us reassurance that if something happens, she can summon help immediately. She does have a computer and thus the internet, and she also has cable for her TV. In a cost saving move, she signed up for a bundled program where the total cost for all three through one provider was substantially less than buying each one individually. In doing so, she cancelled her Verizon phone line.

One afternoon, I heard over the radio that her neighborhood was in the midst of a power outage, so I called to find out how she was doing. The call would not go through. No phone service. Then I recalled that in working on her computer, I discovered that everything went through the cable router.

Putting this all together I determined that during the outage she could not make outgoing calls because her phones needed house electricity to work. By itself this is not really bad, but in thinking about it, I wondered the impact on the emergency call system. I made a few phone calls to several of the above mentioned emergency service providers and they readily acknowledged that their systems do not work with a phone system that requires house power (such as the cable systems) when the power goes out.

This is not a call to panic; these systems work most of the time just fine. This is an unanticipated situation that developed through improvements in technology and cost savings afforded by newer systems.

Customers who continue to have phone service by the "phone company" have no problems and neither will the others until the power goes out. Does it go out often? For most people the answer is no, it does not. But it is a risk. Coverage is not 100% if the user opts for cable-type providers. Should emergency call providers inform customers of these facts? I think so. At least customers should be made aware that if they subscribe to the system and do not have "phone company" service, there may be service interruptions. Likewise, customers with "phone company" service when signing up for systems should be warned that if they change providers, they may have service interruptions if they lose electricity.

So, what are the options and what do we do about it? Below is a summary of what I think they are, but for us (to help with Mom's peace of mind too) we will reconnect the telephone company phone service with a very basic and inexpensive system (no long distance, caller ID or any frills) and dedicate that to the emergency system. She will continue to have the cable phone for all other calls, long distance and so on. This will give us an added benefit of a way to contact her in the event of a power outage as well as guarantee she will always have an active emergency system.

Options:

If the home where you are concerned about the emergency call system has regular telephone service, there is nothing to do. However, you should be aware that if you (or the person living in that home) decide to change providers, you may have service interruptions if you or they lose electric power. If the home has cable-service telephone connection, consider adding a telephone line. For some this expense may not be possible. In that event, everyone should be aware that during a power outage there will be a lapse in coverage and try to make personal contact regularly with the home. Basically, live with it. If the home has cable-service telephone connection and adding a line is not possible, make sure the people in the home keep their cell phone on their person as the backup to the emergency system. Someone may have to program 911 into the phone. In addition, the phone will have to be kept charged at all times. (One reason this is not an option for us, Mom's cell phone is not her priority.) During my research I did find at least one company that offers an addition to their basic emergency service that provides a panic button for use away from the home. It uses the same sort of communication technology that cell phones use. I did not price it out, but it may be an alternative to use around the home in the event of a power outage.

Medical Emergency Alert "Panic Buttons" - Failure to Work

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6 Medical Bill Tips for When You Are Discharged From the Hospital

Medical bill anxiety is frequently caused by miscommunications and misunderstanding between patients, medical providers, and health insurance companies. This article describes several general strategies that you should perform immediately after you or a family member are discharged from the hospital. These medical bill strategies will help save you time, money, and anguish down the road.

1.) ENROLL IN ONLINE ACCESS TO YOU HEALTH INSURANCE PORTAL

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If you have health insurance, your insurance company provides you with excellent resources including online access to claims, EOBs, your benefit plan, their in-network provider list, and pricing tools that will tell you what your patient responsibilities will be for different types of care at different facilities. You may have to register if you have not signed on before. Registering is easy. All you need is your benefit card and your birth date.

2.) WATCH FOR YOU EXPLANATION OF BENEFITS (EOBs) ONLINE

For every service you have done, you will receive a bill from the provider and an Explanation of Benefits (EOB) from your health insurance company. An EOB is a notice from the insurance company that tells you if the insurance company paid and what is due from the patient to the provider, if anything. If you have health insurance, it is very important that you keep track of all the bills and EOBs that you receive. The insurance company use EOBs to communicate your coverage and payment to your provider. Billing representatives at the provider can almost always see your EOBs when you are on the phone with them. It is not fair if you can't see them too.

3.) DEVELOP A COMMUNICATION LOG FOR TRACKING PHONE CALLS AND STATEMENTS

If you've recently had a hospital stay or been admitted to a hospital through the emergency room, you are going to get several bills and they are not all going to be from the hospital. You are going to get bills from the emergency medicine physicians in the ER, the radiology group that read your x-rays and MRIs, the pathology group that analyzed your lab tests, the specialist physicians and surgeons who looked after you once you were admitted to the hospital, and the hospital facility itself. You may have follow-up office visits with a specialist, several types of ongoing treatments, physical therapy, or home care.

