Author Archives: Vignesh Eswaramoorthy

Refer Your Patients Through HealthViewX Referral Management Software

Existing Referral Management Workflow

When primary care physicians feel that their patients need advanced treatment or diagnosis, they refer them to specialists or imaging centers. Let us consider a typical example were in a referral takes place,

Dr.James runs a dentistry specialty center. This specialty clinic has certain clinics who refer most of their referrals to them. One such clinics is the clinic run by Dr.Anderson, a PCP.

Patient visits Dr.Anderson – Patient Mark met with a minor accident that caused him head injury. He visits Dr.Anderson who is his PCP. After examining him, Dr.Anderson wanted a specialist’s advice on this.
Dr.Anderson does the insurance pre-authorization – Dr.Anderson does not have a dedicated team for doing the insurance pre-authorization. He spends 15 minutes per patient on the pre-authorization process. This implies that if he does pre-auth for 8 patients a day, he is spending two hours a day on this. This is time-consuming considering his busy schedule.
Dr.Anderson initiates the referral – He usually sends dentistry related referrals to Dr. James. Though it is a trusted specialist center, Dr.Anderson is not happy with the way he has to send referrals to Dr.James. He has to fill out a form every time he sends referrals to this specialist. He downloads the form from the specialty clinic’s website and fills in the necessary details and diagnosis. Then he sends the faxes the referral to the specialty clinic.
After sending the referral – The specialty receives the referral from Dr.Anderson but it doesn’t notify him about the same. Now, Dr.Anderson does not receive any updates about the referral’s the progress from Dr.James or the patient Mark. Though Dr.Anderson has received positive feedback from the patients who he had referred previously to Dr.James, he is still worried if Mark was taken care of.

In this case, the referral workflow lacks standard referral channels and communication methods. It makes the referral experience bitter for the referring provider.

New referral channels for a better experience with referrals

On detailed analysis of a dental specialty’s current process, we realized that the crucial part of the problem is the channel through which the referrals are being received. Our HealthViewX Referral Management solution supports two new sources for sending or receiving referrals. They are the desktop direct and the type-enable pdf options. The best part is that it is not necessary for the referring provider to use our platform directly.

Desktop Direct is a secure platform that enables providers to share patient referral information from their desktop. It is a light-weighted healthcare application white-labelled for the practice with the ability to send and track patient referrals from a referring provider’s system. It supports sending out medical referrals in electronic formats and tracking the referrals. The receiving provider can upload the test results or relevant documents for the benefit of the referring provider. The referring provider can download the patient medical referral data securely for future reference.

In case of a type-enabled pdf, we send the referral form as a pdf to those clinics who refer to the specialty regularly. We send via email or give them a plugin. The form will be easy to fill out and with a click, the referring provider can send it to the receiving provider.

HealthViewX Referral Management features that benefit the receiving provider

Though it is not necessary for the referring provider to use our platform, the receiving provider must have the HealthViewX platform. It has the following features that make the referral process easier for the receiving provider as well.

Single Referral Workflow Queue Consolidation – It collects Fax, Phone, Email, Website form and all possible channel referrals. It helps in managing them better in a single interface.
Timeline View – Both the specialist and the PCP can view the timeline data of the patient in which the referral history is present. Documents and notes can be attached anytime for one another’s reference.
To and fro Communication – At any time of the referral process, the PCP and the center can communicate with the help of the inbuilt secure messaging and voice call applications.
Referral Data Consolidation – It has options for printing the consolidated data about the referrals and the referral history of any patient as a hard copy at any time in pdf/excel.
Secure Data Management – HealthViewX Patient Referral Management is HIPAA-compliant. It manages all patient-related documents securely.
Referral Analytics – Helps in tracking the number of referrals and gives complete information about the referrals processed, missed, scheduled etc with the help of a Referral Data-centric Dashboard.

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management application simplifies the referral process for the referring providers. It also provides a better workflow for the receiving providers. This, in turn, increases patient satisfaction and revenue. To know more about HealthViewX solution, schedule a demo with us. Our patient referral management experts will guide you through our HIPAA-compliant solution.

