Managed Document Service

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What Does Managed Document Service Mean?

A managed document service (MDS) is a software solution offered by a vendor designed to meet electronic health records (EHR) needs and comply with legislative requirements based on the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. The HITECH Act was put into law based on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARAA) as part of the Federal Stimulus Plan. These laws mandate the use of electronic health records (EHR) by all health care facilities and eligible providers (EP). Incentive payments for Medicaid/Medicare providers are paid in graduated, yearly successions to the organizations and EPs who comply with the laws surrounding EHRs.

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Techopedia Explains Managed Document Service

An MDS helps eligible providers and health care organizations meet federal regulations for converting their paper medical records to electronic form. By doing so, they help cut down on costs, facilitate treatment effectiveness and assist indirectly with improved patient satisfaction. An MDS will sometimes use proprietary software in order to meet specific client needs, where tailored applications are necessary. An MDS also implements data management technologies.

Most managed document services offer an improved document work flow as well as increased EHR security and risk management. Although a typical MDS may be expensive, it can free up health caregivers to focus more on patient care. An MDS can provide useful IT direction, education and implementation of EHR conversion. Larger health care institutions already have IT personnel in place, but small private practices however, tend to hire low-cost private IT professionals or attempt to learn health IT techniques on their own.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.