I recommend keeping a log of all telephone calls so you can accurately keep track of all dates, people you speak to, and what is discussed.

4.) RECONCILE YOU HOSPITAL STATEMENTS, INSURANCE EOBs, AND BENEFIT PLAN

Verify that the charges, discounts, and patient responsibilities match on your provider statements and EOB. Also check you benefit plan to make sure your health insurance company applied your deductibles and coinsurance correctly for the services you received.

5.) ASK INSURANCE AND HOSPITAL REPRESENTATIVES TO EXPLAIN DISPARITIES

If there are discrepancies between you statements, EOBs, or benefit plan, you can ask the provider to conference call you and your insurance company together so they can hash it out. Definitely do this if the patient responsibility on the patient statements and the EOB do not match. The provider cannot bill you for more than the patient responsibility on the EOB if it is a service covered in your benefit plan. Once the conference call starts and you have voiced your concern, just listen while they work it out.

6.) APPLY FOR FINANCIAL AID WITH THE HOSPITAL

After any disparities have been reconciled between the provider and the health insurance company, all the parties should agree on the patient liability portion. At this time you can apply for financial aid if you have not done so already. You will have to fill out a one to three page application and send photo-copies of your last two pay stubs or your last tax return. If you qualify for financial hardship, the provider may decide to adjust your balance based an income scale discount. Regardless of whether a financial aid determination is made, you can still request to pay the balance on an agreed plan. This will allow you to stretch out the payments over several months if needed.

6 Medical Bill Tips for When You Are Discharged From the Hospital

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3 Highly Effective Ways to Market a Medical Practice

When it comes to marketing a medical practice, many physicians believe that a few newspaper ads or billboards will have customers flocking into their office. Although these methods of marketing may work to attract people in the short term, it's not enough to build a successful, thriving medical practice.

Market To Your Current Client Base

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Marketing a health care practice starts with your current patients. These patients clients are already familiar with the type of care that you provide. One way you can provide value to your patients while marketing your medical practice is to send a monthly newsletter with health tips and advice. You can send this newsletter via direct mail or you can get email addresses from your patients and send the newsletter via email.

Market By Offering Excellent Patient Care

How you treat each and every one of your current patients is actually one of the main factors in having a successful medical practice that lasts for the long-term. The higher quality of care that you provide, the more likely they are to stay loyal to you.

A very successful doctor in San Diego, California holds an annual party for his patients and their guests. He rents space in a local park and has various activities set up like rock climbing, face painting and inflatable jumpers for the kids, plus he orders food for everyone.

People want to feel appreciated. Building relationships based on genuine care will keep people coming back whenever they need your help. When you go the extra mile for them, they'll go the extra mile for you. Sure, there may be other medical providers that offer care for less and have offices closer to your patients' homes, but when you offer great service, people are willing to drive a little farther to get that great service.

Market Your Medical Practice on the Internet

The internet has opened up so many avenues for you to market your medical practice. Nowadays most people do research the internet before deciding on a health care practitioner, so it's in your best interest to look into marketing on the internet.

One way you can market your medical practice on the internet is to build a website and hire an internet marketing firm to help you get clients searching the web for health care practitioners in your area.

Another way to market on the internet is to start a blog and write about your medical practice. You can also write blog posts on just about anything related to the medical services you offer or provide health tips for readers. Share this blog with your current patients and encourage them to share the blog with their friends and family.

A third way you can market your medical practice on the internet is to get involved with social networking marketing websites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. Most social networking websites allow you to search for people in your area. If your patients are on these social networking sites, invite them to connect with you online.

Great patient care, providing value, and staying connected with your patients will ensure that you have a successful medical practice for many years to come.

3 Highly Effective Ways to Market a Medical Practice

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Affordable Medical Transcription Services For Hospitals

Medical transcription is one of the highly acclaimed jobs in the business outsourcing sector and is aimed at reducing the workload of staffs in various health care facilities, including hospitals in developed countries. Most medical transcription firms offer their services in a highly professional and affordable manner suited to the changing requirements of their clients. The entire procedure aims at easing the day-to-day processing of patient records and insurance claims so that health care firms can concentrate more on improving their key services. These affordable medical transcription services are now proving to be highly beneficial for hospitals, outpatient clinics, rehabilitation facilities, long term care facilities and more.