A Leading FQHC In California Chooses HealthViewX To Manage Their End-To-End Referral Process

About the Federally Qualified Health Center

Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in the United States is a non-profit entity comprising of clinical care providers, that operate at comprehensive federal standards. The care providers in FQHC are a part of the country’s health care safety net, which is defined as a group of health centers, hospitals, and providers who are willing to provide services to the nation’s needy crowd, thus ensuring that comprehensive care is available to all, regardless of income or insurance status. This client is the health care safety net for their county’s poor and uninsured people. The FQHC gives the people access to high-quality health services that they needed and deserved. They are key regional health providers who treats more than 65,000 patients annually.

Challenges in the existing referral workflow of HealthViewX Federally Qualified Health Center client

The following are the major problems our Federally Qualified Health Center client wanted a solution for. Let us consider the challenges with a typical referral scenario to understand it better.

Insurance pre-authorization – The physician must check the pre-authorization requirements, health plans, etc. He must retrieve patient-specific data like the history of medications, medical diagnosis and insurance coverage. The physician must then send it to the insurance company so that they can validate the same. This client did not a dedicated team or software to do insurance pre-authorization which increased their burden.
Tracking the referral – Specialists are usually busy. They do not have the time to inform physician’s about the progress of referrals. So the physicians are unable to track referrals. They get no information about appointments, referral loop closure or feedback from specialists or patients.

How HealthViewX features helped this FQHC client resolve their challenges

Considering the existing workflow of the FQHC, their major problems are insurance pre-authorization and referral tracking. So how can HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution help in solving these problems?

The following features made the pre-authorization and referral communication easier for this FQHC client,

EMR/EHR integration – Our System integrates directly with electronic health records (EHRs). This enables healthcare professionals to easily obtain prior authorizations in real time at the point of care. It also eliminates time-consuming paper forms, faxes, and phone calls.
Insurance pre-authorization automation – There are two ways in which HealthViewX solution automates the insurance pre-authorization process. The first one is the api-based method. Through this, we retrieve information regarding the forms and communicate information back and forth between the FQHC and the insurance company. The second one is the form automation method. Through this, we get all payer-specific form, fill in the necessary information and send it to the insurance company via efax
To and fro Communication – At any time of the referral process, the PCP and the center can communicate with the help of the inbuilt secure messaging and voice call applications. By this, the physicians can get referral updates easily.

Useful HealthViewX Patient Referral Management Solution features

Leading FQHC in California has chosen HealthViewX due to the industry-leading patient referral management features. FQHCs across USA can benefit from Referral Management Software depending on their patient referral workflow,

Intelligent Provider Match
HIPAA compliant data security
Referral history
Referral loop closure

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management software has provided the best use cases for the major challenges faced by the FQHC. Are you a Federally Qualified Health Center missing out on your referral updates? Schedule a demo with us to know more about our solution.

How Can Dental Centers Improve Their Patient Referral Workflow?

Did you know? In a year, 15 billion faxes are sent out for referrals in the USA. Practices receive referrals through fax, online forms, direct messaging, email, virtual print, direct walk-ins, and other channels. A typical dental center is a high inbound referral setup. They need an effective referral management solution to manage the increasing inbound referral rates.

Existing Patient Referral Management Workflow in a Dental Center

A typical dental center or dental group is a high inbound patient referral setup. Dental centers receive volume of referrals weekly (ranging from 50 per week to even several hundred per week) depending on the number of patients visiting the center and number of clinics sending referrals to them. An effective referral management solution will help manage small or big volumes of referrals by reducing manual tasks and using automation and structure where possible.

