3 Reasons Why Medical Billing Software is Leading the Way

Since technology changes so quickly, it is hard to begin by saying “in the old days . . . ,” but that seems to fit the best. In the old days, medical companies, service providers, and almost any other business which used automated billing enjoyed the convenience of logging on to a database (or several, they the company had multiple offices) and processing their billing statements. This “old way” required IT and servers, and is actually still the current way for most businesses.

Somewhere along the way, medical billing software was developed to process billing without logging on to multiple databases, without having IT, and without crowding the server. This medical billing software is not only cutting edge, but it is also a miracle because it comes without a large set-up and usage expense. Soon, all companies will be marching to the beat of the new medical billing software drummer.

Let’s explore the differences between the “old way” and the new by looking at the 3 reasons why medical billing software is leading the way in corporate software.

 

Connection

 

The “old way” was convenient for its time, but that time may soon be gone. It consisted of a different database for each office, which meant that if your business had 3 offices, you would have had to log on to 3 different databases to process your billing statements and close at the end of each day.

Using only a broadband connection, “the new” way connects you to an unlimited number of databases at once, allowing you to manage all of your accounts with clients, providers, etc., all in one connection.

In addition, with the same technology now available with medical billing software, you can connect to a secure server from anywhere with a broadband internet connection. You can work from home, the hotel, or anywhere else on a secure account that can only be accessed by those whom you authorize.

 

Capacity

 

The “old way” was to have separate applications for every function your business needed to perform. For example, records of clients, customers, providers, or patients, would each be kept in separate files in multiple databases. Then, to track appointments and schedules, your business would probably have had to open a whole new application.

Now medical billing software has one system for all of the functions your business needs to perform, not just to process medical billing statements. Log on; track your provider records and schedules, your client records and schedules, and your own financial records and schedules, all in one place.

 

Security

 

The question that runs through the minds of every thoughtful business when a new technology that claims to guard so many important and sensitive documents is, “Is this secure software?”

The answer is “yes,” because this advanced medical billing software backs-up, protects, and secures all data on HIPAA-compliant servers, which are accessible only to those whom you authorize.

New medical billing software is also a pioneer in financial security because the software does not require large start-up costs; it is billed the same way it is used: month to month.

Businesses can benefit from the technology medical billing software now has to offer. It has been said that the greatest breakthroughs come at the intersection of two different disciplines. Medical billing software has made a breakthrough in combining business skills with medical practice and providing medical billing software that not only meets medical billing needs but also provides a template for software that any business could benefit from

Joe Miller is specialist in online advertising. For more information on medical billing software, please visit AdvancedMD.com.

Electronic Medical Billing Software and Service Performance Metrics

Billing performance measurement is an integral part of medical practice billing process and a prerequisite to effective practice management. Systematic measurement becomes mission-critical with growth of billing complexity or outsourcing of the billing function. Traditional billing metrics are limited in scope and focus on claim submission process, ignoring process imperfections on the insurance (payer) side. Modern computer technologies allow both productive measurement and effective action by the disciplined billing office to improve claim submission and payment processes.

Using appropriate metrics helps improve policies and procedures, shorten revenue cycle, reduce patient complaints, improve financial performance and compliance, increase cash flow, reduce bad debt, identify areas of potential growth, improve employee morale, increase productivity, and reduce costs. Useful metrics must be comprehensive and simple. They must combine both complete end-to-end processes and their individual components. Metrics must be used consistently over time and compared to standards. Obviously, different standards apply to different medical specialties, patient demographics, payers, and samples of CPT codes.

Medical billing metrics typically include compliance, cash balances, charges, accounts receivable, and collection ratios to help monitor cash flow. This article focuses on performance metrics. For discussion of compliance program, see companion article on Medical Billing Compliance.

