From the desk of James B. Miller, Director of Compliance and Quality Control

We are already half way through the month of November, looking forward to Thanksgiving and spending time with family and friends.

As we approach the beginning of 2012, the Behavioral Health industry is facing two important deadlines. The first and most publicized is the change from the ANSI 4010 to the new 5010 Standards for filing electronic claims.

The second is the new Medicaid Audit Program. This new program which begins January 1st is modeled after what the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) say is a very successful audit program, the Recovery Audit Contractor Program (RAC).

CMS through the Medicare Audit Program has contracted with private independent audit firms to pay them for tracking down and recovering improper Medicare payments. CMS will now apply this audit recovery model to Medicaid as well.

In a recent article, Open Minds’ CEO Monica Oss states that the program will attempt to conserve $2.1 billion over the next five years. Large and small providers alike will need to be ready for auditors to knock on their doors at any time during 2012. Auditors will be looking at a multitude of areas in a practice but two that should resonate:

1) Are claims being filed for services that have not been documented?
2) Are progress notes related to treatment plans?

At DocuTrac we are continually reviewing changes and new initiatives coming from CMS, The Office of the National Coordinator, commercial payers, and other authorities in behavioral healthcare. It's our priority to add as much value as possible to our products to help you manage your practice and stay profitable. With our many years of experience in the behavioral and mental healthcare fields we stand ready to partner with you.

DocuTrac will be closed on Thanksgiving and on the following Friday.
We will reopen on Monday, November 28th.

We'd like to thank you, our loyal customers for your continued support and wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

If you've been considering purchasing additional licenses, there's no better time to do it than now!

From now until the end of the year SAVE 15% on Add-On Licenses

Call DocuTrac Sales Department at 800-850-8510 and mention promo code ENL11.

Your key to worry free billing...

Let us do your billing. Office Therapy Billing Services will do the actual billing and insurance claim filing for those clinicians with limited support staff who wish to devote their full time to providing therapy.

For more information on Office Therapy Billing Services visit our website or call 800-850-8510 ext 103.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) for the treatment of trauma is available in QuicDoc Pro Edition Software.

If your practice includes EMDR as a treatment, we now offer EMDR content to help you build your notes. Please call our Sales Department to find out how you can add this EMDR content to your QuicDoc Professional Software at 800-850-8510.

Click here for a demo of the EMDR content in QuicDoc Pro.

We have successfully passed testing with our clearinghouse partner Gateway EDI for 5010 HIPAA Compliance. We are testing with other clearinghouses and individual payers before we release the Office Therapy update.

We will notify all of our Office Therapy Customers as soon as the update is available. Once you have updated your system we stand ready to help you test with your clearinghouse and/or any individual payers.

Data Elements: It is imperative for you to understand the changes between the 4010A1 and 5010 standard so that you will be able to identify the extra data elements that must be captured that may impact your workflow.

Where do you get information on the 5010? Go to the GetReady5010 website.

Click here for part 1 of Key Changes That Will Affect Your Practice.

For Standard Edition Customers: If you are using the Standard Edition of Office Therapy and wish to maintain the ability to electronically process your claims after January 1, 2012, please call 800-850-8510 and ask about upgrading today. We will be happy to assist you.

You can create your own user forms or screens in QuicDoc Pro, and incorporate them as part of your notes or treatment plans. Let's say that you need a section for your progress note to document Activities of Daily Living. You can create a form or screen with text fields, drop-down pick lists, data, and numeric fields to capture the information for your form.

To begin creating your own forms, log on with the administrative password, then from the Setup menu, select User Forms. Press the F1 key for detailed instructions.

QuicDoc Enterprise has a great, time-saving tool called AutoText. You can set up AutoText phrases which can be entered 'as you type' for quicker, easier data entry.

When typing in the text fields in your notes or treatment plans, frequently used terms, once you’ve set them up, will automatically be listed as you start to type them. This allows you to select the text from the list, press enter and, voila - the text appears in your note.

To set up auto text select AutoText and Macros from the Setup menu, and then add your frequently used short phrases. Press F1 for a Help file with detailed instructions.

Next month - Macros, another time saving tip for paragraphs you frequently type.

Remote Access software allows you to connect to your PC from any internet-connected device or computer. The Remote Access software you use to do this should not only support the connected device you plan to use (e.g. iPad, iPhone, Android, another PC), but should also meets HIPAA security guidelines for remote use and access to electronic protected health information.

Among other safeguards, there must be a strong user/password authentication when you connect, and the data being transmitted must be encrypted. For details click here.

While there may be other products both free or paid, we are listing two that specifically state they meet HIPAA requirements and are compatible for connections from iPad, iPhones, and Android devices.

GoToMyPC - Works with PC and iPad (iPhone and Android coming soon)

LogMeIn - works with PC, iPad, iPhone, and Android