Now with the increasing requirement of hospitals to substantially reduce their operating costs, most medical transcription firms are offering their services at highly affordable rates and also in a reliable and efficient manner. With most of these offshore facilities working in accordance with the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations, all electronic transactions involving sensitive patient records remain secure.

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With offshore medical transcription centers having all the necessary infrastructure including dictation equipments, dedicated servers and high-end computers with uninterrupted high speed internet, everything required for immediate patient record processing is being done in a time-bound manner. The availability of qualified graduates, well versed in the English language, in offshore facilities is also proving beneficial.

With leading hospitals requesting for more services, all leading medical transcription providers are continuously expanding their services with more employees and equipments. To have patient records processed with high accuracy, almost all medical transcription service providers have employed highly skilled and experienced proofreaders and trainers. With the help of these support staffs, almost all processed records maintain high accuracy levels up to 99%. These firms often update the knowledge level of employees so that they stay informed about the latest technologies and developments in the medical field. These outsourcing firms also have their in-house doctors and language experts whose services are always available for employees.

To help hospitals further in their daily health care job requirements, most medical transcription outsourcing firms also undertake a number of related services such as medical coding and medical billing. Thus with minimum turnaround time in medical records documentation and much reduced costs involved, having these medical transcription services outsourced will enable health care facilities including hospitals to stay competitive and profitable in their business.

Affordable Medical Transcription Services For Hospitals

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What is an Electronic Medical Record (EMR)?

An electronic medical record(EMR), also known as an electronic health record(EHR) or Computerized Patient Record (CPR) is a patient's medical information in an electronic format. This medical information is accessible via computers on a network, to provide health care and health-related services.

EHRs contain information regarding the past, present, or future physical and mental health of a patient, medical test reports, medical images, financial and demographic information. In addition, the ordering of medical tests, medications, treatments, and clinical guidelines are accessible within the EHR. The data contained in HER can be captured or transmitted securely and in real-time by users at the point of care. The three core functions of an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) are the following:

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EMR systems capture patient data

EMR systems are designed to capture data at the point of care using databases, rules engines, and knowledge bases. The information is then culled and submitted to the system via a computer workstation, tablet pc, mobile device or voice recognition system.

EMR software integrates with other data sources

The EMR must be capable of integrating with systems including financial, administrative, and clinical departments, as seen with many practice management systems. This allows more streamlined workflow reducing time spent entering data across multiple systems. It also ensures quality data across the systems. An example would include integration between a hospital, billing, laboratory, imaging, pharmacy, and practice management systems. A standard has been put in place call the HL7 (Health Level 7) which is a common language for sending and receiving messages from different information systems. The most common use is between a practice management and EMR system or between physician offices and a hospital.

EMR assists provider decision making

Rules engines can provide alerts, reminders, clinical protocols, and coding assistance at the point of care in EMR systems. EMRs can provide real-time data to a provider allowing providers to analyze and report data quickly. The data can also be compiled to include clinical statistics analysis, population health, patient/drug reports, and demographics reports.

What is an Electronic Medical Record (EMR)?

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The Physician Portal Is A Key Component Of Electronic Medical Records

Currently, most doctor offices and hospitals record and store medical records in paper format. Though this process may be easy, it requires a lot of storage space, makes sharing of information cumbersome, and leaves much room for error due to misinterpretation of illegible information. The U.S. government is encouraging the transition to electronic medical records, or EMRs, containing information captured and update via a physician portal.

The anticipated switch to EMRs involves 70 percent of hospitals and 90 percent of physicians within the next ten years. Based on the figures of those currently utilizing EMRs, this represents an 800 percent increase for hospitals and 400 percent increase for physicians. As a result, major training and information technology movements are now occurring to streamline the transition process.

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Key to the creation and updating of EMRs is the physician portal, the way the healthcare provider accesses patient records to perform these tasks. Existence of this portal enables a treating physician to review and update EMRs at point of treatment or offsite. Devices like tablet computers, PCs, and laptops can be used to access the portal and view information in real-time.

CPOE, or computerized physician order entry, is also accomplished via this portal. This allows the medical provider to electronically enter treatment instructions for patients under his or her care. Through EMR integration, hospitals, radiology providers, laboratories, and pharmacies involved in treatment can view this information. This allows them to collaborate regarding treatment, ensuring that there is no duplication or contradiction.

Without the physician portal and EMR integration, electronic health information exchange between these parties would be impossible. The portal serves as the starting point for entry and updating of patient healthcare information. It forms the foundation upon which the other treatment providers can build, contributing relevant details in real-time for all involved to view.

