Gene,
If it bleeds it reads. Once again a rather intentional, uneducated, shallow and simplistic view of the subject matter at hand.
The lumping of all EHR using physicians into fraudulent overcharging greedy lowlifes is a bit disturbing.
However, I am not surprised of the increase in medicare reimbursements.
On a microcosmic level, since converting last November, I have been giving more of the standard vaccines (because of the reminders), utilizing the 25 modifier when doing the annual wellness with a 99213 because it is what I am doing and for years have been underbilling without realizing this.
I am now scrubbing my own superbills, so the gals out front have much cleaner superbills to submit, and a cleaner posting process because of the quick codes section.
Uncle Sam can blame himself for finally re-imbursing us now for the annual exam on medicare patients! The medicare patients do not have any out of pocket expenditure for the wellness portion. I make darn sure I bill the annual wellness and have all the necessary requirements such as the wellness assessment form, vision screening, end of life issues discussion, list of other providers etc....
I have had a few private pay patients complain with the annual or 99213 not being covered when using a modifier, but have educated them on my rational for the charge, and most understand.
I suspect the heavily templated bulky EHRs the REC's (Regional Extension Centers) are pushing docs towards are the EHR's that the hospital administrators love and the physicsians hate. Next Gen comes to mind on the recent Medscape Survey Leslie brought up recently.
However, there may be more of a tendency to upcode and put data into a note that was not actually done if you are using one of these heavily templated EHRs, and asked by your employer (the hospital) to see 25-30 patients a day because their in patient monies are drying up on the vine with the bundling of services, and now the hospital is depending more on the outpatient services to supplement income.
But to insinuate all EHR utilizing docs, as Dr Simborg implies in the last sentence of the article, is maddening at the least.