Collection Ratios

Traditional metrics include gross and net collection ratios. Both metrics are subjective to individual practice because they compare (often arbitrary) charges to (allowed) payments. (Net collection rate is defined as a ratio of Total Collections and Total Charges less Adjustments. Gross collection rate is defined as a ratio of Total Collections to Total Charges only.) According to Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) 1998 Cost Survey, adjusted fee-for-service collections (net collections) for family practices in 1997 averaged 98.65 percent. A declining net collection ratio may be symptomatic of increased contractual write-offs or insufficient number of denial appeals. This metric is especially useful in the absence of modern computer technology, when comparison of every payment to allowed amount is impossible, or when appeal process of denials is too expensive. Otherwise, the use of charges in defining gross and net collection metrics precludes them from productive discovery of process improvement opportunities.

Days in Accounts Receivable (DAR)

A growing number of days in accounts receivable are symptomatic of a faulty billing process. One way to determine DAR is to count days from the date of service to the date of payment for every claim and then average across all claims. A simpler way to compute average number of days in accounts receivable by taking a ratio of accounts receivable to average daily charges, or

Number of days in accounts receivable = (Accounts Receivable / Average Charge) x 365

This metric too depends on medical specialty, patient demographics, payer mix, and CPT sample. Another downside is that this metric is sensitive to provider as it counts the lag time of unsubmitted claims for services already delivered. This lag time roughly averages across all payers making DAR an effective comparison metric between payers for individual provider but invalidating it across multiple providers.

One obvious advantage of DAR metric is its independence of charges. The averaging feature of this metric eliminates sensitivity to specific day or CPT but also hides the behavior shape of the accounts receivable curve.

First-Pass Pay (FPP Rate) and Denial Rate

FPP is the percentage of claims paid in full the first time upon submission (subject to federal or state timely payment regulations: 15 days for electronic submission and 30 days - for paper).

Denial rate is the complementary metric to FPP rate. It counts the percent of claims that require followup and therefore cost more to process. Followup may take the form of a phone call to payer to discover a lost claim or to receive interpretation of denial message, correction of earlier submitted data, resubmission of the original claim, consultation with the provider and medical notes, or denial appeal.

Both FPP and Denial rates are very important metrics often used for billing process improvement. The upside of FPP/Denial metric is that it is charge-invariant but its downside is that it hides the differences between process imperfections on the claim submission and claim payment sides. To identify patterns of problem CPT codes or payers, FPP/Denial metric needs to be computed and compared across all pairs of payer-CPT code, which is a standard feature for modern billing technologies.

Patient Liability

Percent of Patient Liability is the ratio of patient responsibility to total billed charges and it roughly reflects patient deductibles. This measure is important in measuring front office function as it has little to do with clean claim submission or effective followup.

Percent of Accounts Receivable Beyond 60, 90, and 120 Days (PARB60, PARB90, and PARB120)

PARBX resolves the sensitivity issue of DAR metric and offers simple and charge-invariant metric of billing process. Its graphic representation has a skewed bell shape. Its steepness represents billing process quality: a steep curve and thin tail means healthy billing process, while a flat bell and a fat tail means billing problems.

According to the MGMA survey, 25.35 percent of the average family practice's accounts receivables were more than 120 days old in 1997. This number has improved down to 17.7% in 2004.

In summary, comprehensive and charge-invariant metrics, such as PARBX, are more informative and objective than collection ratios. However, these metrics alone fall short from identifying specific areas for billing process improvement. Modern technology helps identifying billing bottlenecks as it allows interactive review of multiple metrics along different aggregation dimensions. For instance, PARBX metric is especially helpful to identify patterns of problem claims containing specific payer or CPT code. Further, modern Vericle-like technologies enable comparison of every payment to allowed amount and subsequent appeal on every denial, effectively reducing the average percent of accounts receivable to low single digits.

Yuval Lirov, PhD, author of Practicing Profitability - Network Effect for Revenue Cycle Control in Healthcare Clinic and Chiropractic Office: Scheduling, SOAP Notes, Care Plans, Coding, Billing, Collections, and Audit Risk (Affinity Billing) and Mission Critical Systems Management (Prentice Hall), inventor of patents in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Security, and CEO of Vericle.net - Distributed Billing and Practice Management Technologies. Yuval invites you to register to the next webinar on audit risk at BillingPrecision.com

Chiropractic Office Billing and Patient Relationship Management Software

Return patients generate approximately 80 percent of clinic's revenue. Patient Relationship Management (PRM, also known as CRM, for Customer Relationship Management outside of healthcare) can enhance financial performance of the clinic by helping retain current and attract new patients. Effective PRM uses integrated data using patient travel card (SOAP notes), frequency recommendations (care plan), and billing (charges, payments, and balance).

