Gastroenterology Coding Alert

Stand-alone or EHR? Know the benefits and drawbacks of both. Before you get started with electronic prescriptions, it is important to ask yourself if you want to practice e-scribing using a stand-alone system or one that is part of an electronic health record (EHR). Barbara J Cobuzzi, MBA, CPC, CENTC, CPC-H, CPC-P, CPC-I, CHCC, president of CRN Healthcare Solutions in New Jersey, maintains that you should weigh the pros and cons, as follows: • Stand-alone systems are the least expensive and fastest to implement. • But EHRs offer additional features that help manage a medical practice over the long run. • Stand-alones will enable the practice to be up in time for 2010 to optimize the bonus. • Stand-alone systems may have the capability to interface with a PM or EHR system. • The practice can then convert from a stand-alone system to an integrated system when an EHR is [...]