IN THIS ISSUE

* Welcome
* Billing Tip: Timely Filing Changes for Medicare
* Hurricane Preparedness
* Meaningful Use
* New Features
* New AHI satellite office
* Upcoming Events

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Welcome

Greetings to all of our Azalea Health Innovations friends and thank you for reading our newsletter. We hope all of our readers had a wonderful summer and wish you all a safe and fun Labor Day weekend!

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Billing Tip: Timely Filing Changes for Medicare

President Obama recently signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). One of the previsions of this act was to amend the time period allowed for filing of Medicare fee for service claims. Under the new rule which became effective for services provided January 1 2010 and later, providers now have one calendar year from the date of service to file a clean claim. Previously providers had up to 15 months to file clean claims. Please be sure your practice or organization is aware of this change as it will affect providers nationwide. Here is a break down of the filing deadlines based on dates of service:

• Claims with dates of service prior to October 1, 2009 will be subject to pre-ACA timely filing rules and associated edits;
• Claims with dates of service October 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009 received after December 31, 2010 will be denied as being past the timely filing deadline; and
• Claims with dates of service January 1, 2010 and later received more than one calendar year beyond the date of service will be denied as being past the timely filing deadline.

Click Here to view the MLN Matters Article from Medicare in its entirety.

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Hurricane Preparedness

Hurricane season has arrived! During this time of the year it is even more important to remember to take proper precautions and be prepared. Should a storm ever be of threat to your practice, you do not want to lose all of your valuable digital data (i.e. EMR, PMS, and any other documents) because your office was not properly prepared. Remember to always back up your digital data and to make sure that all data is stored remotely. Have surge protectors and battery/power back-ups for all servers and computers at your office. It is also important to come up with a contingency plan, such as who to call and what to do, to ensure less down time for your practice in case of flooding or any other destruction due to the storm. For more information on hurricane preparedness visit http://www.fema.gov/hazard/hurricane/ .

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Meaningful Use

There is so much misinformation is out there about “MEANINGFUL USE”. As it stands now, no one meets the meaningful use criteria. Why? Because ONC has not decided who the certifying body/bodies will be yet. If an EMR sales representative advises you that they are certified ‘Meaningful Use”, ask them which ONC certified body they got their certification from. CCHIT is not an ONC authorized body, because no one is! It appears there will be plenty of competition as an EMR certification body. Out of the 30 applications sent to requesting organizations, ONC reports that it has received only six or seven completed applications. Multiple certification bodies means more price competition and quicker certification, which of course benefits the vendors and ultimately the end-users as well.

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New Features

If you haven’t already checked out our August New Features email, please note that eleven new features were added to both Azalea QuickBill and Azalea LabHub combined just last month. We want to make sure that all of our clients are utilizing our software to their fullest potential, so for those of you who may have missed the August New Features email, click on the following link to view the the many new features that were added to Azalea QuickBill and Azalea LabHub. http://www.azaleahealth.com/newsletters/new_features_blast_201008.php
In addition, please remember that as always we are working to keep our software as update and user friendly as possible, so don’t forget to look out tomorrow for September’s New Feature email to see the newest additions to our software products!

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New AHI satellite office is open!

Azalea Health Innovations is pleased to announce the expansion of the company with a new satellite office located in Savannah, Georgia! Savannah is currently home to over 600 physicians and surgeons, as well as two major hospital systems. The region is an abundant health care market, and Azalea Health will look to serve this sector by continuing to provide quality products and services.

Please follow this link to read the full press release on AHI’s newest location: Azalea Health-Savannah Press Release

AHI-Savannah is located at 5223 Paulsen St., Suite B, Savannah, GA 31405 and can be reached by phone at (912) 228-5882.

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Upcoming Events

AHI will be exhibiting at the 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.

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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

Click the links below to stay in touch:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Azalea-Health-Innovations/145238319941?ref=ts
http://twitter.com/azaleahealth
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2791313&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr
http://www.youtube.com/user/azaleahealth

* Welcome
* Secretary Sebelius Announces Final ‘Meaningful Use’ Rules for EHR’s
* Billing Tip: Prolonged Visits
* More New Features
* New AHI satellite office coming!
* Upcoming Events

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Welcome

Greetings to all of our Azalea Health Innovations friends and thank you for reading our newsletter. We wish all of our readers a happy and healthy summer!

