OIG says most providers aren’t ready for 2000
OIG says most providers aren’t ready for 2000
Only half the providers who responded to an OIG survey have billing and medical records systems that are ready for the new millennium. "This is especially important since the majority of Medicare claims are now sent electronically to the contractors (Medicare carriers and fiscal intermediaries) for processing and payment," notes the OIG report.
Apocalyptic predictions of a global computer meltdown may or may not come to pass, but the survey makes clear that health care providers aren’t ready for 2000. For example, many institutions don’t know that carriers and intermediaries offer help. Only a fraction of physicians, for example, know that carriers and intermediaries will provide free Y2K software to ensure that claims forms meet HCFA specifications, according to OIG. As few as 10% of providers in the OIG survey actually bothered to order the software.
But the fault doesn’t totally lie with providers. Almost half said contractors had not sent them Y2K information or offered them Y2K assistance.
The findings need to be taken with a grain of salt. Because providers themselves offered the information for the survey, "we have no way to test the validity of the results," says HHS Deputy Inspector General George Grob. But the survey, which was sent to 5,000 providers, does give an indication of where the industry stands, Grob adds.
The OIG survey of 5,000 providers also found that while half of providers said their billing and financial systems weren’t Y2K-compliant, more than 90% of hospitals said they expected to be ready by the end of the year. For other types of providers, such as physicians, home health agencies and nursing homes, the figure was only 70% to 84%.
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