Dental centers usually have a dedicated team of referral coordinators who receive, accept and process the referral requests. These referral coordinators manually key in the necessary details into an EMR/EHR system and create a referral. The time spent by referral coordinator in a completely manual process can be reduced by using technology. Productivity and efficiency is increased by introducing technology to aid the process. It results in piling up requests that are not yet processed. When the referral coordinator does not have the required information to process the referral, he has to contact the referring provider. This further incurs time and results in slow referral processing rate. This, in turn has a negative impact on patient experience. Hence, patient referral leakage also becomes imminent.

Consequences of a slow referral network

The dental center loses its revenue when referrals are not processed in time.
Providers stop referring the center thereby harming its reputation.
Patients may have severe illness and may need immediate attention. The waiting time may affect their health.

Challenges faced by a Dental Center

Referrals flow into the dental center through various channels like fax, online forms, direct messaging, email, virtual print, direct walk-ins, etc. A dental center has no specified source to receive referrals.
The dental center receives numerous referrals which are difficult for them to process. This is because there is no single system to consolidate and manage referrals
There is no tracking system to understand in which stage of a referral life cycle is any referral is in.

Let us review a typical referral process to elaborate the challenges faced by the dental centers.

Patient visits the PCP – Andrews met with an accident recently. He met his PCP, Dr. John immediately as he was experiencing pain in his jaw. After examining him, Dr.John wanted him to consult a dentist. The doctor then initiated the referral.
PCP initiates the referral – John created a referral in his EMR. He did not have time to do the insurance pre-authorization so he left it to Andrews. He then found a dentist and gave him referral information verbally. Now when he met the specialist, Andrews had to again elaborate his condition and problems to him. This is time-consuming for the specialist as he wastes time on the same information twice.
Specialist requires more information – The specialist, Dr. James is a famous dentist in the locality. After receiving the referral, he schedules an appointment with Andrews. After the appointment, Dr. James wants more information about the patient’s history and diagnostic reports. Now, he has to wait for the PCP, Dr. John to send him the relevant information.
No tracking system for referrals – As Dr. James is a famous dentist in the locality, he receives numerous referrals in a day. There is no tracking system for him to know how many referrals he received, how many were processed, in what status each referral is in, etc. So it is difficult for Dr. James to know understand the analytics of his specialty.

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution at your aid

Patient Referral Management is complicated not only by the different sources but also by trying to manage all the referrals manually. The current referral management is no way close to the increasing demands of the referral process. Its inability to communicate between the referring and the receiving ends makes it slow and non-feasible.

Considering the challenges faced by dental centers, an Electronic Referral Management Software can help them better. After the complete analysis of a dental center’s referral workflow, HealthViewX realized that the crucial part of the problem is the lack of a system to consolidate referrals. On further analysis of their process, HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution introduced the following features to meet their requirements,

Multi-Channel Referral Consolidation – Referrals flowing in through many channels are consolidated in a single interface. It enables easier monitoring and facilitates timely referral loop closure.
Referral Tracking – HealthViewX gives a clear picture about how a referral has progressed with the help of a timeline view. Every referral has a status which conveys in which stage the referral is in. With the help of a customizable dashboard, the exact number of referrals waiting to be processed can be identified easily.
New Referral Channel – HealthViewX Referral Management solution supports a new channel for sending and receiving referrals. This is called the desktop application. Sources like email, website, direct message, fax, etc are not secure and difficult to handle. On the other hand, desktop application is a secure source for sending and receiving referrals. Also documents can be attached and sent as a referral.
Referral Data Consolidation – It has options for printing the consolidated data about the referrals and the referral history of any patient as a hard copy at any time in PDF/excel.
Secure Data Management – HealthViewX Patient Referral Management is HIPAA compliant. It manages all patient-related documents securely.
Referral Analytics – Helps in tracking the number of referrals and gives complete information about the referrals processed, missed, scheduled etc with the help of a Referral Data-centric Dashboard.

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution helps dental centers in managing their referral network and increasing their revenue. Are you a dental center looking to track your inbound referrals very effectively? To know about HealthViewX Patient Referral Management System in detail schedule a demo with our team.

How HealthViewX Patient Referral Management Software Helps People In Different Designations In Healthcare?