PRM is a data-driven and patient-focused methodology to strategic practice building and effective patient relationship development. PRM helps identifying new service needs and then designing care programs and office and billing processes to meet the needs.

PRM also helps providing timely, patient centered, and efficient care, emphasizing preventive instead of reactive care. A basic PRM system captures patient information during entire period of the care plan in terms of functional health improvement, care plan implementation, and billing.

Patient Relationship Management Principle

PRM includes a travel card (TC), treatment frequency measures, and billing balance. PRM system tracks changes in the travel card, in Frequency Recommendation summary, and in billing balance, and generates reports to alert office management about lists of patients reaching important thresholds. The office manager or the doctor can review such reports and respond according to practice development strategy, using call centers, Internet, direct mail, or personal conversations during office visits.

Electronic Travel Card

An electronic equivalent of a paper travel card (Electronic Travel Card, or ETC) contains complete information about patient's health and care history. It is similar to electronic medical record and subject to same HIPAA compliance regulations. ETC includes:

 

• Numbers and dates of visits
• SOAP notes for each visit
• ICD-9 and CPT codes
• Care frequency recommendation summary
• X-rays and posture images

Frequency Recommendation

Frequency recommendation summary presents an interpretation of patient's compliance with doctor's recommendation in concise form and allows specification of PRM thresholds. Specifically, it has four parts:

 

• Weekly treatment frequency recommendation, typically a single digit between 1 and 3
• The number if weeks when the patient complied with the recommendation
• The total number of weeks for a given recommendation
• Care plan start date
• Number of missed appointments along with documented reasons for missing an appointment

For instance, a frequency recommendation summary [3X: 3/13] means that treatment is recommended three times per week for thirteen weeks, and the patient complied three weeks out of thirteen.

A treatment plan then is a list of such frequency recommendation summaries, for instance, [3X: 3/13], [2X: 15/15], [1X: 4/12].

In summary, Patient Relationship Management (PRM) can become a major differentiating factor in building successful and competitive chiropractic clinics. It requires integrated systems combining data about patient's health, care plans, and billing.

Yuval Lirov, PhD, author of Practicing Profitability - Network Effect for Revenue Cycle Control in Healthcare Clinic and Chiropractic Office: Scheduling, SOAP Notes, Care Plans, Coding, Billing, Collections, and Audit Risk (Affinity Billing) and Mission Critical Systems Management (Prentice Hall), inventor of patents in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Security, and CEO of Vericle.net - Distributed Billing and Practice Management Technologies. Yuval invites you to register to the next webinar on audit risk at BillingPrecision.com

The Need for HIPAA Complaint Medical Billing Software

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) includes seven sets of rules that will affect your practice. The Department of Health and Human Services, or DHHS, issues these in the form of the ""Notice of Proposed Rule Making"" or NPRM. Every practice, regardless of size, must comply with HIPAA privacy, security and transactional regulations. Moreover, adherence to all subsequent regulations is also required. This covers most everything in your practice, including your medical billing software.

When you are shopping for medical billing software, ask how and for whom the system was designed, and whether the data will be safe and secure on backed-up, protected, HIPAA-compliant servers accessible only to authorized persons. Look for companies who provide free updates to ensure continued efficiency and HIPAA compliance. The new HIPAA standards require huge changes to how healthcare organizations deal with their patient information, including coding, security, patient record management, reimbursement and care management. HIPAA‘s provisions include stringent codes for the unvarying transfer of electronic data, including routine alterations and billing.

