Day #3 with ACPM:
Yesterday and today we continued entering insurance info for patients.
We started entering charges for patient visits manually (directly into PM) and via AC. In the past when I signed my notes I would enter the CPT code for the visit but we only did that to get credit for MU. Now we are really taking advantage of this feature in AC and it's going well. After I finish the chart I enter the CPT codes, check the ICD codes, and then sign the chart. The codes go directly into PM. In the past we used a paper system ("Encounter Form"). This process is helping me be more rigorous about my coding and helping me get ready for ICD 10.
We had a problem with the demographic data transfer from AC into PM. We found at least two patients that didn't transfer. Our tech support person showed us how to fix that: the patient is entered into PM and then "mapped" to link to the correct patient in AC.
My staff likes the fact that any of us can access PM from our computers. Our old billing software, Medisoft, was only working on one computer. As we learn more about PM it's becoming clear that our old software was a bit of a dinosaur.
Next week we are going to start sending out some insurance claims.
P.S. This is just our experience. It would be helpful if others would share their observations about getting started with PM. It should be useful for all of us and perhaps give the ACPM team some useful feedback.
