We believe that any diagnostic imaging business of today deserves to have a state-of-the-art PACS, a zero-install DICOM Viewer with a comprehensive set of report templates, as well a robust system for patient scheduling, technologist dispatching, and billing. EMSOW’s customers take advantage of having it all (and actually much more) on one user-friendly web platform and at a very affordable price. Image interpretation by a trusted radiologist licensed in your state is also a great opportunity we offer.
However, we are always ready to go the extra mile to ensure your success. The latest updates will help your technologists get better prepared for exams, encourage your Part A referring facilities to pay you at the right time, and let you check the Medicare Part B enrollment of your physicians automatically!
If you’re not with EMSOW yet, schedule a demo. You will see how it works (and even try it!), have your questions answered, and compare prices.
[#20507] Diagnosis codes in technologist email notifications
Forewarned is forearmed. The latest improvement in the Dispatch module helps your technologists get better prepared for exams. Now, when you dispatch an exam order, your technologist will receive an email notification with ICD-10 codes of the patient along with code descriptions. It’s always better to get a clue about the patient’s health problems in advance!
[#20506] Early payment period option
Timely payment matters. Now you can encourage Part A facilities to pay you in time by setting early payment discounts that are applied within a certain period after you send an invoice. Select the Early payment checkbox, specify conditions, and set the desired early payment period in the Study discount rule window under Setup / Rules / Study discounts rules.
[#20258] Medicare Part B enrollment verification
To perform outpatient services, you need to make sure your referring physicians are enrolled for Medicare Part B. Now EMSOW can monitor your physicians’ enrollment on a daily basis, thanks to our new integration with Medicare web services.
The Medicare Part B Enrollment checkbox will be selected in the Referring doctors module automatically for qualifying doctors.
Now, the practical part: the system will prevent you from dispatching a technologist to the physicians who are not enrolled. A warning will be displayed in the Problems column of the Dispatch module (currently hidden by default, but we plan to make it more informative soon!).
Have you ever experienced problems with unreasonably long collection times, high study interpretation and software expenses, inefficient workflow management, coding, and billing difficulties?
For more than ten years, EMSOW has been servicing imaging facilities to deliver a professional medical platform that covers all their daily tasks, from simple PACS and DICOM to automatic claim generation.
Below are some powerful updates aimed at improving your workflow management and billing. With EMSOW, your coding and billing processes can be as flexible and straightforward as you want. The latest version of the system allows you to make billing even more adjusted to your needs, thanks to a new ability to bill 3rd party organizations, such as hospice providers.
If you are not yet with us, we would be happy to show you our system so that you could compare our offerings to the platform you are currently using and the price you are paying.
[#20462] Med A status condition in Study Discounts Rules
The Med A status field allows you to set the type of Medicare Prospective Payment System (PPS) in the Payer Assignment module, which is typically used to bill for Medicare Part A patients. Now you can use this new condition to provide your Part A customers with a special discount for these patients. Go to Rules > Study Discounts Rules. Create a new rule or start editing an existing one.
In the Condition section, select Any (set by default), Med A for skilled nursing facilities, or Other PPS for other kinds of referring facilities.
[#20372] Ability to send the “Reason for exam” field via DICOM
We are constantly striving to improve EMSOW’s abilities to interact with other healthcare platforms. We have used DICOM as a framework standard since day one, and many of our customers have taken advantage of our interfacing capabilities to send medical images to a radiology provider of their choosing.
Patch DICOM Metadata is a feature that allows you to export patient information to DICOM files. This helps you transfer the necessary data to your radiology provider in order to make sure their interpretations are based on the full picture (pun intended). This week, we have added the Reason for exam that you fill in the Dispatch module to the list of fields available for DICOM export.
Create a new reading facility record or start editing an existing one. Open the Send options tab and click the Patch DICOM metadata checkbox to select the information that will be exported from EMSOW to the DICOM images that are transferred to this reading provider. We use DICOM tag (0040,1400) “Requested Procedure Comments” to transfer this field by default, because this tag allows for longer textual content. If you need to populate a different tag with the “reason for exam”, please let us know.
[#20350] Account representatives for referring facilities
In previous versions of EMSOW, invoice emails contained information about the user who sent the invoice. Now you can assign account representatives to referring facilities. Their contact information will be included in the emails.
To set up this option, open the Billing tab of a referring facility record. Select a user in the Account representative dropdown menu and click OK.
Make sure that the user has contact information specified. For more information on user management, please refer to our manual.
[#20340] 3rd party organization billing for hospice patients
Thanks to last week’s update #20313, we are now able to receive hospice benefits information when checking patient eligibility. Now, we have added the 3rd party organization billing option that will allow you to bill the hospice provider, even if a hospice patient resides in a different facility.
Here is how you can do that:
These steps will allow you to create a new direct invoice that you can send to the hospice provider, similar to how it is done with Part A clients.
For your convenience, you can also display only the 3rd party organization patients in the Payer Assignment module. Select the corresponding checkbox in the Options panel on the right.
Do you think this feature would be useful to your business? Do get in touch with us and share your thoughts!
[#20235] “End of month” report improvements
We have updated EMSOW’s End of Month Report (EoM). Now you will be able to include the Patient No and Exam order date columns in it.