Why is Patient Referral Management important for hospitals?

Patient begin a journey with the hospital when they are referred to that hospital to improve their health condition. Their expectation of the referral is usually high as they have sought another hospital for better experience and treatment. So hospitals must try to live up to the expectations of their patients. In order to manage huge volume of referrals, a hospital must have an effective Patient Referral Management System in place. This blog highlights challenges faced by operations manager, revenue cycle manager, healthcare IT department, patient referral coordinators and care providers (physicians and specialists) and how HealthViewX Patient Referral Management Software can help.

Challenges faced by physicians and specialists

Physicians and specialists play pivotal roles in the patient referral process. Physicians or PCPs hold the responsibility of initiating referrals. A patient visits the PCP and it is the discretion of the PCP to refer the patient to a specialist. What problems do physicians face in a referral process?

Manual and time-consuming process – The process of creating a referral is too manual and time-consuming. In every stage of the referral, the physician has to put in a lot of effort. Here are few instances,

The physician has to wait for the insurance pre-authorization process to be done
Finding the right specialist takes a lot of effort from the physician’s side
After sending the referral, the physician has to wait for referral updates from the specialist.

From a specialist’s perspective the referral process is cumbersome. A specialist faces the following challenges,

Multiple referral channels – For the specialist/imaging center who receive referrals face more difficulties than the referring provider. The receive referrals through various channels like fax, email, direct message, website, user-filled forms, etc. Managing and tracking all of it manually is a tedious task. The chances of missing out on a referral are high.
Poor communication framework – The existing referral process has no quick mode of communication to contact the PCP or referral coordinator for missing information. The specialist has to wait till he/she gets the necessary information before starting with the referral process.

Challenges faced by referral coordinators

After a referral request is initiated, then it is the job of the referral coordinator to create a referral. A referral faces the following challenges,

Insurance pre-authorization – A referral coordinator has to consult the insurance company if the diagnosis prescribed meet the insurance requirements of the patient. This process takes time as the referral coordinator has to wait for the insurance company to respond.
Finding the right specialist/imaging center – The next big step after insurance pre-authorization is finding the right specialist or imaging center for the patient. The referral coordinator has to consider many factors like the patient’s convenience, specialist’s availability, new specialists in the locality, etc. This is time-consuming as there will be many specialists and imaging centers. Narrowing down the search manually will be difficult for the referral coordinator.
Handling multiple software – A referral coordinator has to handle an EHR, fax system, appointment scheduling software all at the same time. The coordinator has to
- Collect the patient information and demographics from the EHR
- Do the insurance pre-authorization
- Find the specialist
- Send out the referral as a hard-copy fax

Handling so many things at the same time is tedious for the referral coordinators

Challenges faced by an operations manager

Patient Referral Leakage – An operations manager will be primarily worried about how many patients are referred out of the network. Patient referral leakage is a determining factor in a referral network. In many cases, the patients are referred out-of-network even when there are appropriate specialists within the network.
Referral Analytics – As a large number of referrals flow in and out of the network, it is difficult to track the exact number. It is also tedious to track the number of referrals in various status and to close referral loops. The operations manager also needs to know how many referrals were sent or received, how many were processed, how many are yet to be processed, etc.

Challenges faced by a revenue cycle manager

Patient no-show rates – After receiving the referral, the specialist/imaging center schedules appointments with the patient. In some cases, the patients are not notified clearly about the appointment. When patients do not show up, it is difficult for the specialist/imaging center to track. It results in revenue loss and patient dissatisfaction.
Costly software – As mentioned earlier, a referral process needs an EMR/EHR, appointment scheduling software and a fax integration system. So many softwares for a single process is not efficient.

Challenges faced by an IT strategist

Handling sensitive patient data – Patient data must be handled securely. Considering the current manual process, it is difficult to maintain data security.

How can HealthViewX solution add value to the process?