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Secretary Sebelius Announces Final ‘Meaningful Use’ Rules for EHR’s

U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced this past month the final rules defining meaningful use, allowing EHR system vendors to confirm if their systems meet the requirements and providers can be assured that the system they acquire will support the “meaningful use” objectives. The announcement completes the groundwork for the incentive payments program.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) rule addresses the requirements providers must meet to qualify for payments. It is a flexible, “two track” approach with a “core” group of requirements plus an additional “menu” of procedures for a provider to choose from depending on their needs and individual path to full EHR use. It also defines all eligible professionals, hospitals, and acute care hospitals more extensively.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) rule sets the standards and specifications for EHR technology to be certified under the incentive program and coordinates the required EHR systems with the meaningful use requirements.

The incentive payments under the Medicare and Medicaid EHR programs for 2011 through 2019 are estimated to range from $9.7 billion to $27.4 billion. For more information on meaningful use and government incentives, visit www.azaleahealth.com/incentives or email us at info@azaleahealth.com

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Billing Tip: Prolonged Visits

A physician’s time is precious and should not be taken for granted. If a patient encounter goes beyond the “normal” time as defined by the E/M CPT definition, there is a way to bill for and get paid for that extra time in the form of prolonged visit CPT codes. Codes 99354-99357 are for care spent face-to-face with a patient in an inpatient or outpatient setting. Codes 99358-99359 are for care spent on non face-to-face contact (ie review of records, tests, communication with other professionals and/or family) in an inpatient or outpatient setting.

These codes are all considered add-on codes which means they are to be used in addition to the basic E/M service. This time does not include any separate procedures which may still be billed on the same claim and no modifier is required.

The key to using these codes is understanding when a prolonged service actually begins and the basic E/M service ends. You must provide a minimum of 30 minutes of prolonged services in order to use the code. For example if a 99204 office visit, which is defined as a 45 minute visit, runs onto 60 minutes, you haven’t reached the minimum 30 minutes of prolonged time to bill for the code. This visit would have to be at least 75 minutes long in total to bill for the E/M code plus the prolonged visit code.

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New Features

At Azalea Health Innovations our goal is to keep our clients up-to-date with the most innovative technology by providing them with the highest quality products and tools necessary to succeed. Due to the dynamic nature of the medical industry, we are constantly updating and enhancing our software. One of the major advantages of utilizing our web-based applications, is that all new features and upgrades are available to our clients in real time. Over the past couple of weeks we have added even more components to Azalea QuickBill™ and Azalea LabHub™, making them both even more efficient and user friendly than before. We appreciate all our clients’ requests, as their feedback is important for the growth and optimization of our products and services. Look out tomorrow for our latest New Features email and find out all the new ways you can benefit from Azalea QuickBill™ and Azalea LabHub™!

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New AHI satellite office coming!

Azalea Health Innovations is pleased to announce the expansion of the company with a new satellite office location in SAVANNAH, GEORGIA! The new office is set to open on September 1, and will look to serve the booming health care sector in the region with our wide variety of innovative products and services. With this new addition, AHI-Savannah will strive to continue with Azalea Health’s reputation of offering user-friendly software and interactive service, while having a strong and centralized presence in the southern coastal region.

Be on the lookout for more information about AHI-Savannah!

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Upcoming Events

AHI will be exhibiting at the 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.

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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

Click the links below to stay in touch:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Azalea-Health-Innovations/145238319941?ref=ts
http://twitter.com/azaleahealth
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2791313&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr
http://www.youtube.com/user/azaleahealth

IN THIS ISSUE

* Welcome
* CMS Debuts ‘Meaningful Use’ Website
* Billing Tip: Medicare Physician Fee Schedule increased
* Value Added Reseller (VAR) Program
* Upcoming Events

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Welcome

Greetings to all of our Azalea Health Innovations friends and thank you for reading our newsletter. We wish all of our readers a happy and healthy summer!