The Physician Portal Is A Key Component Of Electronic Medical Records

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The Importance of Medical Coding to Health Care

The field of medical services and health care is very vast. Due to the number of procedures and services that are associated to it, the task load for medical services specifically medical coding has increased. In most countries, medical expenses for surgical procedures, illness treatment, and accidents among others are shouldered by insurances. Generally in cases such as these, physicians and hospitals need to fill up the appropriate insurance form which is more technically referred to as a code book for payments and reimbursements.

Reimbursements and payments are only released if the insurance company approves the coding and documents submitted. Thus, coding plays a very important role not only to physicians and hospitals, but to insurance companies as well.

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Today coding has become bigger than ever as a health care support activity. As such, medical coders have become in demand in the medical industry. This is probably the reason why a lot of coding services have also emerged in the market. Medical coding services provide professional medical coders that have passed certification standards. In the United Kingdom, there are a number of certifications that are recognized by the medical industry for quality and credible coding practice.

Although not all insurance companies and health care providers require these specific certifications, many medical coders still apply for these certifications. Some of the most common coding certifications include RHIA, RHIT, and CCS to name a few. Each of these has their own standards in uplifting the coding profession.

Indeed, medical coding plays a vital role in the medical industry. Aside from the fact that medical coders provide appropriate codes to health care services, treatments and procedures; they also apply appropriate codes to shorten the conduction of medical examination. Moreover, medical coders also provide accurate data to insurance companies for payments and reimbursements. Thus, the extent of the work of medical coders is indeed very significant.

Today, many health care practitioners and hospitals get coding assistance via outsourcing. Instead of hiring medical coders, they employ the services of coding service providers. This is a more practical and hassle-free arrangement for health care practitioners and hospitals. There are a lot of coding service providers that offer various services. In fact some of these providers even include medical transcription and medical billing in their services.

These medical coding services provide error-free coding for fast reimbursements and payments. Moreover, these services also offer onsite coding, remote coding, emergency room coding, onsite training, and compliance audits. Furthermore, these coding services also represent their clients in facing problems in insurance policies, billing procedures, and medical procedure descriptions. Medical coding services practically take care of all health care and insurance related concerns.

The Importance of Medical Coding to Health Care

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Medical Records and Health Information Technicians - Career Opportunities

Medical records and health information technicians handle and organize patient records, and evaluate these records for completeness and accuracy.

They may specialize in coding patients' medical information for insurance purposes. They will tabulate and analyze data to improve patient care, control costs, provide documentation for use in legal actions and respond to surveys for use in research studies. They conduct annual follow-ups on all patients to track their treatment, survival, and recovery. They may supervise health information clerks and transcriptionists.

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In 2004 there were about 159,000 technicians in the U.S. About 40% worked in hospitals. The rest were mostly in physician's offices, nursing care facilities, outpatient care centers, and home health care services. Some worked in insurance firms that deal in health matters. In public health departments technicians supervise data collection.

Medical records and health information technicians usually have an associate degree from a community or junior college. Besides a general education, coursework should include medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, legal aspects of health information, coding and abstraction of data, statistics, database management, quality improvement methods and computer science.

Many job openings require Registered Health Information Technicians (RHIT). They pass a written exam from the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). To take the exam, one must graduate from a 2-year associate degree program. This should be accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM). In 2005, there were 184 CAHIIM-accredited programs.

Medical records and health information technicians must be able to:

o organize and evaluate patient records for completeness and accuracy, using modern record keeping procedures and computer programs,

o make sure that patients' initial medical charts are complete,

o communicate clearly with physicians and other health care professionals,

o manage a department, if they have the training and experience,

o work a 40-hour week with some overtime,

o be prepared to work day, evening, and night shifts if working in hospitals,

o pay close attention to detail.

Job Growth for Medical Records and Health Information Technicians:

Job opportunities for medical records and health information technicians will grow much faster than average for all occupations. Most new jobs are expected to be in physician's offices because of increasing demand for detailed records. Rapid growth also is expected in home health care services, outpatient care centers, and nursing and residential care facilities.

How much do medical records and health information technicians earn?
In 2004 median annual earnings were ,590. Fifty percent earned between ,650 and ,990. The lowest salaries were less than ,720, and the highest more than ,760.