Clearly your approach to HIPAA medical billing software must include a serious investigation of software security. Most computer experts will agree that there is no such thing as absolute computer or software security, so working closely with your HIPAA software providers to help determine data deficiencies is a good idea. HIPAA Complaint Medical Billing Software can be easily expanded to meet future needs, and can be targeted directly to the size and complexity of your practice. Options for new HIPAA compliant software have never been better, as there is unlimited scalability, a wide range of customization choices, and a large selection of useful features that will prevent the patients' privacy from being compromised.

Innovations in the technology of medical billing software have created a new criterion for digital precision. Make certain that the HIPAA compliant medical software packager you chose includes all finalized aspects of HIPAA to guarantee full compliance with HIPAA standards as they relate to the electronic transfer of protected health information. The regulations themselves took effect in February 2003, and affect every medical practice in the United States. Effective April 2005, HIPAA mandates security measures to physically and electronically secure electronic protected health information (PHI) against unauthorized retrieval, reliably store the electronic data, and provide for emergency access to the data.

Since most medical billing software packages are now designed to be HIPAA compliant, it is just a matter of choosing the right software for your practice, and your medical billing software will run as smoothly and efficiently as ever.

Medical Billing Software Info provides comprehensive information about medical insurance billing software, HIPAA compliant medical billing software, easy and free medical billing software, and medical billing software prices and reviews. Medical Billing Software Info is the sister site of Medical Billing Web.

Billing Software, Free and Open this Time

Billing is one important area of all small and big businesses. Billing software market is crowded that choice of one becomes so difficult for a start up business owner. The question is will billing software survives the flood of software suits or packages offered by small and big software developing companies.

It should. The problem open software community today faces is the lack of skills or interest to learn the basics of programming and working of programs.

People also seek comfort zones all the time. We all live in an age of instant gratification and we are hardly programmed to wait or try hard to get something. This is the general trend and they will go for easily available packaged solutions, instead of trying to learn what it is about the working behind the things they see.

Needless to say a billing cum accounting system will, to a great extent take the load of learning accounting from your shoulders. With Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) the modern mantra, it is quite understandable if a few companies have taken the initiative to make major inroads into the field of free open source billing software.

It is necessary for the user to have a basic coding and programming knowledge to tweak the pieces of software to a workable suite. Then again the attempts in that direction should be recognized.

When introducing an open-source billing software, it is sure to be met with much skepticism and prejudices. No open source software is an exception. The whole hearted attempts from skilful people keep the trend alive.

A recent addition to free software, specifically billing software is JBilling, located at http://www.jbilling.com/. The open source software works with all major operating systems and supports My SQL, Postgre SQL and Hypersonic. It runs on JBOSS. It is thus a 100% free open source billing system that supports recurring billing, automatic payment processing using credit cards etc. It also handles web-based interface directly with end customers.

The software thus easily becomes an alternative to proprietary billing systems.

You can find more about Jbilling at http://jbilling.com/

Finding Good Medical-Billing-Software

Medical-billing-software is designed to allow you to work on your medical billing needs effectively. Whether you are looking for software that will train or software that will allow you to send out those bills, having the right medical-billing software is quite necessary and needed in just about every medical operation out there.

What should you look for in the medical-billing-software that you need?

• Look for products that fit your needs specifically. You will find a wide assortment of options that will include such things as training software as well as medical-billing-software that will allow you to pull together and send out the bills that you need to.
• You will want the right type of software for your medical establishment as far as insurance information. Some various options in the format as well as in the input needed for the bills is also important.
• What works wonderfully in medical-billing-software is the fact that you have a wide range of products that can work with virtually any system set up out there. That means finding the right program for your system requirements.
• One of the most important things to look for in medical-billing-software is simply how easy it is to use. Not all programs are designed with this intention unfortunately. Look for those that do offer it.
• You also will want to choose the medical-billing-software that fits within your budget as well. While this may seem difficult, you have many options out there to consider and you are sure to find those that will work the best available.