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CMS Debuts ‘Meaningful Use’ Website

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) debuted a Website on June 21, 2010 offering information on which providers will qualify for Medicare and Medicaid bonuses for using electronic health record systems to improve healthcare services. It also defines how it will administer the meaningful use program. The program is officially set to begin this fall, and the Website offers providers information about what they need to know to participate in the program. Some of the features include an overview of the program, information about what providers are eligible, how to register, and what providers should do now to prepare for meaningful use. The Website also offers related links and downloadable fact sheets, and can be found at https://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/.

CMS is expected to soon release its final rule on the definition of meaningful use as well as a description of the requirements providers must meet to be eligible for incentive payments in 2011. For more information on Meaningful Use criteria and other Government incentives, visit our website at www.azaleahealth.com/incentives.

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Billing Tip: Medicare Physician Fee Schedule increased

Recently Released from the CMS website:

2.2 Percent Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Update for June 1, 2010, Through November 30, 2010- The President Signs the Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010
On June 25, 2010, President Obama signed into law the “Preservation of Access to Care for Medicare Beneficiaries and Pension Relief Act of 2010.” This law establishes a 2.2 percent update to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) payment rates retroactive from June 1 through November 30, 2010. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has directed Medicare claims administration contractors to discontinue processing claims at the negative update rates and to temporarily hold all claims for services rendered June 1, 2010, and later, until the new 2.2 percent update rates are tested and loaded into the Medicare contractors’ claims processing systems. Effective testing of the new 2.2 percent update will ensure that claims are correctly paid at the new rates. We expect to begin processing claims at the new rates no later than July 1, 2010. Claims for services rendered prior to June 1, 2010, will continue to be processed and paid as usual.

Claims containing June 2010 dates of service which have been paid at the negative update rates will be reprocessed as soon as possible. Under current law, Medicare payments to physicians and other providers paid under the MPFS are based upon the lesser of the submitted charge on the claim or the MPFS amount. Claims containing June dates of service that were submitted with charges greater than or equal to the new 2.2 percent update rates will be automatically reprocessed. Affected physicians/providers who submitted claims containing June dates of service with charges less than the 2.2 percent update amount will need to contact their local Medicare contractor to request an adjustment. Submitted charges on claims cannot be altered without a request from the physician/provider. Physicians/providers should not resubmit claims already submitted to their Medicare contractor.

https://www.cahabagba.com/part_b/whats_new/2010625_pfs_update.htm
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Value Added Reseller (VAR) Program

Azalea Health Innovations is pleased to announce our new Value Added Reseller (VAR) Program. With the implementation of our new VAR program, we have extended to our resellers the opportunity to generate significant revenue by offering our products and services to those they do business with. Therefore, succeeding with their own clients. Expand your visibility, offerings, and your business by becoming an AHI Value Added Reseller. We look forward to working with our new VARs, and if you are interested in becoming part of our VAR Team please email us at Sales@AzlaeaHealth.com

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Upcoming Events

AACC (American Association for Clinical Chemistry) 2010 Conference. This event is being held at the Anaheim Convention Center, booth # 8030, in Anaheim, CA on July 27 – 29. For additional information regarding the 2010 AACC Annual Meeting and Clinical Lab Expo visit: http://www.aacc.org/events/2010am/Pages/default.aspx

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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

Click the links below to stay in touch:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Azalea-Health-Innovations/145238319941?ref=ts
http://twitter.com/azaleahealth
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2791313&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr
http://www.youtube.com/user/azaleahealth

IN THIS ISSUE

* Welcome
* 99% Club
* Industry News: “Hospital EMR Reimbursements at Risk: HIMSS”
* Billing Tip: Medicare to hold claims again in June
* 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. We wish all of our readers a warm and prosperous 2010!

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99% Club

Electronic Claim Clearinghouse Gateway EDI has added Azalea Health Innovations to the 99% Club for showing outstanding performance in electronic claim submission. This means that 99% of the claims we submitted to Gateway EDI were ERROR FREE, therefore achieving the Gold Standard of Revenue Cycle for Medical Practices. Achieving a “99% clean claim status” produces the following value: faster access to revenue, better realization in gross revenue, less cost associated with collection of revenue (i.e. decreased overhead), and increased levels of patient satisfaction with fewer questions and complaints about the administrative portion of their visit. Thank you to all our AHI staff for helping us achieve a “99% clean claim status”, as reaching this standard is a great achievement!

