Medical Billing - DME Software Navigation

It would be really nice if when a medical biller opened up the software used to do their medical billing, a little voice said something like, "Press letter A for Administrative Options". Unfortunately, medical billing software doesn't speak to us. Add to that the fact that there is so much involved with medical billing that the menu systems are massive and you've got a real monster on your hands. Talk about walking through a Dungeons & Dragons maze. Fortunately, the navigation for most DME software packages is pretty standard, which makes finding your way around fairly easy.

Most systems have a main menu option where you can go to the main parts of the system. These parts include Installation Options, Administrative Functions, Billing Functions and Maintenance Operations. Some systems have extra options depending on what add ons come with the package, such as retail sales and barcoding. These are usually found under an option called ad ons.

Once you've gone past the main menu options, that's where things start to open up quite a bit. For example. When going into Administrative Functions, you'll usually be greeted with a number of menu options such as adding users, deleting users, changing security levels and a host of other security options. Also a part of administrative functions is setting up your network. There are usually a number of options for adding peripherals such as printers, scanners, barcoders, etc. Basically, administrative functions handle anything to do with controlling your software so that the inmates don't take over the asylum.

Maintenance Operations are a world unto themselves. This section usually involves updating the various sections of the software that has to do with data. Some software systems call this Database Operations. This is where you enter your inventory, doctors, facilities and patients, among a number of other things. Anywhere there is a table of data, you'll usually find it in this section.

Billing Functions include a number of things, such as patient lookup, starting a work order, submitting a work order to a print queue and electronically billing. In some systems the electronic billing subsystem, because it is so massive, is kept separate. This gets kind of confusing for the biller because they're looking for the Medicare electronic billing module and it's not under billing functions. Standardization only goes so far in this industry since every software company is trying to build the better mouse trap.

Add Ons are another world all to themselves. Because there are so many things that can be added to a billing system, there is no way to tell what a biller is going to find in this section. The submenu will have a list of all the add ons but unless the biller is familiar with the add ons themselves, they're not going to know what to do with them. Fortunately, most software companies have manuals made just for the add ons that they include optionally with their system. Just be prepared to do a lot of reading.

Software navigation in the medical billing industry may not be the easiest thing in the world, but with semi standardization, it does get at least a little easier.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Medical Billing

Medical Billing - DME Software Add Ons

Everybody loves the extras. Getting what you pay for is one thing, but when you get those extra items, is when you feel like you're getting more for your money. In the world of medical billing, this is no different. Unfortunately, most software systems don't give you those extras at no cost. Still, there nice to have when you want to do a little bit more than just bill for services rendered. So what are some of the more common extras that come with DME software?

One of the common items that come extra with DME software is what is called barcoding. Barcoding has actually been going on for quite some time in the retail world. Just go to the local supermarket and you'll find those Universal Product Codes, called UPC codes, all over the place. As a matter of fact, most supermarkets now have automated checkouts using these UPC codes. How UPC codes work is beyond the scope of this article, but briefly, what the manufacturer of the item does is place a special code on each package that needs a special reader to read the price associated with it. This price is then stored in the system so that when the code is read, which is the product code, the price comes up on the register and is added to the subtotal. This functionality is added to some DME software to enable billing houses to sell over the counter items to patients.

This ties into another add on module that is called the retail sales module. This module is actually more than just software. It includes an entire retail sales checkout system, similar to what you would see in your local supermarket. These have to be specially installed by a trained technician. These retail sales modules can read the barcodes that are programmed into the barcoding module. So most people who get the barcoding add on will also get the retail sales add on as well. However, some companies only use the retail sales module and do checkout the old-fashioned way before they had barcodes. Usually small ma and pa stores will do this. These stores usually only do limited medical billing either to Medicare or Medicaid and don't handle a lot of private insurance companies.

Another common ad on, which many people believe should really be standard, is the electronic billing packages. The reason this is an add on in many cases is because standard forms billing is still pretty much the norm. Honestly, why this is the case is a mystery as electronic billing is so much faster and has a higher claim acceptance rate because of fewer errors. Eventually, electronic medical billing will be the norm and will come standard with all medical billing software packages.

There are other add ons such as special inventory control packages, auto pricing update packages and other updated packages for diagnosis codes, procedure codes and forms. Again, some packages include all this as standard but for the most part, if you want this functionality, you're going to have to pay extra for it.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Medical Billing