You will find many options in medical-billing-software available to you on the web. You will see that there are a number of great options to consider and there is sure to be more than one that fits your specific needs. Yes, it can be exciting to finally be able to get your billing done faster, easier, and even more accurately when you use great products such as medical-billing-software.

for more information please see http://www.medical-billing-software.co.uk

Most Popular Electronic Medical Billing Software

In the last few years there has been an increase in pressure in the medical profession. Many people do not have medical insurance to pay their medical bills and this has resulted in medical offices having less money for hiring employees. Because of this, many doctor’s offices have started using third-party electronic medical billers to help improve their cash flow.

Other offices are purchasing electronic medical billing software so they can upgrade their own billing system. Being fully automated helps to cut down on office personnel and is more efficient than the former billing practices. The medical billing software comes with options such as printing the bill with late charges or just showing the number of days the bill is late. There are several software companies which provide billing software; you just need to know what features you need to fulfill your office requirements.

Sage Software: This company offers a billing software package which can be customized to suit the needs of the company. There is a section provided for address changes or to announce an upcoming event. It also has a feature to provide collection letters or letters reminding someone of their appointment time.

Collaborate MD: This software offers medical billing which uses the Internet for its day to day operations. The small monthly fee is affordable and the company always performs back-ups each day. This insures that you will not lose all of the valuable data which is stored in the system. With the click of the mouse you can view the reports needed to tell you what is going on with your business. This frees up time for the office staff since they do not have to spend hours running reports.

Medical ProClaim: This is a powerful program which is windows based and provides top notch medical claims processing. There is more than one version to choose from including medical practice, anesthesia, and dental. The low price for this software with its extensive features can help the medical practice office save a lot of time and money.

Choice Medical Billing Service: This is an outside medical billing firm that charges a percentage of the paid medical claims. Their goal is to provide a dependable billing service that has a high rate of success. They are not paid unless their clients get paid which can help reduce the costs of repeat billing. They offer a 100% guarantee that you will be satisfied with their service.

No matter what route you choose to take, electronic billing can help speed up the process of billing claims. You can choose software which is installed on your office computer which requires very little input from the staff. This software also compiles the reports needed for accounting so your staff has more time to perform other duties. This software is usually fairly inexpensive and provides updated versions for a nominal fee.

By choosing an outside firm or individual to do your billing you will be able to employee less staff and cut the costs of everyday operations. By having fewer employees you will not have to pay the salary or the benefits which are associated with each employee.

Kelly Hunter writes for http://www.electronic-medical-billing-guide.com for Electronic Medical Billing and has several years experience in research and writing.

How to Get Free Medical Billing Software

Free medical billing software providers are out there waiting to secure your business. Many software companies, if you qualify, will allow you to download their free demo software in hopes you will eventually add on more expensive options. Still other medical billing software providers will offer to mail out free demo CDs and training tapes. Another important feature that is often available at no cost to you is the care of all software upgrades, backups, data storage, and server maintenance eliminating expensive IT support and pricey upgrades.

One great additional benefit to obtaining free medical billing software is that many companies will help you to evaluate your needs in effort to ensure your future business. Investigating such possibilities is a worthy venture as there is so much competition and there are many new medical billing software services arising every day both locally, in the form of small start-up companies, and the on Internet.

Free services for medical billing abound. Since most companies who offer free medical billing software do not customize their complimentary products you may find that you have to piece together various services through the use of different companies and providers. Don’t be discouraged all you need to get there are a group of decent software packages that track claims management, patient billing, insurance, and scheduling.

And don’t forget to check and make certain that the software you choose is HIPAA ready and includes all finalized aspects of HIPAA to guarantee full compliance with HIPAA standards as they relate to the electronic storage and transfer of protected health information. Further consider carefully how the free medical billing software you acquire and/or assemble will eventually create a seamless workspace in which everything from electronic medical records to healthcare forms is integrated. Luckily you will probably be able to configure all the free medical billing software you get without assistance, quickly and easily so check it out, it might be a great solution for your medical practice.

Medical Billing Software Info provides comprehensive information about medical insurance billing software, HIPAA compliant medical billing software, easy and free medical billing software, and medical billing software prices and reviews. Medical Billing Software Info is the sister site of Medical Billing Web.