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Industry News: “Hospital EMR Reimbursements at Risk: HIMSS”

HIMSS Analytics recently conducted a new IT market survey and found that a majority of clinics and a minority of hospitals are at risk for not qualifying for full federal reimbursements for EMR systems under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, and the clock is ticking for aging financial-software systems. The survey indicates that between 30% and 40% of current U.S. hospitals are at risk for not meeting the meaningful-use criteria, both financially and operationally, and over half of all independent clinics will be at risk, despite the fact that the government will be establishing regional extension centers that will help office-based physicians get their subsidized EMR systems up and running.

Overall, hospitals’ IT spending on applications as part of total capital spending is projected to increase through 2015, largely because of the stimulus-fund support. HIMSS analytics project a 2% increase alone in hospital capital spending for IT application solutions in 2010. Furthermore, hospital capital spending for software applications is projected to be between 46.5% and 48.3% of total IT capital budgets this year.

For more information on EMR meaningful-use criteria, 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 to hold claims again in June

It’s time to prepare for another 2 weeks of waiting as The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced on May 27th, 2010 that Congress is considering another negative update to the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. This likely means another 2 weeks of waiting on payments from Medicare until this is decided. Please read the exact wording as it was released from CMS

“The Continuing Extension Act of 2010, enacted on April 15, 2010, extended the zero percent (0%) update to the 2010 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) through May 31, 2010. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) believes Congress is working to avert the negative update scheduled to take effect June 1, 2010. To avoid disruption in the delivery of health care services to beneficiaries and payment of claims for physicians, non-physician practitioners, and other providers of services paid under the MPFS, CMS has instructed its contractors to hold claims containing services paid under the MPFS (including anesthesia services) for the first 10 business days of June. This hold will only affect MPFS claims with dates of service June 1, 2010, and later.

This hold should have minimum impact on provider cash flow because, under the current law, clean electronic claims are not paid any sooner than 14 calendar days (29 for paper claims) after the date of receipt.”

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New Features

Please remember all the new features we have added to Azalea QuickBill™. These new features include additions to the appointment scheduler, such as as personalized appointment reasons, scheduling a patient to a resource in addition to a physician, schedule blocking, and lock-out blocking. With these new additions, you may now customize the Scheduler in a way that best fits your practice. We also added the ability to scan images (i.e. patients’ insurance cards and drivers license) into the system. By utilizing this feature, you will lessen the amount of insurance denials and returned patient statements due to mis-types and lack of patient information.

We always want to make sure you are taking full advantage of all our products have to offer and utilizing them to their greatest potential, so please visit the following link to review our recently added features: http://www.azaleahealth.com/quickbill_blast.php. Also, be sure to look out for another “Product Updates” email from us tomorrow, as even more new features and updates have been added to both Azalea QuickBill™ and Azalea LabHub™.

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Upcoming Events

AACC (American Association for Clinical Chemistry) 2010 Conference. This event is being held at the Anaheim Convention Center, booth # 8030, in Anaheim, CA on July 27 – 29. For additional information regarding the 2010 AACC Annual Meeting and Clinical Lab Expo visit: http://www.aacc.org/events/2010am/Pages/default.aspx

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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

Click the links below to stay in touch:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Azalea-Health-Innovations/145238319941?ref=ts
http://twitter.com/azaleahealth
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2791313&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr
http://www.youtube.com/user/azaleahealth

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

Click the links below to stay in touch:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Azalea-Health-Innovations/145238319941?ref=ts
http://twitter.com/azaleahealth
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=2791313&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr
http://www.youtube.com/user/azaleahealth

In the last year, there has been no clear statement from Dr. Blumenthal regarding one standard or one governing body that assures these standards will be met. As a laboratory software maker, I see that many physicians have EMRs, but still do not have all their laboratory results electronically transferred into their EMR. The reason for not authorizing all EMR users to have a direct interface with their laboratory is economics. Most laboratories get charged by the EMR company to create an HL-7 interface with the EMR. Some of those interfaces can range from free to all the way up to $25,000 per interface, which is the case for Misys Tiger EMR now known as Allscripts.

