Introduction
Medical records are comprised of many components, among these are the doctors’ notes, diagnostic procedures, references, medical treatment details, documents required for claims, and medication summary. To collate and organize all these documents for evaluation is an uphill task for any organization, especially if there is a massive volume of records. Medical records review is a process that evaluates the medical care given to a patient, based on the collected records. The extent to which review experts diligently inspect the medical records can have a powerful impact on the outcome of litigation and claims.
Why is it important to review medical records?
An organized set of medical records empowers healthcare professionals and lawyers to better serve their clients as they pursue medical treatments and manage legal claims. Medical record review (MRR) service providers offload records management responsibilities so that organizations can focus on core aspects of the business.
The following are the top six reasons why organizations outsource medical records reviews to MRR service providers.
1. Leverage Skilled and Professional Reviewers
Medical Records Reviewers know the medical terms and procedures to identify, organize, and comprehend the case details. Often, attorneys and paralegals have little understanding of medical records, terminologies, and the standard medical practices followed. Without the necessary skills, an organization’s attempt at Medical Records Review could be detrimental to the litigation. However, highly skilled professionals can
- Identify and accurately interpret the medical terms
- Handle numerous cases of a similar type
- Summarize medical records comprehensively
- Make it easy for legal professionals to take the necessary next steps
Make it easy for legal professionals to take the necessary next steps
2. Receive Customized Review Services
Organizations must comply with specific requirements and standards to manage their medical records and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. A professional reviewer understands their clients’ requirements, incorporates best practices, and follows the standard security protocols for data handling; they can customize the medical record review as necessary.
3. Ensure Standard Data Security Procedures Are Incorporated
A team of medical record review experts conduct reviews based on the company’s privacy compliance. Chief among these is HIPAA compliance which protects sensitive data without affecting the user-friendliness and comprehensiveness of their services. Experts at PreludeSys ensure:
- Data confidentiality
- Quality assessment
- Sensitive patient health information protection (PHI)
- Risk assessment
- Business associate agreements
4. Offer Scalable Solutions for Ever-Changing Client Requirements
The MMR’s professional team of reviewers can scale their resources to accommodate unprecedented workload spikes. MRR service providers have the expertise and the framework to handle a large volume of records while maintaining the review quality.
The medical record review process can be lengthy and a client’s ongoing requirements might change during the project. MRR service providers are uniquely equipped to accommodate the requested changes and thus remain aligned with their client’s objectives.
5. Quick Turnaround Time
It is generally agreed that the law firms have neither the luxury of time to sort the records nor to train and manage an in-house team. Even if law firms have an in-house review team, the turnaround time for large record volumes would be sub-optimal. Law firms need to focus on core aspects of litigation and manage their clients rather than focus on in-house records review.
MRR service providers deploy specialized teams with review expertise and workflows that drastically minimize their turnaround times. Outsourcing medical record reviews enables law firms to:
- Save time
- Fetch the information easily
- Quickly build the case
- Optimize internal processes that can provide a competitive edge in litigations
6. Cost Efficiency
To Identify, locate, and sequence medical records is time-consuming. To build an efficient medical records review team can be expensive and time-consuming with the accompanying loss of productivity. Outsourcing medical record reviews cuts costs, saves on time and is uncompromising on quality. Expenses that an organization can save by outsourcing are:
- Infrastructure costs
- Technology support costs
- Paralegal salaries
Conclusion
An experienced medical review service provider is the right leverage that helps attorneys, medico-legal consultants, insurance companies, and other private organizations to simplify their medical review process.
PreludeSys is a highly experienced MRR that empowers organizations with accurate and cost-effective reviews. Our experts diligently evaluate and comprehensively classify the medical records in a customized format to meet our clients’ requirements. The considerations discussed above—expertise, accuracy, security, and speed—are the top reasons why companies consistently outsource their medical record reviews to us. We can do for you what we have done for many other satisfied clients.
Talk to our experts today for a comprehensive and accurate medical record review solution.