The Patient No column contains an MRN number (e.g. as received from an HL7 order), and the Exam order date shows the corresponding field value from the Dispatch module. To clean up the report, we have also excluded technical modalities (SR, PR, OT, DOC) from the Modality column so that you see just “DX” or “CR” for X-ray studies, “MR” for MRI, “US” for ultrasound etc. Report filtering is now easier!
This report is the most comprehensive way to export your data to an Excel spreadsheet, but we have many more. If you have questions on EMSOW’s analytics features, book a demo with our specialist to find out how our tools can help you track your medical business performance.
Along with state-of-the-art PACS, dispatching, and scheduling, EMSOW has a built-in billing system that allows you to check eligibility, generate claims, and automatically post payments. Many of our customers use it to cut software costs, eliminate double data entry, and streamline their workflow.
The latest version of EMSOW can help you extend the range of healthcare facilities you serve in terms of eligibility checking. Please see the detailed description below. If you’re not yet our customer, check out our website to learn more about how we can reduce your expenses and find affordable reads in your state. Or just book a demo and discuss the benefits with our manager.
[#20313] Display hospice eligibility information
We have extended our eligibility checking functionality. Now you can check hospice eligibility information since the latest version of EMSOW supports Service type code 45. The system retrieves hospice eligibility data from clearinghouses. To set up this option, follow the path: Setup > Billing > Billing Connectors. Open a billing connector record and select the Retrieve hospice eligibility checkbox. Make sure that the Supports eligibility checkbox is also selected.
When you check eligibility of hospice patients, EMSOW will display hospice benefit date and provider NPI.
If you click Show eligibility, the system will display detailed information.
Dear imaging providers!
EMSOW delivers full-cycle exam processing services, from dispatching and PACS to image reading at a very affordable price and billing. However, in the rapidly developing imaging industry, our customers demand more features to optimize their processes, especially now, when their businesses are recovering from the COVID-19 crisis.
This week we have added some improvements to facilitate your communication with your referring doctors and facilities. This can be done either within our platform or through other healthcare software, because one of EMSOW’s key features is its interoperability with other systems through the HL7 protocol. Below please see our latest updates in more detail. If you would like to learn more about our services or find credentialed reading physicians in your state, schedule a demo with our representative.
[#20315] Include image links in HL7 report messages
We have improved EMSOW’s HL7 functionality. Now you can add image links to HL7 report messages. Your referring facilities, referring doctors, or even patients will be able to view the images (X-ray, ultrasound or even MRI) in EMSOW’s DICOM Viewer, by clicking a secure link from their EMR, even if they don’t have an EMSOW account.
To enable this option, start editing a referring doctor or a referring facility record or create a new one, open the Report tab and select the Include shared viewer link checkbox.
[#20225] Document sender
EMSOW has great reporting functionality – from a customizable set of report templates to built-in electronic fax. But sometimes it’s not enough, and your referring physician may require additional information. For such cases, we have created a document sender to communicate any document via email, fax or SFTP, and track the delivery status.
Select the needed service in the Processing or Dispatch module and click the Documents button. Select the documents you need to send, and click Send selected documents. In the window that opens, select email, fax, or sftp, then click OK.
To track the delivery status, click on Medical records in the menu bar and select Files Delivery Tracking in the dropdown menu. EMSOW’s Files delivery tracking works similarly to the Report tracking module.
This week we’ve been working hard to facilitate the imaging workflow for reading radiologists, billing specialists, and nursing home providers. An updated insurance crossover option, enhanced functionality for professional component claims, and more intuitive experience, that’s what you’ll find in the latest version of EMSOW.
If you’re not our customer yet, but would like to know how we can optimize your medical imaging processes, reduce costs, find new customers, or reading physicians, just smash the link to our calendar!
[#20295] “Use response to detect crossover” as the default choice in insurance settings
We have changed the default settings for insurance crossover detection. Now the “Use response to detect crossover” option is set by default. When EMSOW receives an ERA file from an insurance company that automatically forwards secondary claims to additional payers, it can detect if the crossover transfer has been done by analyzing the EDI 835 message. To change the crossover setting, go to Setup > Insurances, double-click an insurance, Select Yes, No or Use response to detect crossover in the Crossover section of the Billing tab, then click Save.
Yes: EMSOW assumes the primary insurance forwards a secondary claim on its own, and no secondary claims are sent from EMSOW
No: secondary claims are sent from EMSOW
Use response to detect crossover: the system behavior depends on the ERA received from the primary insurance
[#20232] Referring facility info in Box 32 for professional component (26) claims
If you work with billing component 26 and PoS 32 (nursing homes), we have an improvement for your workflow. Now you can select what information will be entered into Box 32 of HCFA forms: the reading doctor’s or referring facility’s (in previous versions, the only available option was the reading doctor’s information).
To set this option, follow the path: Setup > Billing > Billing companies. Start editing an existing billing company record or create a new one. In the Claim/Statement properties section of the General tab, select Reading doctor or Referring facility.
Note that this option affects both printable HCFA 1500 forms and electronic claims.
[#20171] Mouse wheel zoom in the DICOM Viewer
Many radiologists find it convenient and intuitive to use the mouse wheel for zooming. In previous versions, you had to press and hold the Ctrl key to zoom in and out with the mouse wheel. Now, you can also click the Enable mouse wheel zoom button in the DICOM Viewer in order to use this feature. Click the button again to scroll through images.
