Healthcare Business Management Association - HBMA
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January - February 2015 •
Volume 20, Issue 1
Help HBMA Remain Strong in 2015
President's Message
Curt Cvikota, CHBME, President, HBMA
Welcome to 2015, HBMA! I am honored to serve as your president this year. I'd like to extend a sincere thank you to the many well-wishers who have reached out to me, including the many current and past leaders whom I've spoken to these last two months. Click for more

Life Made Easier with CMS's Surrogacy Program
Feature Article
By David Zetter
In early 2010, members of the Medicare Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System (PECOS) Power User Group met with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) officials to discuss updates needed for the PECOS program. Click for more

SOUND OFF!
HBMA Members Sound Off on Hot Topics
By Billing Editors
What is Your Company's Number One Priority for 2015, and Why? Click for more

How Has the Affordable Care Act Affected You?
HBMA News
By Billing Editors
The Affordable Care Act has only been fully in place for a year, but its impact on the healthcare industry is resounding. Headlines such as the ones above remind us just how far reaching the effects of the ACA are. Click for more

A Conversation with Curt Cvikota
Get to Know Your New HBMA President
By Billing Editors
Curt Cvikota, CHBME, is the new HBMA president for 2015. We talked to Curt about his background in the healthcare billing industry, his vision for the industry, and how he strives to maintain the ever-elusive work-life balance. Click for more

Vendor Security
What it Means to Be HIPAA Compliant
By Leslie Haywood
HIPAA compliance is a must, not only for your billing company but also for your vendors. Any third party that has access to your clients' electronic protected health information (PHI) – whether a document management system, a scanning provider, a storage facility, etc. – must demonstrate its own compliance with data security regulations as set forth by the Department of Health and Human Services. Click for more

Cybersecurity for Sensitive Data
A New Framework for Protection
By Harry Stephens
Recent large-scale data breaches at high-profile retailers have focused a lot of attention on the topic of data security. The question of how to keep sensitive data safe is one that every industry faces, but nowhere is it more important than in the healthcare industry, which by its very nature collects, stores, and shares a massive amount of confidential personal data. Click for more

Optum Cloud Dashboard
Administrative Efficiencies for Healthcare Professionals
By Jeff Meyerhofer
Innovation has the potential to transform how businesses connect, collaborate, and solve problems. But healthcare, confined by security and privacy regulations, often remains stuck in an inefficient era of faxes, telephones, and mail. Optum Cloud Dashboard provides free applications to providers. Click for more

Healthcare Moves to EFT Payments
Feature Article
By Priscilla Holland, AAP
A new healthcare electronic funds transfer (EFT) standard went into effect at the beginning of 2014, and many healthcare professionals are reaping the benefits of the time and money savings it can provide. Click for more

The Cyber and Privacy Liability Insurance Application
A Key Step in Getting the Best Plan for You
By Gamelah Palagonia, CIPM, CIPP/IT, CIPP/US, CIPP/G, ARM, RPLU+
The application process is a critical step in obtaining cyber and privacy liability insurance. The following are key items to consider when you apply for this type of insurance. Click for more

New Security Innovations for Healthcare Payments
Help Your Clients Prepare for Today and Tomorrow
By Bill Marvin
Healthcare payment channels are expanding rapidly with new innovations, allowing patients to pay virtually anywhere, from any device, and in any way they choose. With the expansion of payment channels, there comes a greater risk to billing services and medical practices that accept the payments... Click for more

Design with the User in Mind
How Healthcare Communications Can Help the Revenue Cycle
By Steve Francis
While paper is still a trusted customer communication channel, increasing the efficiency and speed of the revenue cycle is a top priority wherever the healthcare consumer happens to be: on email, phone, tablet, or PC. In today's environment, critical communications like explanations of benefits (EOBs) don't just represent an outbound communication with your customer... Click for more

Overpayment Recovery
Understand and Automate the Process
Published with Permission of the American Medical Association (AMA)
No one likes to lose money – whether you are a health insurer or healthcare provider. That's why it's critical for physician practices to review and ensure the validity of overpayment recovery notices. If a practice was in fact overpaid, the HIPAA-mandated standard electronic remittance advice (ERA) transaction can simplify the overpayment recovery process, increase efficiency, and ultimately save practices time and money... Click for more

Don't Let the Coding Get Lost in Translation
Coding Corner
By Valerie Fernandez, MBA, CPC, CPC-H, AHIMA ICD-10 Trainer
In preparation for ICD-10, it is important to review medical records and translate the coding to ICD-10. Taking one or two office notes, operative reports, or discharge summaries will provide sufficient practice to prepare for the planned implementation date of October 1, 2015. Following are a few sample discharge summaries. Read through them, pick the accurate ICD-9 codes, and then convert them to ICD-10. Click for more

Business Intelligence for Medical Practices
Software
By Nate Moore, CPA, MBA, CMPE
Many of the major practice management (PM) and electronic health record (EHR) software programs are written so that data is stored in a relational database management system from Microsoft, called SQL Server. Most versions of SQL Server include at no additional charge three programs designed to take advantage of and work with the data stored in SQL Server... Click for more

You Can't Do It All Yourself
From the Road
By Dave Jakielo, CHBME
Over the past decades, due to overly burdensome government regulations, we have witnessed firsthand how an agency can turn a process that was once simple and straightforward into something that is now extremely complex. Click for more

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