1. Insurance pre-authorization process – HealthViewX automates the insurance pre-authorization process. The provider need not coordinate with the insurance company for prior authorization. The HealthViewX solution will do it for them. This reduces the manual effort of the referral coordinators.
2. Intelligent Provider Match – The HealthViewX “Smart Search” feature makes it easy for the referring provider in finding the right provider. It has smart filters and search options that help in narrowing down the specialist based on the requirements. This saves a lot of time for the referral coordinators.
3. Timeline View to track referrals – With the help of a referral status, the referring provider can get to know what stage the referral is. A timeline view shows a history of stages through which the referral has progressed. The chances of a referring provider missing out on referral updates are very less.
4. Referral closure and feedback – The referring provider can close the referral when it gets completed. The receiving provider and the patient can give a feedback on the referral process to the referring provider. Thus the referring provider can make it easy for the other the next time.
5. Multi-channel referral consolidation – The HealthViewX solution can capture fax, phone, email, online form referrals or any other referrals in a single interface. It makes it easy to monitor and manage all channels of referrals in a single queue.
6. Patient coordination framework – After finding the receiving provider, the referral coordinator refers the patient. When the receiving provider receives the referral, the provider will get notified of the referral. Even the patient will be notified of the referral. The receiving provider can schedule appointments based on the patient’s comfort. This will cut down patient no-show rates.
7. Referral Analytics – Helps in tracking the number of referrals and gives complete information about the referrals processed, missed, scheduled etc with the help of a Referral Data-centric Dashboard. It helps the operations manager in taking informed decisions.
8. HIPAA compliance – The solution is completely HIPAA compliant which enables secure patient data exchange.

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution smooths the referral process and solves challenges faced by people in different designations in healthcare. Do you want to know more about HealthViewX HIPAA compliant Patient Referral Management solution? Schedule a demo with us.

Why do Federally Qualified Health Centers need a Referral Management Software In Addition To An EMR?

Patient Referral Management is crucial for Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). With the advent of the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act, Electronic Health Records have been widely adopted across many FQHCs. There are many benefits to EHRs like improved,

Accessibility to patient data
Charge capture
Preventative health

Let us look into each of them in detail to understand an EMR/EHR implementation better.

Pros of EHR/EMR

1. Improved data accessibility

Before EHRs, access to medical charts required a fair amount of physical labor. For example, every time a patient visits the physician’s clinic or hospital, physician physically pulls their file from a storage space. As a result of this back and forth exchange, there was a greater chance of human error and charts would sometimes be missing information or be chronologically out-of-order.

EHRs, on the other hand, have eliminated the physical transporting, sifting and filing charts, making data available at all times. Additionally, for systems that allow remote access to charts, clinicians can even be offsite and still securely access patient files.

2. Computerized physician order entry

CPOE allows physicians to place lab and imaging orders, prescriptions and other notes electronically. This reduces the error of handwritten orders and allows the patient’s other physicians within the same network access to the order.

3.Preventative health

EHRs allow prompts for preventative health screenings. During routine doctor or urgent care visits, the physician has access to preventive health records conveniently in one place. If the patient is due for a cancer screening (such as mammogram or colonoscopy), or blood pressure testing, the referral coordinator can easily look this up via the EHR system and schedule an appointment for the patient.

4. Ease sign off for PAs and NPs

While this varies from state-to-state by law, physician assistants and nurse practitioners are typically required to have their notes approved and signed off on by their supervising physician. EHRs allow the revision and cosigning of notes to happen electronically as opposed to physically moving and signing the paper.

5. e-messaging between providers

As any referral coordinator can attest referral information, telephone tag between providers can be common and is a big time-waster. With EHR software, physicians can e-message across practices. One situation that benefits in particular from e-messaging is referrals. Rather than playing telephone tag to get an appointment scheduled, the physician electronically sends a message to schedule the appointment.

How can a Patient Referral Management Referral Management work in cohesion with an EMR/EHR system?

FQHCs prefer working with EMR/EHR systems because they are comfortable with it. So they do not wish to move out their EHR/EMR system.

