Effectiveness of a clinical/billing alert system vs education alone in assisting physicians to correctly bill for asthma nebulization treatments in the pediatric office setting.

: Missed billing opportunities can be a negative outcome of the implementation of non-interfaced clinical and billing information systems. We describe a decision support system that prompts physicians with suggested billing options at the point of ordering nebulized medications. A baseline rate of 70% missed billing opportunities decreased to 38% with education alone and to 7% with an alert system. Decision support can best support billing opportunities when automated and appearing at the point of care.