Azalea Health Innovations Friends Newsletter – May 2010

IN THIS ISSUE

* Welcome
* HITECH Act Update
* Billing Tip: Medicare cuts avoided…for now
* New Features
* Upcoming Events

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Welcome

Greetings to all of our Azalea Health Innovations friends and thank you for reading our newsletter. With summer right around the corner we wish all of our readers a warm and prosperous 2010!

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HITECH Act Update

It has now been a month since meaningful use criteria for the adoption of an EMR/EHR for medical providers and hospitals was finalized. Here are a couple of key points to remember:
Reimbursements for physicians using an EMR in a meaningful way will begin in January 2011, hospitals October 2010.
There is a 90 day reporting time frame in the first year an EMR is used to qualify for the first reimbursement payout. That means for a physician to receive the first reimbursement in January 2011 they would need to have been using their EMR in a meaningful way in Oct, Nov and Dec of 2010.
For more information on how to qualify for EMR adoption reimbursements, go to Azalea Health Innovation’s government incentives web page at http://www.azaleahealth.com/incentives. You may also contact us for a consultation meeting at 1-877-777-7686 or email us at info@azaleahealth.com.

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Billing Tip: Medicare cuts avoided…for now

The “Continuing Extension Act of 2010″ was signed into law April 15th 2010 by President Obama. This put another temporary halt to the proposed 21% Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) reduction. Medicare froze processing of all April MPFS claims for two weeks until the act was passed. Many of you may have noticed this gap in payments as April MPFS claims were not officially released for payment processing until April 16th. This new, temporary halt will only last until May 31st at which time Medicare will more than likely hold claims again starting June 1st 2010 while they vote whether or not to extend the temporary halt in fee reductions.

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New Features

As many of you may have already noticed, we have added a couple of new features to Azalea
QuickBill™. These new features include additions to the appointment scheduler as well as the ability to scan images into the system. With the new additions to the scheduler such as personalized appointment reasons, blocking, and lock-out features, you may now customize the scheduler in a way that best fits your practice. Also, with the ability to scan images such as patient’s insurance cards and driver’s licenses, the billing process will be more streamlined. No more insurance denials and returned patient statements due to mis-types or lack of patient information. Reduced time spent on administrative duties leaves more time to focus on revenue generating tasks. For more detailed information on our product updates, go to the following link: http://www.azaleahealth.com/quickbill_blast.php

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Upcoming Events

AHI will be exhibiting and the following conferences in 2010. At each conference we will be having a drawing for a free iPod Touch. If you will be in the area, please stop by our booth and say hi!

-CLMA (Clinical Laboratory Management Association) ThinkLab 2010 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 4-5, 2010.

-MGMA (Medical Group Management Association) 2010 Conference. This event is being held at the Ernest N. Memorial Convention Center in New Orleans, LA, on October 24th-27th, 2010.

Azalea Health Innovations will be participated in the CONNECT Code-A-Thon April 28-29, 2010 in Miami, FL. Developers from all around the country joined together to contribute to the CONNECT open source project. The event was held at Florida International University. http://www.connectopensource.org/about/events/code-a-thon-april-2010

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Thank you!

Azalea Health Innovations, Inc.
100 North Patterson Street
Valdosta, GA 31601
Toll Free: 877-777-7686
Local: 229-269-4620
Toll Free Fax: 866-683-8679
Web: http://www.AzaleaHealth.com
Email: info@azaleahealth.com

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