How great it would be if a Patient Referral Management software could integrate seamlessly with an EMR/EHR system? It can help in ensuring end-to-end Patient Referral Management without disturbing the existing system.

An EHR/EMR system has many advantages but when it is complemented with a Referral Management software practices can experience many more benefits.

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution provides easy steps to integrate with a practice’s EMR/EHR system. The patient demographics, diagnostic reports, test results or any sensitive information can be transferred safely. The solution is HIPAA-compliant with complete data security. It has the following features,

Outbound Referrals – HealthViewX Referral Management Solution can integrate with both the receiving and referring end. For inbound referrals, it helps in channelizing various sources into one single queue. In case of outbound referrals, it facilitates integration with the existing system to read the patient data and send out referrals.
Referral Timeline – In HealthViewX Referral Management System, any referral has a timeline, to capture and notify the progress of the referral to all the stakeholders. A referral will be mapped to a status which helps in tracking it better. For e.g. – If a patient does not show up for the appointment, the status of the referral can be changed to no-show and an appropriate reason can also be given. With the help of a referral timeline, the providers can always be aware of what is going on with the referral.
Workflow and Task Management – A workflow can be defined on how the referral flow must be(business rules). Providers can create tasks to manage referrals by assigning it to the respective person.
Improved communication – HealthViewX Referral Management Solution supports messaging and calling features for the referring and the receiving providers to stay connected.
Data Management – The solution is HIPAA compliant and enables secure data exchange of all patient-related documents.
Seamless Integration – The solution can seamlessly integrate with any EMR/EHR/RIS or Third Party application thus providing minimal disruption in the existing referral flow.
Referral History Consolidation – The consolidated data regarding the referrals and the referral history of any patient can be printed as a hard copy at any time in pdf/excel.
Smart Search – HealthViewX Referral Management solution has a smart search facility that helps in finding the right provider for the treatment required.
Referral Data Analytics – Referral data-centric dashboard gives complete data regarding the number of referrals flowing out, the number of referrals in various status, patient follow-ups, etc.

HealthViewX Referral Management solution helps in building a secure referral network in no time. Our expert team will guide you in changing to a Patient Referral Management Software with minimal effort. Schedule a demo with us to know more about our solution.

Reference

University of California—Davis. “UC Davis study finds e-medical records have varying effects on productivity.” Dec. 2010. http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=966

How Can Hospitals Improve Their Patient Referral Management By Complying With Meaningful Use

What is meaningful use?

Meaningful use (MU) is a health information technology (HIT) term that defines minimum U.S. government standards for

Using electronic health records (EHR)
Exchanging patient clinical data between health care providers, between health care providers and insurers, and between healthcare providers and patients

It has a set of rules known as meaningful use measures or meaningful use criteria. It determines whether or not a healthcare provider receives federal funds from the Medicare EHR Incentive Program, the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program or both.

Almost 99% of the hospitals in the U.S. use EHR systems. It is a huge leap by EHRs compared to 31% of hospitals back in 2003. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users. While an EHR does contain the medical and treatment history of patients, an EHR system is built to go beyond standard clinical data collected in a provider’s office and can be inclusive of a broader view of a patient’s care. EHRs can:

Contain a patient’s medical history, diagnoses, medications, treatment plans, immunization dates, allergies, radiology images, and laboratory and test results
Allow access to evidence-based tools that providers can use to make decisions about a patient’s care
Automate and streamline provider workflow

Impacts of EHR on Care

Electronic Health Records create a greater and more seamless flow of information within a digital healthcare infrastructure. It encompasses and leverages digital progress and transforms the care delivered. With EHRs, hospitals experience improved,

Patient Care and participation
Care Coordination
Diagnostics and Patient Outcomes
Practice Efficiencies and Cost Savings

Three stages of Meaningful Use (MU):

Meaningful use is divided into three stages.

Stage 1, which began in 2010, focused on promoting the adoption of EHRs.