User Friendly Medical Billing Software

Medical billing software is easier to use today than ever before. Innovations in the technology of medical billing software have created a new touchstone of digital accuracy. Once a complicated text-based interface filled with awkward textual fragments, today's electronic medical billing suites are slick, undemanding, and intuitive, finally generating documents your patients can easily understand.

No more complicated invoices in the mail. Now easy medical billing software offers complete billing summaries. All you need to get there is the aid of a medical billing program that includes software that tracks claims management, patient billing, insurance, and scheduling in a single package. Easy medical billing software can create a seamless workspace in which everything from electronic medical records to healthcare forms is integrated and simple to use. Now you can find opportunities that allow you to effortlessly configure software yourself. Some other important features worth noting are; easy access to the latest forms and guidelines, a step-by-step process that will prompt you through the programs many functions, and an automatic bill printing feature, that will reliably generate the correct documents.

Many easy medical billing software packages are now designed like the paper scheduling and hard copy claims processing with which you are familiar. This software model makes learning fast and easy, even for first-time users. When investigating the different possibilities of medical billing software, it is a good idea to verify that the system was designed for the safe and secure back up of data and is HIPAA compliant, and whether the software is easy enough for a computer novice and will, at the same time, meet the needs of a busy medical practice.

Easy medical billing software has now evolved to a place where any staff member of your practice can use it. The simpler programs are usually available in most places where medical billing software is sold. When your office works efficiently, it always translates into better care for your patients. So get on board with the right easy medical billing program and see how simple that paperwork can be.

Medical Billing Software Info provides comprehensive information about medical insurance billing software, HIPAA compliant medical billing software, easy and free medical billing software, and medical billing software prices and reviews. Medical Billing Software Info is the sister site of Medical Billing Web.

A Review of Medical Billing Software Products

Medical billing software reviews are one of the easiest ways to find out important facts regarding the function and use of certain types of medical billing software, as well as their limitations.

One software package that regularly garners superlative reviews is Lytec medical billing software. Computer experts and users alike agree that Lytec software has many positives, including a clear interface and a simple approach to the medical billing process. The Lytec software suite tracks claims management, patient billing, insurance, and scheduling in a single package. The result is a workspace with a seamless quality in which a group of diverse functions, from electronic medical records to healthcare forms, behave in an integrated and coherent way.

A busy medical practice of any size can be a volatile environment, and a system that breaks down under heavy use is a real liability in this business. Lytec medical software is secure, auditable and completely expandable to your specific needs. More importantly it's simple enough to configure yourself.

NueMD is a medical practice management software created specifically for medical offices that also has received positive reviews. Comments have ranged from “NueMD is a functional and no-nonsense practice management solution transported over the Internet,” to ”NueMD allows online eligibility verification done by the client, claims submission, reporting, and analysis. This software is first-rate and is priced less than most systems of its kind.” Other reviews have indicated that the software is a success in small solo medical practices as well as large-scale operations, owing to its reasonable price and ease of use. The ease of use came up often, especially in terms of even a novice being able to pick it up quickly.

eClinicalWorks, another popular medical billing software provider, also earns a mention. It is considered one of the leading providers of integrated uninterrupted ambulatory EMR (Electronic Medical Records) and PM (Practice Management) systems for multiple-local medical practices that include diverse specialties. eClinicalWorks is an award-winning company focused on customer care and satisfaction. KLAS a research and consulting firm dedicated to improving the performance of healthcare information technology providers recognized eClinicalWorks, with its distinguished “Best in Klas Award” 2004. This accolade is considered one of the most important honors in the field.

Any of these three types of software are likely to provide the clarity, ease of use, and technological sophistication you require.

Medical Billing Software Info provides comprehensive information about medical insurance billing software, HIPAA compliant medical billing software, easy and free medical billing software, and medical billing software prices and reviews. Medical Billing Software Info is the sister site of Medical Billing Web.

