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