A Day in a Medical Records Technician's Life:

On a typical day a medical records technician will:

o organize and evaluate patient records for completeness and accuracy,

o make sure that patients' initial medical charts are complete and entered in the computer,

o communicate with physicians to clarify diagnoses or to obtain additional information,

o assign a code to each diagnosis and procedure,

o consult classification manuals concerning disease processes,

o use computer software to assign the patient to one of several hundred "diagnosis-related groups," or DRGs,

o tabulate and analyze data,

o review patient records and pathology reports,

o conduct annual follow-ups on all patients in the registry.

I hope this article gives you a good idea of what is involved in the career of a Medical Records Technician. Health care is the largest industry in the world. In the U.S. about 14 million people work in the health care field. More new wage and salary jobs are in health care than in any other industry. (Some figures from Bureau of Labor Statistics.)

Medical Records and Health Information Technicians - Career Opportunities

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Medical Billing

Now, when you go to a doctor, you would expect the physician to concentrate on what you are telling him (i.e. - your complaint) and give you the best possible solution (the treatment) to solve that. You don't want the doc to be distracted with other responsibilities that he might have (e.g. - billing you for his services offered, liaising with your insurance company, etc). Here's where medical billing comes into play.

Americans believe in division of labour, and expecting a physician to perform multiple tasks (some of which are unrelated to medicine itself!) goes against this belief. They came up with the concept of Medical billing which is nothing but introducing a third person who will get patient treatment data from the doctor, make the bills, speak to the insurance company and reimburse the physician for his services.

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Why can't the patient deal with these themselves? Well, we know that the person is already ill and really don't want to add to their burden. Wouldn't life be simpler if someone were to deal with all the annoying paperwork of filling out forms and going through bills to make sure that they're not incorrect? And that's not mentioning the countless hours on the phone, negotiating with the insurance companies!

Medical Billing doesn't really stop at that. Billers also are involved in analyzing records and pointing out areas which can be improved in the entire process. These analyses are extremely beneficial when it comes to renewal of contracts. Most of the medical billers would also undertake medical transcription services. Apart from this, they also advise physicians and health care providers of changes in the fee structure and new coding practices.

Though the law does not mandate you to be certified to become a Medical Biller, there is always the added advantage of holding a piece of paper which says that a recognized organization approves of you! The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) conducts various exams such as the Certified Medical Reimbursement Specialist Exam (CMRS Exam) which you can take up. The internet also provides a lot of practice tests for these exams.

In a nutshell, yes - it is a rather complex process which you can obviously be trained on, but at the end of the day medical billing simplifies the work of a physician thereby helping him to concentrate on the more important role of treating a patient. It also eases the concerns of a patient by taking care of all communication between the insurance company and the physician.

Medical Billing

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The Six Functions of Electronic Medical Records

Electronic Medical Records are going to be needed in the future. It is important to learn the functions of EMR and how it fits into an office work flow.

1. Patient Charting

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Patient visit information is put into templates or forms; to contain information such as vitals, complaints, medical histories, review of systems, physical exams, etc. Most EMR systems have pick lists, drop-down boxes, handwriting recognition, or voice recognition to accomplish patient charting.

2. Order Communication Systems

This is often referred to as a Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE). This allows the Electronic Medical Records system to communicate information with external systems such as laboratories, imaging centers, hospitals, and pharmacies via Health Level 7 Interfaces. This allows providers to send out lab requests, imaging requests, prescriptions, submit visit charges, and diagnosis codes to the office/billing system.

3. Clinical Decision-Making Support Systems

Alerts, reminders, and recommendations are built into the system allowing automatic clinical decision making with information in the database. It also helps doctors with coding and diagnosis. Many EMR systems provide physicians with a recommended CPT code based off of Evaluation and Management (EM) rules. This allows physicians to bill payers at the highest possible rate for the services performed.

4. Document/ Image Management

It is important for offices to manage the enormous flow of paper entering their office. Offices are constantly flooded with patient intake forms, referring physician letters, lab reports, and faxes. EMRs allow doctors to access these documents on a intuitive user interface. EMRs provide physicians a way to manage images such as x-rays, MRIs, and ultrasounds.

5. Patient Portal

Personal health records allow patients to access their health record from any computer with a secure internet connection. These programs include features such as appointment scheduling, refill requests, electronic intake forms, record access, outcome assessments and patient education. The patient can also grant other providers access to this information which allows provider-to-provider communication.

6. Statistics and Reporting

Providers can create reports from databases for statistical purposes. This becomes especially useful in the case of drug recalls, health maintenance reminders and disease management.

