The below articles are all published in BC advantage
Magazine and written and contributed by BC Advantage
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HIPAA - Expert outlines how to respond to a security breach
You have just been told an employee's laptop containing your patients' claims information was stolen. Should you make a public announcement, publish a warning on the website, or hope the problem goes away?
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ICD-9 Coding for Beginners - MARCH 2006 EDITION
This course provides an introduction to the International Classification of Diseases, (Ninth Revision), Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) manual. Volumes 1 and 2 are discussed at length including discussion of the coding tables in Volume 2. Participan...
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Complete transcript of the HIPAA roundtable discussion
Since it became law in 2003, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has been invoked many times when relatives, neighbors and other interested individuals have sought information about a medical patient and were denied that i...
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New tax change allows startup costs deduction
There's a new tax break for small-business owners you may not have heard of. Simply known as the Section 195 deduction, this new provision allows businesses to deduct $5,000 of their startup costs. This article from MSNBC.com gives you the skinny on ...
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Get down to business in 2006
JAY BERKOWITZ gives a simple outline of how to go about developing a 2006 business marketing plan
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5 minutes with... Jennifer Telesh
Jennifer Telesh has worked in the medical field for 15 years in variety of positions from a Medical
Laboratory to a Cardiologist and Orthopedic surgeon, before becoming an office manager for a
Cosmetic and Reconstructive Plastic Surgeon based in La...
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Pathway to success
DOES your office experience a rejection rate in insurance denials that's higher than you'd like it to be? Does your front-desk and billing staff know the type of information that's important to obtain when registering a patient? Do they know WHY the ...
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Ways to deal with
How many times have you received reduced payment on claims for charges that are "above usual and customary"? Many insurance companies get their payment data from Ingenix and use the 80th percentile to determine how much they will pay for a specific C...
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Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Risks and Liabilities
Physicians are increasingly grappling with medical liability issues as complementary and alternative medicine ("CAM") therapies are made available in conventional medical settings, and as patients turn to these alternative methods to promote health a...
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Healthcare users struggle with HIPAA
Increased regulation, according to healthcare users, has hit their industry hard. Harder, most estimate, than regulations in other industries where businesses are more used to staying on top of trends in IT.
In fact, most of the healthcare users Se...
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Medicare Appeals Process
CMS contracts with private insurance organizations to process Medicare claims. These entities process Parts A and B claims for hospitals, skilled nursing homes, home health agencies, and hospices, as well as Part B claims for physicians and other out...
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Do you have the contract you need?
EVERY medical billing company should have a comprehensive contract and review it often. The contents of a good contract will spell out exactly what you will provide to a client and should include clauses such as: term, renewal, services to be provide...
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Legally Speaking: Does HIPAA cover our four-legged friends?
A few years ago the health care industry changed dramatically when lawmakers added a strict privacy act into the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, otherwise known as HIPAA. That move has caused confusion all around, even at veterin...
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Need help? don't call us
ONLINE forums are now saving medical companies thousands of dollars a year, are you one of them? Many billing and coding companies still will not allow their staff internet access to ensure that employees don't waist time sending personal emails,...
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Spiraling Out of Control: 5 ways to Reduce Workers' Compensation Claims
One of the biggest expenses affecting small businesses is workers' compensation insurance, which covers expenses associated with injuries to employees while on the job. In fact, 33 percent of small business owners identified workers' compensation as ...
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Advance Directives by State
A selection of laws and regulations in various states regarding advance medical directives.
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Outsource the Outsourcing
By now, nearly everyone understands the logic of offshoring. Why keep noncore functions in-house when you can contract them out to lower-cost providers overseas? Less obvious is how to put that understanding into practice--that is, how do you actuall...
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Huge growth for tech in health sector
Medicine is an increasingly hi-tech business, but doctors and hospitals around the world remain bogged down in paperwork.
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Medical Records Create Problems For Evacuees
HOUSTON -- Nearly two months ago Hurricane Katrina lit the fuse on a chain reaction that has changed the city of New Orleans and the face of Houston. Thousands of new residents in the Bayou City have added all sorts of challenges. But the biggest is ...
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