To keep pace with changes to health care reimbursement, EMS organizations need to reduce inefficiency in revenue cycle management. More people than ever have health insurance under the ACA and, of those, many have Medicaid. With this shift, the average per run reimbursement is lower for many EMS agencies, and the climbing deductibles are making it even more challenging to collect from patients. Additionally, modifications to the ambulance fee schedule have impacted EMS departments and have placed negative pressure on revenue. It's clear that the ACA has impacted EMS reimbursement in many ways, of which, these are only a few.

The new year is quickly approaching—that means new deductibles. How does your EMS Agency plan to handle exposure to deductibles this January? There is no way to completely alleviate the reduction of revenue your EMS agency will experience from deductibles, but there are ways to reduce your exposure. For instance, it's a common EMS billing practice to hold January Medicare Part B claims for 3-4 weeks before submitting. Sometimes it's longer, depending on the length of time that crossover takes. Doing this helps to reduce exposure to deductibles that minimize the number of patient pay claims. In other words, to reduce your exposure to deductibles, don't file too early in the year.

It's crucial for EMS Billing Staff to stay updated on key HIPPA rules. HIPAA, otherwise known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, is an information security and privacy law that has made EMS billing more difficult to carry out due to its restriction of information uses from different healthcare providers. EMS billing has felt the burden of this legislation due to the introduction of electronic and Medicare billing within the last 15 years. Hospitals, nursing homes, and other healthcare providers that deal in medical records have become less forthcoming with information on patient care, and in turn, it has become more difficult to provide a seamless transition of information when attempted to provide the best patient care. This lack of education amongst other healthcare providers is just another important reason for educating EMS billing staff so that efficient ambulance billing and healthcare is maintained while being compliant with HIPAA.

With AIM, you receive the best EMS customer service and support available in the industry because we emphasize courtesy, competency and quality. Not all customer service is created equal. In fact, many customers put up with sub-standard support and EMS services either because they don’t know anything better exists or they simply don’t know where else to turn. EMS organizations don’t have access to many companies that can supply what they need, because few exist, and only a fraction offer decent EMS customer support and service. With AIM, you receive the best EMS support available in the industry because we emphasize courtesy, competency and quality, without sacrificing the value of our products. We won’t leave you hanging—your time is valuable, and AIM will not waste it. Can you say that about your current vendor?

See the benefits of outsourcing your EMS Billing and Collections and the superior value that AIM's EMS Billing Services provides. But first, let’s review the factors that a prospective EMS Billing Services user must evaluate. Is an EMS Billing Service Right For You?

Workflow automation uses EMS software to link together the elements of workflow (events, tasks, resources) in an attempt to increase the speed, visibility and coordination by which the work gets done. In this post, we'll probe a little more into the particulars of the five critical phases, generally understood to make up an online EMS software workflow, and the suggested best practices for each one. The five critical EMS software workflow phases are: Call to Dispatch Dispatch to ePCR ePCR to QA/QI QA/QI to Billing Billing to Reimbursement Although each phase is important by itself, they work best together as an integrated, overall EMS workflow process.

Online software is an EMS information management solution. This is post we'll explore information management needs of EMS/ and ambulance service providers, the solutions currently available, and how the AIM System is strategically positioned to best meet your unique needs and improve your business’ bottom line. In this post, we highlight online software as an EMS information management solution, and we examine the benefits of the our Online EMS Software. First let’s take a look at factors that a prospective Online EMS Software solution user must evaluate.

Explore the information management needs of EMS and ambulance service providers. We'll start this post by investigating the information management solutions currently available. After that, we'll look at how the AIM System is strategically positioned to optimize and implement those solutions to best meet your ambulance information management needs. What is ambulance information management and why is it so important? After delivering quality patient care, the most essential aspect of any EMS/ambulance service provider’s successful business is to maintain and manage accurate, dependable ambulance reporting information. Ambulance information management, quite simply, is a comprehensive approach in EMS tracking collection, storage, and manipulation of pre-hospital care data and documentation.

Read the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Service's compliance reminder for EMS agencies that perform Advanced Life Support Ambulance Services. The bulletin focuses on the high number of errors related to insufficient documentation for ALS transports, highlighting the 2015 Comprehensive Error Rate Testing (CERT) Report that reflected an improper payment rate for ALS services of $226 million. Most errors occur when documentation: Does not support the medical necessity of the ALS level of service Lacks the patient’s signature authorizing the supplier to bill Medicare for the service

EMS is facing a crisis in our nation due to an increase of operating expenses, a decrease in volunteers, and a lack of Medicaid and commercial insurance reimbursement rates. Pennsylvania Medicaid rates have not been adjusted since 2004, while operating costs have continued to increase for EMS agencies. Legislation changes are needed at the government level before ambulance agencies are forced to close their doors, leaving no one available to answer 9-1-1 emergency calls. Pennsylvania Representative Martin Causer is working to address these serious challenges due to limited funding and the shrinking number of volunteers. Rep. Causer has introduced House Bill 699 as a solution to reform the PA Medicaid reimbursement rates.