An Explanation of Medical Billing Software

Medical billing is an increasingly popular office or home-based small business opportunity that involves using skills and knowledge in medical terminology, insurance claims, and customer service to ensure that physicians and clinics receive payment from patients and insurance companies.

Whether working from home based small-businesses or at large hospitals, every medical biller utilizes medical billing software. Though still referred to as medical billing software, today’s electronic medical billing software is also more accurately called medical practice management software and covers many functions. Up-to-date medical billing software will generate a variety of reports based on data, manage appointments, as well as collect, transmit, and track billing information and payments. Current medical billing software will also make sure that records are kept in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act security standards. When deciding on software to buy, compliance with this act is an important consideration and will help you steer clear of some of the software scam artists out there.

When considering software for a medical billing business, here are some things to ask yourself or potential suppliers:

• Does the software include the ability to manage several different accounts?
• Can the software handle multiple doctors or multiple offices?
• Does the software recognize current procedure and diagnosis codes and it is updatable for the future (very important!)

Many vendors will allow a trial use of their program to see if it fits your needs. You will also be able to address whether the supplier answers questions in a timely fashion and if the are helpful in a trouble-shooting situation. Remember that a good medical billing software suite will cost at least $500 so don’t be fooled by people trying to sell $50 products that don’t even function.

Though electronic billing is still mainstream, there is a movement towards online billing where a subscription is setup on the web allowing a paperless entry of patient information, claims, and more. This service will cost more than $200 per month so you have to research and weigh the benefits of a one time investment for electronic medical billing software that is local or the online web-based software that can be used from any web-connected computer or device.

Medical Billing Info provides comprehensive information about medical billing software, services, jobs and companies. Medical Billing Info is the sister site of Medical Billing Software Web.

Medical Billing Software: An Overview

 

components of a successful medical practice. Healthcare professionals from many different specialties can benefit from some level of medical billing software. Innovations in the field of medical billing software have created a new standard of digital precision. Many software packages in general can now fill all the needs of your practice; you can easily locate vendors who know about health care management solutions and will work with your practice to maintain your lead in the business.

When investigating possibilities for your billing software, ask questions such as how and for whom the system was designed, and whether the data will be safe and secure on backed-up, protected, HIPAA-compliant servers accessible only to authorized persons. (“HIPAA” is the acronym for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.) Then you can ask for the total price (including ongoing costs like software upgrades) of the entire software package. Some vendors will allow you to build your own medical billing software quote by providing you with a series of questions that will identify your essential needs. Moreover, look for companies who offer free updates to ensure continued efficiency and HIPAA compliance.

To figure out your software requirements, you can either assess them for yourself if you have excellent computer and software knowledge, or contact one of the many medical practice software providers who can assist you in comparing features, prices, and services. There are many companies that will do this free of charge.

One popular option that some electronic medical billing software experts will recommend is to use web-based software. These are companies that maintain practice management programs, electronic medical records, and various software programs on remote computers. All of your data is web-based and accessible through the Internet. These companies are commonly referred to as application service providers (ASPs). All you need to use an ASP is an ordinary computer and a broadband Internet connection. Most packages include software support, security, database management and training. This eliminates the burden of maintaining network servers, backup tapes, upgrades or modems. Additionally, search for software providers (web-based or otherwise) who will consistently upgrade their products in a timely manner, anticipate future developments, and translate those advances into system features.

Because dynamic, scalable software is now readily available to the modern medical establishment, even the most humble doctor’s office can install a fluid software system that everybody can use. Further, as the demand for electronic medical billing software has blossomed, so have the available choices. Medical billing software is just one of the many options now available that make operating a medical practice easier than ever before.

Medical Billing Software Info provides comprehensive information about medical insurance billing software, HIPAA compliant medical billing software, easy and free medical billing software, and medical billing software prices and reviews. Medical Billing Software Info is the sister site of Medical Billing Web

Medical Billing - Software Capacity

 

The one thing they haven't quite figured out yet in the world of medical billing software is how to make a package big enough in terms of capacity to handle any size company. In this article, we're going to take a look at the problem and just why it's a problem, along with some possible solutions.

