Method and apparatus for analyzing patient medical records

Abstract

A medical form is marked by a clinician during a patient/clinician encounter to generate a record with information related to a current complaint. The form is partitioned into several regions related to patient history, examination and medical decision, respectively. The form is automatically analyzed and using the locations of the marks on the form and a predetermined set of rules, a billing code is generated. The billing code determines the fee to be paid to the clinician or health provider.

1 . A method of analyzing a prepopulated form having regions, with markings in some of said regions, comprising the steps of:
 detecting markings within each region to determine a number of said markings and the positions of the markings within the regions;   applying a set of predetermined rules to the detected markings; and   generating a code based on said rules.   
     
     
         2 . The method of generating a billing code associated with an encounter record on a form, said form having regions partitioned into one or more subdivisions, said method comprising:
 detecting the locations of markings in each said subdivisions;   determining a plurality of parameters based on a preselected set of rules and said locations; and   selecting a billing code based on said plurality of parameters.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  wherein said regions include a history region, an examination region and a medical decision region, with one parameter of said plurality of parameters being assigned to each of said regions. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3  wherein at least one subdivision includes a plurality of areas for receiving markings, further comprising counting the number of areas with markings. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 2  further comprising scanning said form to generate an electronic version. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5  wherein said step of detecting said locations includes analyzing said electronic version. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 2  wherein each said region is associated with an activity associated with a patient/clinician encounter, and wherein said parameters for each said region is determined based on a complexity and number of tasks performed by the clinician during said patient/clinician encounter. 
     
     
         8 . An apparatus for generating a medical billing code from a populated form resulting from a patient/clinician encounter, comprising:
 a detector adapted to detect the locations of marks on said form, within predetermined regions defined thereon; and   an analyzer adapted to analyze said locations and to generate a medical billing code based on said locations and a predetermined set of rules.   
     
     
         9 . The apparatus of  claim 8  wherein said form is hard-copy form and said detector includes a scanner that scans said hard-copy form. 
     
     
         10 . The apparatus of  claim 7  wherein said detector includes an electronic data collection device adapted to generate an image of said form and wherein said tablet PC is adapted to detect markings entered on said electronic data collection device. 
     
     
         11 . The apparatus of  claim 10  wherein said electronic data collection device is a tablet PC.