One of the big technological advances in healthcare in recent years are electronic health records (EHR) – a digitized version of your traditional health records. These digital records allow authorized healthcare providers to view your records while maintaining privacy. EHRs also reduce paperwork and allow physicians to keep patient records up to date with complete and accurate documentation while maintaining compliance with regulations. Electronic health records are also used in medical billing and all aspects of patient records.
What is an Electronic Health Record (EHR)?
An electronic health record is a digital version of a patient’s entire medical history, including charts, diagnoses, lab results, prescriptions, treatment plans, and radiology reports. A EHR is designed to store patient information securely and quickly share it with only specific people who need to see it, such as other physicians, medical offices, insurance companies.
Having access to patient EHRs gives physicians the ability to make informed decisions, as they can see their entire medical history. A EHR can also be shared with relevant medical providers like other medical offices, physicians, and healthcare providers. EHRs increase the efficiency of the workflow for healthcare specialists through easier access to patient medical information.
What’s the Difference Between a EHR and EMR?
You might hear the terms Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Electronic Health Record (EHR) and think these mean two interchangeably similar things, but there are some very distinct differences.
The biggest difference is an EHR is a digital record of all a patient’s entire set of health information, and it is designed to be accessed by different medical professionals so the patient can de diagnosed and treated more accurately and efficiently. An EMR is a patient medical chart that is accessed only by a single physician or medical office. In short, an EHR goes everywhere, an EMR is just in one medical office.
Why are there two different types of digitized medical records? EHRs are non-sensitive medical information that can be accessed by different medical providers to help the patient receive better healthcare services. A EHR contains information like diagnoses, treatment plans, prescription history, and radiology scans. EMRs may contain more confidential medical information and cannot be transferred or shared to another medical office except for printing.
Electronic health records (EHRs) work interconnectedly with other healthcare systems, including syncing information with medical billing systems. Because of the digital nature of the records, EHRs are more portable than practical than paper-based record systems which were prevalent up until more recent years.
Types of EHR Systems
These are the major types of EHR systems:
Cloud-hosted EHRs
Cloud-hosted EHRs are different from regular EHR apps because they must be HIPAA compliant. There are extra levels of security and encryption to protect patient data and keep medical records secure. Only authorized physicians and medical professionals may access patient data.
Physician-Hosted EHRs
A physician-hosted EHR system is hosted on servers that the physician(s) keep on-site at the medical office or long-term healthcare facility. The physician is responsible for the maintenance of the server, including software updates, hardware upgrades, security, and regulation compliance. This solution might be best for larger medical offices that have the resources to maintain an on-site server.
Remotely-Hosted EHRs
Remotely-hosted systems store patient data on servers owned and maintained by third-party vendors. These are almost always cloud based storage, but some subsidized solutions are dedicated servers. Remotely-hosted EHR systems allow medical offices to get set up quickly, The remote host does regularly scheduled software updates and server maintenance.
Benefits of EHRs in Medical Billing
Electronic health record systems can help streamline medical billing and coding processes. These are just a few of the advantages of integrating EHR systems in medical coding and billing.
Comprehensive medical records reporting built into EHRs includes accurate patient charting, billing, coding, scheduling, and data reporting.
Accuracy
EHRs improve accuracy in recording patient information, including charts, scheduling, medical billing and coding. This helps reduce data entry errors, keeping data up to date.
Communication and Collaboration
One of the biggest advantages of an EHR is the ability to share medical records with another clinic, medical office, or hospital quickly. Everyone who needs to access a patient’s medical history can do so with little friction.
Improve Documentation for Billing and Coding
Claims must be well documented and worded to be approved. EHRs help align clinical and coding documentation. The clinical notes can be kept in the same place with the coding transcripts, which can assist the medical billing for a comprehensive claim.
Faster Claims and Submissions
The billing and coding team can increase productivity by using EHRs and accompanying software. By generating, scrubbing and submitting claims quickly, the turnaround time is decreased and the revenue cycle is faster.
Revenue Cycle Management
EHR systems have integrated revenue cycle management that allows medical offices to track the claims process from beginning to end. Physicians can monitor claims status to ensure there are no bottlenecks or issues.
Improved Decisions
Seeing the entire medical history of the patient in one consolidated file allows the physician to provide better diagnosis and treatment plans. This helps the medical office provide better healthcare services.
Better Overall Healthcare
In past decades paper records were kept in each doctor’s office, and copies had to be faxed to other medical facilities. These limitations made it difficult for doctors to collaborate on a patient's healthcare and treatment. Now, EHRs can be shared quickly with numerous healthcare facilities, and sharing medical information allows each healthcare provider to give patients the best possible service through collective effort.
Following HIPAA Guidelines
It’s difficult to maintain HIPAA compliance with paper records. Confidentiality is tough when anyone can open a physical folder. With EHRs, privacy and HIPAA compliance is much easier to maintain. Patient records are in a secure database that is only accessible with a password.
Reduced Medical Record Errors
Electronic health records make it easier to read the complete health history of a patient, including vitals, clinical notes, prescriptions, allergies, and patient visits. There are less errors due to clarity of information and completeness of health history.
Improved Patient Access
Many EHR systems allow patients to access, review, and pay their bills online. These features lead to increased patient satisfaction and improved revenue cycle.
Lowered Costs
The healthcare provider may have lowered overall costs associated with medical records management because of reduced paperwork, less duplication of effort, portability of data, and more efficient workflows.
How Do You Become a Medical Billing and Coding Specialist?
A medical coding and billing career requires a lot of specialized knowledge about medical procedures, anatomy, physiology, the healthcare revenue cycle, and insurance payers. The best way to prepare for a medical billing and coding career is to enroll in a training program and get certified for medical coding and medical billing. Programs like the one offered at Campus Sacramento, formerly MTI College, can give you the training and knowledge you need to begin a career as a medical biller and coder. Our instructors are some of the best in the industry, and help you learn the subtle distinctions in medical coding and the nuances of preparing and submitting patient claims in medical billing.
Become a Certified Medical Billing and Coding Specialist in Less Than 10 Months
If you want to become a medical billing and medical coding specialist, Campus Sacramento has an online training program that will give you the skills to help you start your career. Our Medical Billing and Coding certification program will help you get certified in 36 to 42 weeks, depending on transferable credit. For information on start dates, financial aid, or format, contact our helpful Admissions team or call us at 888-675-2460.