Years ago, many years ago, if you had a meg of memory in your computer, you could do just about anything at all. Today, half a gig can just about get your operating system started. As systems and programs get larger, the requirements for these programs grow. But this isn't so much the issue here. Certainly today's PCs have enough memory and disk space to be able to handle starting up an operating system and a piece of software. The issue has more to do with the actual software itself and the mega businesses that use it.

Today, we have corporations involved in the medical billing business that are so massive, it isn't unusual for them to be billing hundreds of thousands of patients. Suddenly, a software package that used to run on a single PC is no longer able to do the job. So networks are built with the software running on individual workstations. The servers running this software are massive. The memory and disk space used by these servers are light years ahead of what they used to be. And yet, with all of this processing power, the software itself can only handle so much. Why?

One of the reasons is the platform on which the software is built. Unfortunately, most software companies build their products on databases that have serious limitations. For example. Some of the most popular DME software packages is built on the database known as Btrieve. While a good database, it has its limitations. One of them is the size it can grow to before you start seeing corruption problems in the database itself. When companies started getting large enough to poke holes in this database, the first solution was to break the database up into multiple companies. But this quickly lead to legal problems and other issues such as being able to get meaningful reports from multiple companies.

Another problem the software packages started running into was the actual processing of the data stored in the database once a solid platform was found. Many users began to notice that running a sales report for a company with 100,000 patients was taking a day to run and tying up all the resources of the server, thus slowing down the work of everyone else. So new network architectures had to be configured to make it so that the reports being run would not have any effect on other users of the system. This was easier said than done with a shared database. So the next solution was to duplicate the database using a RAID system and run the reports off the other drive.

And these problems are only the tip of the iceberg. The unavoidable truth is, as long as companies continue to grow and more and more data is needed, these companies will continue to outgrow the software that is being used. That's why there are constant updates for all these packages.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Medical Billing

A Review of Billing Software

Recent recurring themes, like cutbacks and downsizing, are in the news every day when it comes to businesseses of all sizes. Due to those problems there are now less people in the companies left to complete essential company work and that’s typical for every company. Fortunately there are products that can help companies cope with the results of that trend. Billing software is one of those products. As there always are bills to be processed no matter the size and the type of the business itself, there are a number of programs to choose from that can help doing that, and that include so many additional useful features that they can actually match the needs of any company.

Such software can be used for example both in a medical clinic and in a law firm. It will equally well serve for medical billing that includes direct billing of patients, processing claims to insurance companies and many others depending on the situation and for the law firm to track time that’s billed to a certain customer. This professional billing software is capable of tracking incurred expenses by the attorney’s work also and many other things.

Application of such software seems to be unlimited as it can also be used by merchandise selling companies. Such program can be so set up that it will send and track invoices and include them for the specific time periods required. What is more, the billing software can fit perfectly a company with routine expenditures as it can produce time based bills electronically for all the automatic and recurring purchases.

Billing software can manage claims made by both suppliers and customers, and in addition it can process employee time slips for example. Not only will it process them but it can also calculate automatically and process payroll deductions based on that too. In some companies they have it even easier. Employees enter their timesheets electronically and the billing software generates a calculation of their exact pay. So if you set the daily or hourly wage for an employee, the software itself keeps track of time-slips, payments, accounts and all necessary details. Of course there are online billing programs too. Such programs don’t even require software for the companies with mostly routine expenses that don’t fluctuate significantly. They do offer quick and easy to follow billing procedure though.

Billing software has just as many variations as the different factors that make up a business as it is. Having different sizes, numbers of employees, etc. or the function of the company being manufacturing, distribution or dealing with different professionals to generate business leads to a great variety in the requirements each company has for its billing software. In order to help with that situation there are free directories that match billing software with company requirements. The billing software will be a great help for you but you have to make sure that you choose the right program for your type of business and your needs exactly. That’s why it is always better to use the help of those directories, search them through and find the perfect match.

Morgan Hamilton offers expert advice and great tips regarding all aspects concerning business. Get the information you are seeking now by visiting Billing Software