Mental health problems are increasing in the recent years. But the quality of care doesn’t seem to
increase to the same extent as that of physical conditions. EHR billing software implementation in
regards to health information technology especially to capture relevant health information that
could support the diagnosis of mental and behavioral health is very essential.
Mental health professionals most often use various EHR billing software systems compared to general
physicians or they will not have access to any EHR billing software systems at all. Not implementing
any EHR billing software for psychiatry practices creates big challenges for mental health
professionals while providing quality care for patients as they require coordinated services across
different sectors.
For mental health professionals, instead of making anxiety indexes on paper and manually calculating
scores, implementing EHR billing software will allow them to directly enter into the system with
less error. It also eliminates clinical errors and also provides detailed clinical information.
How Psychiatry EHR billing software differs from Primary Care EHR software?
Mental or behavior health and primary health differs a lot in medical language, classifications,
codes, and data reporting requirements as well as regulations.
Primary differences between every practice’s EHR software requirements rest in the type of data they
use. Behavior or mental health practices will actually collect more intensive information or data
that’s gathered from screening tools and ongoing information.
Usually, these medical practices rely on effective mental care coordination across clinical settings
and patient responsibility in order to achieve better clinical outcomes.
Additionally, there are prone to more data privacy regulations that exceed beyond HIPAA regulations.
Bases on these diverse needs, 7 EHR billing software features are necessary while implementing the
software and to enhance quality of care in medical practice.
7 EHR billing software Features:
Treatment Plan
Drug abuse form
Specialty Scales like PHQ-9 or Depression Questionnaire
Beck depression inventory
AIMS form
Mental/Mini status exam
DSM-IV diagnosis codes
Treatment Plan:
Basically, the treatment plan needs to be highly configured to meet various work requirements of
mental or behavior health professionals.
A unique treatment plan functionality in deed allows mental health professionals:
To set a timeline on the treatment goals and objectives for patients
To set a date for achieving the goal or objective.
To determine various psychiatry modalities this is used to achieve the goals and objectives.
Drug Abuse Form:
Many psychiatry patients will tend to be more addictive. The drug abuse form in fact helps mental
health professionals to understand patient’s dependency level; the type of drug is used, the age of
the patient and the duration of time since he/she started using it.
The consumption of the drug and present consumption also needs to be considered while examining the
patient.
Integrated EHR billing software for psychiatry specialty auto populates the forms with the
patient demographic details, diagnostic codes, and medications just to reduce redundant data entry.
Specialty Scales like PHQ-9 or Depression Questionnaire:
Precisely, PHQ-9 , the item depression screening functionality or depression questionnaire is used
to capture patient’s data.
This particular criteria set in the questionnaire calculates PHQ-9 score, and when it exceeds more
than 10, it’s noted as an abnormal lab value.
Later it alerts the healthcare professional to the potential risk of patients.
EHR billing software provides the facility to compare the patient’s data based on the severity of
the illness.
Healthcare professionals will also be capable of assessing patient’s depression level by adding the
scores based on patient’s feedback or answers.
EHR billing software for psychiatry professionals allows utilizing multiple evidence-based treatment
tools including PHQ-9 and Depression Questionnaire, Beck’s Anxiety Scale.
Specialty tools can also assist providers in planning, monitoring and adjusting treatment options.
Beck Depression Inventory:
The beck depression inventory is widely used by most of the mental professionals for psychological
questionnaires and is considered the central tool for measuring depressive symptoms dimensionally.
This inventory is ready to use assessment form that describes 21 anxiety symptoms and allows
healthcare professionals to assess the depression level of patients.
It also enables mental professionals to rate the severity of patient’s mental problems in the
previous week.
AIMS form:
AIMS form is a 12-item instrument is used to assess abnormal involuntary movements that have
associated with anti-psychotic drugs.
The drugs include tardive dystonia and chronic akathisia as well as spontaneous motor disturbance
related to the illness itself.
It’s also useful for patients with severe psychiatric illness who might experience dyskinetic
movement as an outcome for anti-psychotic treatment.
It also provides functionality to assess the establishment, presence and severity of involuntary
movements.
These forms enable quick and easy accommodation within the clinic outpatient appointments.
AIMS can be administered in a shorter period of time.
It additionally helps mental health professionals to early detect tardive dyskinesia as well as
provides a method for on-going surveillance.
Mental/Mini Mental Status Exam:
Mental health professionals will require documenting the mental status of the patient’s condition
over time before and during the treatment.
It’s a pre-loaded and simple form that’s integrated with EHR billing software that enables the
mental health professionals to document those details easily.
The most commonly screened mini mental status form is:
Cognitive impairment
A course of cognitive changes in an individual in overtime
Dementia screening.
DSM-IV diagnostic codes:
DSM-IV diagnostic code facilitates the analysis of psychiatric practice patterns and quality of care
on a five-part ‘axis’ system.
While working with patients, these codes help to understand the illness and potential treatment
better to help the insurance companies for better reimbursements and also understand the needs of
patients.
EHR software benefits:
By shifting healthcare professionals practice from paper-claims filing to cloud-based allows
administrative staff to actively control the record-keeping costs, and streamline billing and reduce
medical errors.
By equipping healthcare professional’s administrative staff with technical tools, they reduce errors
and manage your revenue cycle which improves efficiency and accuracy. It saves time and money for
small, medium and multidisciplinary practice models.
Thus, EHR billing software is explained on how it helps psychiatry practice. For more updates on
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