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

Top 4 Transparency and Accountability Attributes for Electronic Medical Billing Software and Service

Medical billing industry has volumes of arcane terminology and payer- and time-dependent claim validity and pricing interpretation rules, facilitating massive payments of invalid or ineligible claims and denials of error-free claims. Process transparency provides its participants greater visibility of internal process activities. An increased level of access promotes teamwork, increases client satisfaction, and assists in process streamlining.

Billing process is the interaction between the participants (i.e., insurance company (payer), healthcare service provider (provider or doctor), patient, and billing service provider (biller)) designed to pay or deny a payment request (claim) submitted by the biller to the payer and to the patient on behalf of the provider. The amount and complexity of billing information make it very difficult for the doctor to maintain compliance and identify and resolve errors and underpayments.

Billing service transparency allows participants of the billing process to expedite error identification and resolution, resulting in reduced over- and under-payments and improved regulatory compliance.

Attributes of Billing Transparency

Billing transparency has four key attributes, including universality, continuity, ubiquity, and scalability.

• Universality: every participant in the billing process, including patient, provider, payer, and biller, has access to every aspect of the billing process.
• Continuity: process detail is available continuously on a 24 x 7 basis.
• Ubiquity: access to billing process is provided over secure standard Internet browser that requires no special hardware or software and is available everywhere.
• Scalability: both the big picture and minute detail are available for scrutiny universally and continuously. The big picture consists of total cash flow in a given time period, current submitted and failed claims, and billing quality metric. It must contain comprehensive summary of patient visits and unpaid balances. The minute detail pertains to individual claims making up the big picture, including complete history from the moment of creating the claim, testing its validity and eligibility, making corrections, performing submissions, reconciling payer messages and explanations of benefits (EOB) with original claims, until payment. Both perspectives must allow arbitrary aggregation of claims and drill in for detail to enable effective followup.

How to Build Transparency Into Your Billing Service?

A transparent billing service leverages technology to enable competent personnel to execute disciplined billing process. Therefore, to implement a transparent billing process, you must

[ ] Get access to adequate technology to support universality, continuity, ubiquity, and scalability.

[ ] Develop and thoroughly document claim processing procedures, including compliance and integration with practice workflow.

[ ] Train personnel in following the procedures and using the technology

[ ] Review personally and continuously billing quality, technology capabilities, adequacy of procedures, discipline, and training.

Note that Vericle-like technologies based on Straight Through Billing (STB) methodology implement billing transparency by design because billing transparency is an integral attribute of every component of STB process.

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

Medical Billing Software Provides Easy Access to 2005 CPT Code Book

Multiple data bases, multiple servers, superbills, synchronization, multiple logins, reports, backups, workstations. Honestly, there is enough to worry about already in managing medical offices. On top of all of that there are multiple codes to remember and refer to?

Medical billing software services have been developed to streamline the medical billing process, not simply by allowing practices to connect to multiple locations and databases in one place (which is quite a feat in and of itself), but also by creating simplified access to important codes to which medical billing must comply. The 2005 CPT code book, updated CPT codes, ICD.9 codes, and all other codes are accessible in the same location as the rest of the billing information, and they are updated automatically from year to year.

When President George W. Bush visited the Midwest during his reelection campaign, he spoke to medical practitioners in several locations and referred to “preventative medicine.” Effective management of records and compliance to codes has become a type of preventative medicine, protecting both the client or patient and the practice. Accessing codes on a simple medical billing software helps to ensure not only an efficiently run medical office but also a secure billing process.

Developments in medical billing software have come to benefit the medical field immensely. Databases allowed business to electronically manage billing and medical history information. Technology also created an IT infrastructure to manage the information.

More recent developments include HIPAA-compliant servers and removal of expensive IT infrastructure. Medical billing software has also developed color-coded appointment making, automatic reminders, and billing generation.

The developments continued to include SOAP note management and transcriptions. Medical billing software can now manage everything in one location, even information from multiple offices and servers. There has also been increased security on the servers and on backups.

Topping off the developments in medical billing software has been access to real-time updated codes, including CPT, HIPAA, HCFA 1500, and ICD.9. As medical companies continue to develop, adoption of a compatible medical billing software should be a prime consideration. Preventative medicine begins with accurate and effective record management and code compliance. As your practice searches through the medical billing software, it is important to take into consideration the recent developments available in medical billing software.

Joe Miller is an author of informational articles and online advertisements on business, technology, and health. Information on 2005 cpt code book or medical billing software is available at AdvancedMD.com.

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/