When you look at the typical project plan for an EMR implementation, the clinical components are typically the focal point: template selection and customization, physician training, clinical workflow, etc. Automating the charge capture and coding elements are usually placed at the bottom of the work list and may never be fully implemented.

This gap in implementation planning often results in practices being forced to produce costly, manual workarounds as needed. This is a dangerous financial hazard for your practice. In order for physicians to be paid for what they do, accurate and efficient charge capture and medical coding processes are necessary. Any attempt to automate the charge capture and coding process will have to be done in a manner that does not slow down the physician or increase the likelihood of denials.

Taking a step forward by automating your clinical processes should not force you to take a step backward with regards to your administrative and financial processes. This gap that may one day be filled by much needed enhancements to current products (possibly after all of the clinical and meaningful use issues have been addressed). Until that time, healthcare practices would be wise to “Mind the EMR Gap”!