The issue of interface cost needs to be resolved in order to have an abundant adoption of EMRs with laboratory interfaces. The current standards for laboratory interfaces are HL7. I believe that this format will continue as Dr. Blumenthal addressed in his blog. However, connectivity solutions like CONNECT Open Source could possibly be the means for health information exchange, both locally and at the national level. Two of Azalea Health Innovations’ programmers are participating this month in the first Code-A-Thon of 2010. I believe the CONNECT project is going to gain momentum and eventually be the method for connecting a regional network of health information exchanges to the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN).

* Welcome
* Billing Tip: PECOS deadline delayed until 2011
* E-Rx latest rules and regs
* Meaningful Use Update
* Upcoming Events

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Welcome

Greetings to all of our Azalea Health Innovations friends and thank you for reading our newsletter. We wish all of our readers happy and wonderful Spring!!

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E-Rx latest rules and regs

On Wednesday March 24th, the Office of the Federal Register made the DEA’s Interim Final Rule on electronic prescribing of controlled substances available for public inspection.
The Interim Final Rule specifies the rules that healthcare providers will need to follow in order to electronically prescribe controlled substances in accordance with the law. For more information click on the following link.
http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/controlled_substances_e-prescribing_rule_dea-39995-1.html
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Billing Tip: PECOS deadline delayed until 2011

Many medical practices are scrambling to understand and update their PECOS enrollment with Medicare. According to CMS, implementation of the requirement that all ordering/referring DMEPOS Medicare Part B providers be enrolled in the Provider Enrollment Chain and Ownership System (PECOS) has been pushed back until January 3, 2011. As of this new date, Medicare will reject DMEPOS claims if the ordering/referring provider is not actively enrolled in the PECOS system. The official wording on the CMS website can be found here:
Medicare Ordering and Referring.

Want to know if you or your provider is already enrolled in PECOS? Chances are if you or your provider enrolled with Medicare or updated Medicare info in the last 5 years then they are enrolled in PECOS. Medicare has a complete list of individual providers who are already enrolled with PECOS. Click here to view the current list.

This information was also listed on page 2 in the last quartely CMS newsletter: http://www.al-medicare.com/part_b/education_and_outreach/2010_winter_pulse.pdf

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Meaningful Use Update

Now that the public comment period has closed for the proposed rules on meaningful use of health IT, the policymakers at CMS are getting down to the work of reviewing the more than 2,000 comments that poured in over the past two months. It won’t be an easy task. CMS must make sure the process is compatible with parallel rules from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology on standards and certification of EMRs, plus a recently published ONC proposal that spells out a new certification process.
Read more: http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/cms-works-align-meaningful-use-related-standards/2010-03-22#ixzz0jbqx3tC1

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PC Spring Cleaning Tip

Now is a good time to clean out all of the dust from your PC case. Turn off the PC, unplug the power cable, and open up the case. If you have a small vacuum cleaner with a hose use it to suck up the any large clumps of dust, and then use a can of compressed air to blow any remaining dust from inside the PC case. If you don’t have a vacuum you can still use the can, but it will be messier and you may want to do this outside. As part of your spring cleaning make sure the PC case has plenty of ventilation around. The back of the case should have a good 4 inches of free space and make sure any ventilation slots on the case are not covered or blocked. Most PC cases have a side panel that will slide off by removing a couple of screws on back up the PC, or it may even a have a small lever to slide and open the case. Some of the older Dell cases actually have a button on the top and bottom that will release catch and the case slide open.

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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 participating in the CONNECT Code-A-Thon April 28-29, 2010 in Miami, FL. Developers from all around the country will join together to contribute to the CONNECT open source project. The event will be held from 9am -5 pm 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

VALDOSTA, GA (WALB) –The recession hasn’t hurt Valdosta as badly as many Georgia cities, but unemployment there is still up.

A Valdosta State University professor expects that to change slowly this year.

She says there will continue to be weak areas of the economy, but the private sector is picking up.

Some businesses can actually benefit from the recession according to a VSU professor. Enrollment is up at VSU and Valdosta Technical College. Many of the students at VSU are from out of town. That means potential new customers for businesses.