The Six Functions of Electronic Medical Records

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Financial Benefits of Electronic Medical Records

Health care organizations are seeing productivity improvements through the automation of medical records. Tasks such as pulling and filing patient paper charts are becoming replaced with the point and click functionality of EMRs. End-of-day reporting activities can be generated directly from the EMR system.

1. Increased Productivity

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Health care organizations are seeing productivity improvements through the automation of medical records. Tasks such as pulling and filing patient paper charts are becoming replaced with the point and click functionality of EMRs. End-of-day reporting activities can be generated directly from the EMR system. Laboratory and imaging results are placed directly into the EMR providing access to users in one place. Diagnostic devices can report information directly into the EMR eliminating the need to fill out different forms.

2. Increased Revenue

Physicians can realize increased revenue through better coding recommendations and providing physicians with the ability to offer new services to patients. EM level coding assistance can be a huge financial benefit to family, pediatric, and internal medicine practices. In a recent study by the Medical Economics Magazine, it was stated that physicians not coding to the maximum EM levels could be losing ,000 to ,000 annually. Many EMR vendors allow patients to schedule and cancel appointments, view medical information, and complete forms via the health organization's website. This can help attract new business thereby reducing the load on the office staff. Going paperless with an EMR also allows the organization to free up office space for treatment and sometimes allowing for an extra associate. Improving the coding and billing process can increase insurance reimbursement leading to increased revenue. Being able to monitor a patients' treatment plans and filing documentation at the appropriate time can also help maximize reimbursement, allow a practice to run more like an efficient business.

3. Avoidance of costs

Implementing an EMR can help reduce expenses such as paper charts, poor documentation and high malpractice premiums. Transcription costs can also be reduced as an EMR can provide you with easier means for patient documentation and report writing, with things such as voice recognition software. Providers spend as much as 00 each month on such costs. Offices can also avoid expensive medications by offering patients more cost effective alternatives. High quality documentation and drug prescription alerts can lead to lower malpractice insurance premiums.

4. Increased Profits

Increased profits as a result of improved care, patient satisfaction, and office image are very difficult to quantify. All of these factors lead to increased referrals and patient retention which in turn result in increased profits.

Financial Benefits of Electronic Medical Records

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2009 Stimulus Package - What it Means For Medical Care

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has made many Americans hopeful about a better economy sometime in the not so distant future. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will bring forth changes from providing additional tax credits for individuals and businesses to instating economic recovery tools. One of the biggest questions is what will the act do to improve medical coverage and care in America. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will make provisions for health insurance assistance, state fiscal relief and Medicaid and health information technology.

Health Insurance Assistance

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Due to a failing economy, numerous people have faced layoffs which in turn caused a loss of affordable health care coverage. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will assist by issuing a bill that will provide a 65% subsidy for COBRA continuation premiums. This assistance will last for up to 9 months for those workers that were involuntarily terminated. On average, COBRA premiums run 00.00 per month, so a 65% subsidy would allow terminated workers to still afford medical care for their families. To qualify for assistance, workers must be terminated between September 1, 2008 - December 31, 2009 and their yearly income cannot exceed 5,000 (individual) or 0,000 (family). If an offer of employment is accepted and benefits are available. COBRA assistance will terminate.

State Fiscal Relief & Medicaid

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will provide many changes to state fiscal relief and Medicaid, including a temporary Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) Increase. FMAP funding will be increased over a 27 month period. The increase began on October 1, 2008 and will remain in affect until December 31, 2010. All states will receive an increase of 6.2%, as well as a decrease in their financial obligations for Medicaid. By lowering the Medicaid obligations, states will be able to offer assistance to more families in need.

Health Information Technology

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will promote the use of health information technology (health IT), such as electronic health records. The government will be responsible for developing standards for electronic records by 2010. These standards will allow a nationwide exchange of health information. It will allow health providers to save time, money and space, as well as improve the quality of care that patients receive. Electronic record keeping will allow doctors to access patient information any time, any where and from any location. This will ensure that no information is misplaced or overlooked. Doctors will be able to view a patient's medical history, allergies, family history, etc. with the click of a button. There will be no need for cumbersome filing systems which take up needed office space. Records will be easily searchable, saving nurses and aides valuable time that could be better spent assisting patients. The Government standards will uphold current regulations to make sure patient medical records are held in the strictest of confidence.

With all the changes the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act promises to bring, hopefully we can expect a brighter future.

2009 Stimulus Package - What it Means For Medical Care

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What Is Medical Tourism and Heath Tourism?

