There’s a reason why heartbase is the heart of leading CV programs across the nation. Heartbase solutions, such as hbCOR, hbNote, and hbAnalytics, provide critical automation to streamline CV workflows, built-in compliance tools to meet regulatory requirements, and powerful interoperability to reveal meaningful financial and clinical insights.
While each heartbase solution was designed to bring substantial value on its own, they work even better together. hbRecon helps unlock the full potential of your unified heartbase workflow to deliver even deeper insights and revenue opportunities.
In Part 1 of this blog series, we showed how hbCOR and hbRecon work together to deliver more accurate data and actionable insights for your bottom line. Here in Part 2, we’ll explore how hbRecon brings out the full potential of hbNote, heartbase’s solution for data-first structured reporting.
hbNote: Simpler Reporting, Easier Compliance
Structured Reporting (SR) is critical to CV success, but many solutions on the market leave discrepancies between the coding & patient records and the physician’s final report. That gap doesn’t just complicate the paper trail; it can expose your CV program to real risk during an audit.
hbNote is a data-first approach to SR. By automatically generating narrative reports through an innovative side-by-side data collection workspace, hbNote minimizes registry and other clinical data collection and ensures that the physician’s final report always aligns with the coding & patient records.
- Automation and ease of use. As data is entered, hbNote automatically renders an export-ready narrative report in real time. Providers can add additional text via keyboard or popular dictation software like Dragon Medical One. An interactive coronary tree is also available to note grafts and stenosis values, giving users a single, simple interface to generate comprehensive reports with ease.
- Advanced customization. While hbNote offers standardized interfaces and templates for each procedure, they can be easily customized to user- and site-specific needs. Providers can adjust templates on the fly, adding sections, paragraphs, dynamic tables, and other styles and formatting options.
- Built for compliance. hbNote’s templates and workflows adhere to the Health Policy Statement for structured reporting for the Cardiac Catheterization Lab and IHE Cardiac Procedure note (CPN). This consideration supports common registry goals and maximizes compliance to MACRA and MIPS.
- Billing and coding integration. Based on the clinical data elements collected, hbNote generates recommended CPT, ICD-10, HCPCS, and MS-DRG codes, ensuring that the correct language is used to maximize reimbursement.
hbRecon: Clinical and Coding Data, Unified
Many CV programs don’t realize that they’re leaving major revenue on the table. The truth is that there are six-figure billing opportunities being missed constantly, and it all comes down to a language barrier between clinicians and coders. Without cross-communication, nuances about a CV procedure, like complications and comorbidities, are easily missed on the coding side. What’s harder to miss is the impact it can have on your cash flow.
hbRecon is a purpose-built solution for coding reconciliation and revenue capture. It analyzes your CV data to suggest an appropriate MS-DRG code for each procedure, making sure those costly nuances are recognized, coded, and ultimately billed appropriately.
- One interface for more accurate billing. By consolidating clinical registry, coding, and financial datasets in one intuitive interface, hbRecon makes it easier for coders to uncover costly gaps in CV procedure documentation. Coders can view all relevant data side by side and identify costly discrepancies before they impact your bottom line.
- Clinicians and coders, aligning at last. Say goodbye to the silo. hbRecon provides a platform for cross-departmental collaboration between clinicians and coders. With shared meetings, emails, and monthly workbooks, both sides can voice their needs to streamline the data handoff.
- The foundation for operational efficiency. Raises, bonuses, adopting new equipment—it’s all possible when your bottom line is stronger. However you choose to move your CV program forward, it’s easier when you unlock accurate cash flow with hbRecon.
hbNote + hbRecon: Greater Consistency, A Greater Safety Net for Your CV Program
No matter what side of the equation you look at, nothing trips up a CV program like data mismatches. When there’s a disconnect between what’s being documented on the patient record, the narrative report, and the eventual coding and billing of the procedure, it can cause costly stumbles in both compliance and potential revenue.
As a standalone solution, hbNote connects the dots between the clinical registry and other clinical data sources. This connection ensures that there’s always alignment between the physician’s final report, coding & billing (through coding recommendations), and the patient record.
Meanwhile, hbRecon ensures that all coding/billing opportunities are filed timely as additional clinical registry data is collected which hbNote may not account for, such as procedures that are documented in other software or dictated.
“hbRecon brings us full circle,” explains Beth Kennalley, RN, MSN, a Data Coordinator with one of hbRecon’s major hospital clients. “We see the original finding, which stays visible as clinicians and coders continue to add their own findings. That approach allows us to go back and forth to discuss changes.”
Kennalley continues, “At the end of the process, we can all see the exact information that goes to billing. The collaboration helps us make changes and improve our performance over time. It’s been a big win for us.”
hbNote is an invaluable tool to push those changes and improvements forward. Thanks to its flexibility and customization, providers can easily adjust their narrative reports to include any additional information requested by your coding team, ensuring data is billed correctly without necessitating a rebill. These adjustments can be saved to heartbase’s hbNote resource library for easy access in the future, so collecting that helpful additional data becomes part of your clinical team’s standard operating procedure.
A Stronger heartbase Workflow Starts Here
Don’t let data mismatches trip you up. A unified heartbase workflow based on hbNote and hbRecon can boost the integrity and actionability of your data to move your CV program forward. Let’s put a personalized demo on your calendar, and you’ll see how your heartbase workflow can do even more with hbNote and hbRecon.