“If you have a business that can tap into that student population it’s going to help you position yourself for that recovery,” said VSU Associate Professor of Economics Cindy Tori.

While some people are out of jobs and the unemployment rate is more than eight percent in the Valdosta area, there is an upside.

The economic forecast for our area shows that now is a good time for businesses to hire. Dr. Tori says there are a large of number of workers available with a wide range of skills.

Businesses like Azalea Health Innovations hire students.

“We started out with four and now we have 13 full-time and part-time,” said Azalea Health Innovations Chief Financial Officer Doug Swords. “We’ve got several VSU students, some VSU graduates so we’ve got a lot of talent here.”

Azalea Health Innovations won the Guardian Bank Business Plan competition in 2008 which included $15,000 in start-up capital and thousands of dollars in in-kind services donated by Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce members. He says he learned a lot through the planning process.

“We had to plan out five years of financial projection,” said Swords. “It really helped us out a lot.”

To enter the business plan competition, a business must be located in Valdosta or Lowndes County and have the potential to hire VSU or Val Tech students.

Dr. Tori also says now is the time for businesses to advertise. For more information on the business plan competition, click here.

Azalea Health Innovations Friends Newsletter – March 2010

IN THIS ISSUE

*Welcome
*AHI’s New Website
*Medical Necessity Checking and Lost Revenue
*Billing Tip – Fee Schedule Analysis
*Meaningful Use Update
*Upcoming Events

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Welcome

Greetings to all of our Azalea Health Innovations friends and thank you for reading our newsletter. As we start rolling into 2010 we look forward to keeping you informed and up to date on the latest in industry trends as well as whats new at Azalea Health Innovations. If you have topics of discussion or subjects you would like to be covered in a future news letter please let us know.

Happy reading…

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AHI’s New Website

We are pleased to announce our new and updated website will launch March 1st, 2010!

Our new site will feature a new Government Incentives Center allowing the medical community to stay up to date on the latest on “meaningful use” and other incentive programs. Also, look for new Client Testimonials, an enhanced Resource Center, valuable software financing options and much much more… www.AzaleaHealth.com.

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Medical Necessity

Many hospitals and medical offices still depend on manual methods for checking medical necessity on claims. Think of the valuable staff time it takes to review claims to make sure ICD-9 diagnosis codes and CPT procedure codes meet medical necessity. If a claim does not meet the requirements then reimbursements will be denied.

Think of this, the HFMA states, “there are 176,000 code pairs that support medical necessity. Only someone with superhuman speed-reading skills and memory could look through all the documents containing the various national and local codes not to mention modifications that are made monthly.”

To read the complete report go to http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3257/is_10_58/ai_n6274065/?tag=content;col1

Does your software perform medical necessity checks on medical claims data? If you would like to learn more please feel free to contact us.

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Billing Tip – Fee Schedule Analysis

Does your office know how much to expect in reimbursement from each insurance payer? Do you even know where your fee schedules are located for each contracted insurance? If not it may be time to perform a fee schedule analysis for your practice.

It is very important that your practice recoups the full amount of reimbursement for each service or procedure performed. You want your fees to be high enough to capture maximum reimbursement.

Have you noticed an insurance reimburse you at 100% of your gross fee (not 100% of the allowable amount)? If yes then chances are your fees may not be set high enough.

For example, if Insurance Company X’s fee schedule shows $100.00 as the reimbursement amount for a certain CPT code but your gross fee is only $80.00 then you will always miss out on collecting that extra $20.00. We advise a fee schedule anaylsis to be performed on at least a yearly basis.

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Meaningful Use Update

The 60 day public comment period for “meaningful use” is drawing to an end with the final version of what will be the “meaningful use” criteria for physicians and hospitals to be released in March. We will include the updates in next months newsletter.

For the latest up to date information on “meaningful use” link to http://www.cms.hhs.gov/apps/media/press/factsheet.asp?Counter=3564

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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!

ACC (American College of Cardiology) 2010 Conference. This event is being held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA, on March 14th-16th, 2010

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.

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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

Click the links below to stay in touch:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Azalea-Health-Innovations/145238319941?ref=ts

http://twitter.com/azaleahealth

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