Medical tourism or Health Tourism (also called medical travel) is the term mainly populated by transport agencies or agents to inform the rapidly growing work of roaming abroad to other countries to acquire medical treatment. It as well refers critically to the work of health care providers wandering internationally to broach health care facilities.

As per the latest survey "Medical Tourism in developing countries like India, Poland, and Mexico", medical tourism in developing countries has emerged as the top growing section of the tourism industry, despite the global economic downturn. The medical tourism industry holds enormous prospective and will be mainly driven by improving tourism & medical infrastructure, increasing accessibility of quality health care services, and low health care costs in developing countries. Many factors such as low cost, government support, and high private investments have contributed to a remarkable growth in the medical tourism market in developing countries.

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Medical services normally required by medical travelers exemplify elective procedures as great as difficult specialized surgeries such as cosmetic surgery, neurosurgery, laparoscopic surgery, laser vision corrections, cardiology, joint replacements, spine surgery, pediatrics, nephrology, urology, cochlear implants, oncology, organ transplants (Renal & Liver), stem cell therapy, stem cell treatment and dental surgery,. However, most likely each sort of medical care, together with psychiatry, pick treatments, handicapped caring as great as even funeral services have been available. You will find staff members in these hospitals are english speaking as well friendly. These medical destinations are connected to international airports also.

More than 40 countries have recognized as improving medical tourism as the inhabitant industry. Major reasons which have led to the increase recognition of recovering transport exemplify the tall price of medical care, stretched wait for times for sure procedures, the simple reason as great as affordability of common travel, as great as improvements in both record as great as standards of caring in most countries.
95% of medical tourists can come from anyplace in the First World, together with Europe, the Middle East, Japan, the United States, as great as Canada. This is because of their huge populations, partially high wealth, and the high liability of illness caring or miss of illness caring options locally, as great as increasingly high outlook of their populations with apply oneself to medical care.

According to reports, the cost of operation in India, Poland, Mexico, Thailand or South Africa can be one-tenth of what it is in the USA or Western Europe. A heart surgery which would cost 0,000 or even-more in the USA, for example, goes for, 00 in India-and which includes round-trip airfare as great as the short nine month package. Similarly, the metal-free dental overpass worth,00 in the USA costs 0 in India, the knee surgery in Thailand with 6 days of earthy gentle costs about one-fifth of what it would in the United States, as great as Kidney Transplant operation worth,0,000 in the USA is easy to get to in most alternative countries for normally 000.

The popular medical caring countries worldwide destinations are Argentina, Brunei, Cuba, Colombia, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Jordan, Lithuania, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, as great as recently, Saudi Arabia, UAE, South Korea, Tunisia as great as New Zealand.

South Africa is receiving the tenure "medical tourism" really literally by convincing their "medical safaris".

Medical Tourism is a real option for high quality medical care at reduced costs. By opening the door to the Global marketplace the patient has increased their options. Wait times for procedures are no longer a concern.

What Is Medical Tourism and Heath Tourism?

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Electronic Medical Records, Scribes, and Obamacare

"The computer was born to solve problems that did not exist before." - Bill Gates

The I-7 Intel processor on my computer is 260 times faster than the processor on my first PC, but I don't write any faster. Although pretty much everyone has a computer these days, I can't say most people are all that much more productive. With a few notable exceptions, like news, some medical billing software, financial scams and gossip, the outlandish predictions of phenomenal productivity improvements from the computer revolution have not panned out. This is not to say I want to go back to a pen and paper, but only that technological change leads in unexpected directions.

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The proponents of Obamacare are making the similar claims of cost saving and productivity gains for electronic medical records (EMR). If you listen closely to the rhetoric surrounding Obamacare, the only concrete proposal for lowering costs seems to be the use of EMR's which will both magically lower costs and avoid mistakes. It is remarkable to me that almost everyone in government, from the President on down, is affirming the benefits of this technology which is both unproven and in the early stages of development. A small group of economically motivated vendors, with no definitive studies, have sold EMR as a panacea to all of the problems of health care in America.

I cannot tell you the frustration I have personally experienced trying to obtain and collate information from masses of handwritten, illegible and disorganized patient charts. As a Radiologist, I was frequently dependent upon unreadable, scribbled requisitions for a scrap of justification upon why I was doing an expensive or dangerous examination. However, it is unclear to me that the present EMR's are a substantial improvement. Although promising, such systems come with substantial cost, significant learning curves, and new difficulties.

Paper charts are low tech with many problems, however, they have been used for years and systems have evolved for dealing with them. New high tech EMR systems have great potential, but transitions are difficult and need to be done properly.

