Medical Coding: Generational Differences in a Remote Environment

Coding leadership routinely benefits from learning team members’ strengths and weaknesses and adjusting plans to match.

I began working with Novant Health in 2011, when I used the phrase “best of the best” for my team. This was our department’s vision for our future, and it is a standard we continue to embrace in everyday decisions.

We have had many successful outcomes that have created new expectations of excellence. Through all our changes, I learned the real secret to leading the “best of the best” coding team is to embrace generational differences in a remote environment.

The minds of every team member are our strongest assets, and our definition of “strong” can vary with each team member. This diversity of strength is the foundation for any successful team. It is easier for the body to adapt to change than it is for the mind to embrace new or vastly different concepts.

Reaching this level of strength provides team members with the tools required to see their leader’s vulnerability as a result of our willingness to take risks as a part of the decision-making process. This in turn creates the trust required for team relationships to flourish.

Relationships teach leaders how each team member operates, which provides new tools for problem-solving since we also learn our team’s strengths in the process. By determining what motivates team members to exercise their minds, we also learn what motivates them for success. We can do this with anyone by listening for understanding, then responding with compassion.

Criticism is tantamount to watching a good football coach work magic on the field. Sometimes players need to listen to the coach’s precise directions to execute the game plan successfully. Yet other times, the quarterback will call an audible, not in the game plan, at the snap and pass for a long gain. Both quarterback and coach learn from this, because the quarterback has trusted the coach’s criticism, and the coach in turn trusts that the quarterback has internalized it enough to direct the team from the line of scrimmage. We need to practice the same mutual trust in our daily work lives if we are to become a winning team.

Embracing the courage to practice perfection and efficient workflows builds a stronger team and demonstrates various ways of communicating effectively. This approach also allows us to show up every day ready for “the game” and whatever risks come our way. Working in a remote environment requires time-management skills to stay organized, and that we treat phone calls like public speaking engagements. Additionally, focusing on the unique audience in advance of any critical meeting allows us to identify what must be discussed, along with the best, most graceful way to present it. The most productive critical conversations consist of one-third critique, one-third challenge, and one-third accolade. This is an excellent formula for individual conversations as well as critical team meetings.

We should strive to learn from every team member, thereby growing the team’s “brain’s dendrites” in its compassion region. The best approach for leading in a remote environment is to always show compassion. It is much easier to emote anger than compassion, but listening for understanding will help guide us through this journey.

Communication in a remote setting requires transparency to build trust, since nonverbal communication is absent during phone calls. Being open about risk helps develop the strongest solution.

By embracing the team’s diversity and intentionally including all team members, we can capitalize on the strengths of every generation and individual in the department. The result is empowered, happier team members, and a higher-performing team.

Every team deserves a leader who understands the importance of work-life balance to the success of the organization. Effective leaders have knowledge of detailed workflows, yet they choose to trust and empower rather than micromanage. Connecting the day-to-day workflows of your team to the system’s outcomes help us grow your thoughts. Communicating in a way that helps everyone on the team make the same connection allows the entire team to grow.

Learning the details helps in big-picture decision meetings that could positively or negatively impact our best asset: the multi-generational team.

For More Information : https://www.icd10monitor.com/medical-coding-generational-differences-in-a-remote-environment?wordpress_seo

Medical records retention and disposition is a complex activity

In a scenario where today’s healthcare environment is fast paced, diverse and straddle many disciplines; retention and disposition of medical records -both paper and electronic -is fraught with complexities. There are different rules set out by the state agencies, as well as by HIPAA statutes and regulations, for the way in which medical records need to be retained and disposed of. These sources have different requirements from the healthcare provider about this aspect.

A pointer to the diverse nature of the medical record retention and disposition can be had from this description: dentists, psychologists, physicians and other mental health professionals have their own requirements about the way in which to store medical records, the duration for which they need to be preserved, and the ways in which they need to be disposed of. An individual healthcare provider has to comply with a separate set of requirements which deal with confidentiality and even the content of these records.

If all these constitute the physical aspects of recordkeeping; there is also the legal element associated with all these. Record retention and disposition has to be set up and enforced within legally binding agreements. Any provider who violates any terms of these agreements is liable for punitive actions from the state.

Electronic medical records and telemedicine add a new dimension

With medical records becoming electronic in nature; a whole new dimension has been added to the scope and nature of medical recordkeeping. The major criterion for these electronic records is the preservation of the patient’s confidentiality. There are strict rules about confidentiality and security, in addition to retention and disposal.

Yet another development has introduced another new perspective into the area of medical records retention and disposal: telemedicine in healthcare. Health services offered through telemedicine come with their own risks relating to breach of doctor-patient arrangement, since the medium is of an audio-visual nature.

And then, there is also the issue of professional malpractice insurance, which is closely related to medical records.

