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Is an Electronic Medical Billing Accurate?

G

garnet888

Ex-Bluelighter
Joined
Jun 25, 2015
Messages
50
I'm a regular patient in a popular health clinic nearby. But, this is the first time I have encountered this type of medical billing. The clinic staff described it as a cloud based electronic billing. I see that its very convenient for my doctor to use it and I also see that it gives us a very quick billing transactions. However, I also want to know your opinion. As a patient, how do we know that it is giving us an accurate information? I'm also curious about this new medical app and its capabilities?
 
As a healthcare professional (I am purposely vague as to my qualifications when I post here so as not to suggest that any of my posts are medical advice), yes, mistakes happen all the time. An alarming number of providers overbill. Confidentiality is also an extreme problem. With all the information centralized it would be easy for a talented hacker to comprimise the system (in informaton security business, it is generally held that anything is somehow vulnerable) and gain a lot of personal data. And in my own practice I despise the electronic medical record we use as a pain in the ass that detracts from patient care ... although it makes billing easier, all that really dose is put some one out of a job.
 
Seems like this an international problem as I have heard the exactly same things from our healthcare professionals.

I am just wondering when our national healthcare database gets compromised as it collects every visit and all the statements from both public and private healthcare.
 
It probably already has been. The hackers more than likely are not interested in people's medical records per se but rather for identity theft purposes (and if I were doing I would download the whole thing and sell people's SS#s, etc. gradually over time so as not to attract a super big amount of attention revealing millions), but the prospect of targeted hacking of medical records (say, for blackmail purposes about sensitive subjects like HIV or drug use) is scary too.
 
For the clinicians it is a major pain in the ass.

Most patients dislike having either their doctor typing shit the whole time or having a "scribe" in the room talking about very personal issues.

Nothing "in the cloud" is secure and never will be.

Electronic medical records "in the cloud" are a disaster waiting to happen both in terms of identity theft but then you will start seeing that such and such a politician had an abortion and so forth.

Electronic billing has been around quite some time, but putting it online/"in the cloud" is the dangerous bit. Mistakes and outright fraud have been an issue in billing and coding since such a thing existed.

Someone on Bluelight, I wish I remember who, does this for a living. Maybe they will stop by and add their perspective.
 
addressed at me? doctor's office incorrectly categorizes service and then insurance says it's not covered.
 
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