Doctors and nurses find entering the data with EMR's frequently takes far longer than paper, and results in less time for patients. The referenced article today is about how doctors are hiring people(scribes) to do the actual data entry for them. We used to use transcriptionists just for this purpose, but got rid of them because they were too expensive. Seems like progress to me.

From my experience, retrieving information is even more difficult with an EMR, as complaints generally center around data entry. Such developments will be needed for productivity enhancement. I am waiting for large scale studies showing either improved efficiency, fewer errors, or cost savings. I may be waiting a long time.

Eventually EMR's will meet some of the fantastic claims being made for them. I will bet anyone reading this that the savings will not pay the bill for Obamacare.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/06/health/la-he-medical-scribes-20100906

Electronic Medical Records, Scribes, and Obamacare

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I benefici clinici di Electronic Medical Records

Processo decisionale clinico Miglioramenti:

Cartelle cliniche elettroniche contengono una vasta gamma di strumenti decisionali quali raccomandazioni piano di trattamento e di droga avvisi reazione incrociata. EMR molti hanno PDR dizionari di farmaci a base. Ci sono anche molte applicazioni mobili spuntano che hanno funzioni simili. I medici possono anche fare raccomandazioni per il trattamento in base al largo diagnosi di un paziente. Il provider può prendere le decisioni più istruiti quando mantenere una strettaocchio su informazioni mediche attraverso l'integrazione di fonti esterne, come laboratori, centri di imaging, ospedali e farmacie.

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Documentazione avanzata:

EMR software consente a più utenti di accedere cartella del paziente che possono essere modificati in tempo reale che si traduce in ultima analisi, in un grafico più complete e accurate. Perdita di informazioni attraverso il danno e la perdita di carte di carta mette molti fornitori a rischio. Ci sono molte misure di sicurezza messa in atto di controllo cheautorizzazioni per registrare un paziente '. Con la pressione a conformarsi alle nuove pay-for-performance dei programmi, documentazione computerizzato ci permette di manipolare i dati per il reporting. Le informazioni possono quindi essere utilizzati per rapporti di ricerca, promemoria mantenimento della salute, delle statistiche, droga ricorda, e il marketing del paziente.

Assistenza al paziente una maggiore:

Consultazioni web stanno diventando sempre più popolare ora che i medici possono accedere ai dati dei pazienti da qualsiasi luogo tramite una connessione sicura.Promemoria mantenimento della salute anche a migliorare la cura del paziente. La cura dei pazienti può essere molto difficile da quantificare. L'assistenza ai pazienti una maggiore possibile un aumento delle entrate attraverso il passaparola e rinvii. Sistemi EMR può rendere i sistemi efficienti e aumentare la fiducia dei pazienti. I pazienti vedere la fiducia nei medici che utilizzano la tecnologia.

I benefici clinici di Electronic Medical Records

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What You Can Do As a Medical Provider to Improve Patient Satisfaction

It has been widely believed and accepted that if you provide quality patient care, your patient satisfaction rates will be high. We now know that this is not always the case. Research has shown that there is a large disparity between perceived hospital and physician quality of care and patient satisfaction across the nation. Research has also shown that patient satisfaction in many states is actually opposite what one would expect when providing quality patient care.

A survey performed by CareChex, has shown that while many hospitals and physicians across the nation ranked high in quality of care, they adversely ranked low in patient satisfaction. Florida, for example, ranked 8th in the nation for quality of care and 49th in the nation for patient satisfaction. How does this happen? It is believed that practices and facilities are spending their extra resources acquiring state of the art technology to provide high quality care to their patients. What they are lacking in many cases, is delivering exceptional care to each and every patient who enters the building. While the aesthetic appearance and technology a facility offers is important, so too is the way the patient is treated while receiving care.

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What does this mean for medical practices and facilities across the nation? Administrators must be proactive in gathering feedback from their patients. Patient surveys must become a common part of the practice. The medical industry at large has become highly competitive and as such, if your patients are not happy, they will go elsewhere. Gathering feedback alone is not enough, you must also implement any needed changes. If you take the time to ask your patients about their experience and then do nothing to fix any problems that may be present, you are telling them that their opinion truly does not matter. This is worse than not asking their opinion at all.

By taking a proactive approach to measuring patient satisfaction and then implementing needed changes, medical practices will bridge the gap between patient satisfaction and quality of care. The practices that deliver not only quality care, but exceptional service are the ones who will prosper the most!

What You Can Do As a Medical Provider to Improve Patient Satisfaction

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