All these leave healthcare providers with a host of issues relating to medical record retention and disposal. They are faced with a number of problems: do they retain a minor’s record till she becomes a major? For how long does a medical record need to be retained till a possible malpractice claim for negligent treatment crops up at some future, uncertain date? What if the state proceeds legally against a healthcare provider for some reason, during which a medical record needs to be presented?

Healthcare providers who do not comply with the requirements set out by the regulatory agencies regarding each of these aspects face punitive actions.

Get to learn the details of medical records retention and disposal

It is to help healthcare providers find answers to questions of this nature that MentorHealth, a leading provider of professional trainings for all the areas of healthcare, will be offering a training session. This webinar is being organized to help clear the air about all these confusions. At this webinar, Mark R. Brengelman, Attorney at Law, who brings over twenty years’ experience in administrative and regulatory law; will be the speaker.

To get a clear idea of all the aspects of medical records retention and disposal, please enroll for this webinar.

In this session, Mark will explain all these conflicting matters about this topic. This will be of high value to those healthcare personnel who are involved in this discipline, such as individual healthcare practitioners, health care attorneys, corporate counsel in healthcare, and medical records directors.

Mark will cover the following areas at this webinar:

• Sources of legal requirements for medical records retention
• Sources of contractual requirements for medical records retention
• What information is mandated to be in a specific health care practitioner’s medical record
• Facility rules as applied to the individual health care practitioner
• Electronic records confidentiality, retention, and disposition
• Professional wills and business succession plans for the health care practitioner to govern the retention of medical records
• Reasons for creating and implementing a medical records policy for the health care practitioner’s withdrawal from practice, incapacity, or death.

Fill this form to get more Medical Records Updates

 

Patient rights to access to their medical records under HIPAA

Patient rights to access to their medical records are a major part of HIPAA. One of the highlights of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996, which was created to ensure continuity in the health insurance protection of employees who lose jobs or are in the process of changing them, is the ease of access it gives to patients of their health information.

The rationale for allowing patient rights to access to their medical records under HIPAA is that it should help them manage their conditions better. They can carry out or contribute to a number of useful activities such as:

• Being able to better monitor their present or past chronic conditions
• Complying with the treatment courses and plans being carried out
• Detecting and correcting inaccuracies and blunders in their health records
• Being able to monitor the progress they make in disease or wellness management programs
• Being able to directly contribute to health research by sharing their health information with genuine users.

To empower patients

The HHS believes that the idea of equipping patients with rights to access their medical records under the HIPAA is to place them “in the driver’s seat” and make the whole health system patient-friendly. Another rationale for giving patients rights to access their medical records under HIPAA is that it wants patients to fully utilize the technologies that have gone into the healthcare records system.

At the heart of patient rights to access to their medical records under HIPAA is the ability given to patients to obtain a copy of their medical information. This right sits at the core of an assortment of rights given to patients to access their medical records under HIPAA. This is the General Right given to patients that requires Covered Entities and to hand over a copy, upon request, of the patient’s Protected Health Information (PHI) in one or more “designated record sets” maintained by the Covered Entity or a Business Associate on its behalf.

Unfettered General Right

Patient rights to access to their medical records under HIPAA requires the Covered Entity or Business Associate to provide PHI to the patient, when requested, irrespective of when the record was created, the form of the record, viz., electronic or paper, and the source of the record, i.e., the patient, the Covered Entity, or another provider.

The whole aspect of patient rights to access to their medical records under HIPAA needs to be fully grasped if the healthcare provider has to avoid causing a breach. A breach, as we know, is taken very seriously by the HHS. It attracts heavy penalties. It is not just advisable, but mandatory for them to have complete knowledge of patient rights to access to their medical records under HIPAA.

A thorough learning on patient rights to access to their medical records under HIPAA

The ways of understanding and ensuring patient rights to access to their medical records under HIPAA will be the topic of a webinar that is being organized by MentorHealth, a provider of professional trainings for the healthcare industry. This webinar will have Jay Hodes, president of Colington Security Consulting, LLC, which provides HIPAA consulting services for healthcare providers and Business Associates, as speaker.

Registering for this webinar at http://www.mentorhealth.com/control/w_product/~product_id=800901/?Wordpress

will give a proper understanding of patient rights to access to their medical records under HIPAA. Jay will give a proper grasp of patient rights to access to their medical records under the Privacy Rule of the HIPAA. This thorough information is very vital for organizations whose job entails maintaining, creating, transmitting or storing PHI.

At this session, Jay Hodes will cover the following areas:

• Why was HIPAA created?
• Who Must Comply with HIPAA Requirements?
• What is the HIPAA Privacy Rule?
• What is Protected Health Information?
• What are Permitted and Authorized Disclosures?
• What are Rights do Patients have under HIPAA?
• What is a HIPAA data breach and what happens if it occurs?
• What are the penalties and fines for non-compliance and how to avoid them?