Stage 2, finalized in late 2012, increases thresholds of criteria compliance and introduces more clinical decision support, care-coordination requirements and rudimentary patient engagement rules.

Stage 3, which the CMS is writing from late 2014 through early-to-mid 2016, will focus on robust health information exchange as well as other more fully formed meaningful use guidelines introduced in earlier stages.

What are the incentives and penalties for meaningful use?

Under the HITECH Act enacted under the 2009 Recovery Act, incentive payments are available to eligible professionals who successfully demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology.

The Recovery Act specifies three main components of meaningful use: The use of a certified EHR technology

In a meaningful manner
For electronic exchange of health information to improve quality of healthcare
To submit clinical quality and other measures

According to Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs, the practices receive incentives if they meet the meaningful use requirements. If they do not meet the meaningful use requirements, they will be penalized.

Medicare EHR Incentive Program

Medicare incentive payments are equal to 75% of a practice’s annual Medicare Part B allowed charges up to a maximum yearly amount.

After 2015, providers who were eligible for the Medicare Meaningful Use program but did not successfully demonstrate Meaningful Use were penalized. The penalty started at 1% of Medicare Part B reimbursements and increased each year to a maximum of 5%.

Medicaid EHR Incentive Program

In the case of Medicaid patients, a practice can earn up to $63,750 in incentive payments over the six years that they choose to participate in the program.

If you start in 2015, you can earn incentives through 2020. Practices can consult their state’s agency for information about a specific payment schedule.

Providers who are eligible for Meaningful Use under the Medicaid program are not subject to payment penalties unless the provider is also eligible under the Medicare program.

How can a Patient Referral Management Referral Management enhance an EHR system to achieve meaningful use?

FQHCs prefer working with EMR/EHR systems because they are comfortable with it. So they do not wish to move out their EHR/EMR system. An EHR/EMR system has many advantages but when it is complemented with a Referral Management software practices can experience many more benefits.

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution provides easy steps to integrate with a practice’s EMR/EHR system. It also enables easy and safe transferring of patient demographics, diagnostic reports, test results or any sensitive information. The solution is HIPAA-compliant with complete data security.

HealthViewX can enhance a practice’s EHR capability by making it achieve meaningful use. The practice’s scoring can also improve by using HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution.

HealthViewX Patient Referral Management solution features

It has the following features,

Inbound and Outbound Referrals – HealthViewX Referral Management Solution can integrate with both the receiving and referring end. For inbound referrals, it helps in channelizing various sources into one single queue. In case of outbound referrals, it facilitates integration with the existing system to read the patient data and send out referrals.
Referral Timeline – Any referral has a timeline, to capture the progress of the referral. It is common to the referring and receiving provider. A referral will be mapped to a status which helps in tracking it better. For e.g. – If a patient does not show up for the appointment, the status of the referral can be changed to no-show and an appropriate reason can also be given. With the help of a referral timeline, the providers can always be aware of what is going on with the referral.
Workflow and Task Management – A workflow can be defined on how the referral flow must be(business rules). Providers can create tasks to manage referrals by assigning it to the respective person.
Improved communication – HealthViewX Referral Management Solution supports messaging and calling features for the referring and the receiving providers to stay connected.
Data Management – The solution is HIPAA compliant and enables secure data exchange of all patient-related documents.
Seamless Integration – The solution can seamlessly integrate with any EMR/EHR/RIS or Third Party application thus providing minimal disruption in the existing referral flow.
Referral Data Consolidation – The consolidated data regarding the referrals and the referral history of any patient can be printed as a hard copy at any time in pdf/excel.
Smart Search – HealthViewX Referral Management solution has a smart search facility that helps in finding the right provider for the treatment required.
Referral Data Analytics – Referral data-centric dashboard gives clear figures regarding the number of referrals flowing in and out, the number of referrals in various status, patient follow-ups, etc.

Reference

https://www.healthcare-informatics.com/news-item/ehr/survey-nearly-all-us-hospitals-use-ehrs-cpoe-systems