Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan Heads April's Chiropractic Office Billing Software Precision Index

Chiropractic Office Billing Software Performance Index (BPI) in April 2007 outperformed its March value by 4.3%, bringing the index from 18.9 up to 14.6, ahead of the national average of 17.7%, while replacing four of BPI participants in March on the list of top ten performers. BPI guides chiropractic office managers and helps the development of both chiropractic billing software and billing performance standards. This article describes a rule-based chiropractic billing index, including its coverage definition, update cycle, volume weighting, and provided information.

BPI = 14.6 means that the average of ten top performing payers working with Billing Precision clients have 14.6% of Accounts Receivable beyond 120 days. BPI is a key billing performance characteristic, as it is a proxy of the claims that are never paid. Obviously, the lower is the index the better is billing performance. The table below also lists the top ten performing payers and their relative index as recorded in the Billing Precision's system.

• Billing Precision Index 14.6
• Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan 3.2
• Blue Cross Blue Shield Colorado 6.8
• Humana 7.9
• Blue Cross Blue Shield Illinois 11.1 (down from 11.2 in March)
• United Health Care 13.9 (up from 23.2 in March)
• Cigna 15 (down from 12.9 in March)
• Medicare New Jersey 16.4 (up from 20.5 in March)
• Blue Cross Blue Shield Texas 20 (down from 15.2 in March)
• Great West 22
• Aetna 22.1 (down from 20.9 in March)

April BPI dropped four participants since March:

• Blue Cross Blue Shield Pennsylvania
• Blue Cross Blue Shield Alabama
• Medicare Pennsylvania
• Blue Cross Blue Shield New Jersey

Three payers improved their index since March:

• Blue Cross Blue Shield Illinois 11.1 (down from 11.2 in March)
• United Health Care 13.9 (up from 23.2 in March)
• Medicare New Jersey 16.4 (up from 20.5 in March)

Three participants lowered their indexes with respect to March BPI:

• Cigna 15 (down from 12.9 in March)
• Blue Cross Blue Shield Texas 20 (down from 15.2 in March)
• Aetna 22.1 (down from 20.9 in March)

April BPI added four new participants since March:

• Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan 3.2
• Blue Cross Blue Shield Colorado 6.8
• Humana 7.9
• Great West 22

Coverage

BPI is rule-based, i.e., payer participation in the index is defined by dynamically rules at the time of computation and not by a static listing of specific payers. Therefore, any specific payer may start or discontinue participation in the index, dependent on satisfaction of rule's conditions.

Current selection of payers for participation in the BPI is based on fifty top-volume providers across all United States that have received Billing Precision services for more than six months and have more than two hundred claims in their current Accounts Receivable.

Update Cycle

BillingPrecision.com updates BPI on a monthly basis.

Volume Weighting

BPI is volume weighted, which is important to accommodate future growth of provided information, index combinations, and sensitivity across multiple indices.

Information Provided

BPI computes the percent of Accounts Receivable beyond 120 days. Note that national average across all medical specialties of percent of accounts receivable beyond 120 days is 17.7%.

Summary

Chiropractic Office Billing Software Performance Index helps the development of both chiropractic office billing software and billing performance standards. Chiropractic office managers can use the index to benchmark their billing performance and guide its improvement over time. Rule-based index definition allows for automated inclusion and exclusion of payers in the index based on payer attributes, such as numbers of processed claims, accounts receivable distribution, certain mix of CPT codes, or patient demographics.

Yuval Lirov, PhD, author of "Mission Critical Systems Management" (Prentice Hall), inventor of patents in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Security, and CEO of Vericle.net Billing Technologies and Services. Vericle? unites hundreds of billing services across the nation. Its electronic medical billing software tracks payer performance from a single point of control and shares compliance rules globally. Yuval invites you to register to the next webinar on audit risk at BillingPrecision.com.

Medical Billing Software Concept

What is medical billing software More than ten years ago medical billing records were committed on paper. The advent of computers and the introduction of reliable medical billing software have largely phased out the paper system of keeping medical billing records.

Today's healthcare providers have realized medical billing software ensures their reimbursement claims are facilitated in a secure and efficient manner. It also tracks each patient's medical and insurance billing and accounting, all to the benefit of patients.

Here are three benefits inherent in the use of medical billing software as compared to the paper based systems.

1. Medical billing software improves staff productivity, as easy to use medical billing software improves efficiency.

2. Installing medical billing software in your office increases patient satisfaction. This is because a majority of medical billing software offers flexibility in scheduling and better access to personal information.

3. Fewer errors are committed in billing and insurance. When this happens, the medical billing software can easily correct these mistakes and the claims resubmitted in days rather than weeks. Medical Billing Training. With the complexity of today's health care and insurance system, medical billing has become an industry of its own. In order to manage the thousands upon thousands of patient, insurance company, and HMO accounts, doctors and hospitals rely on sophisticated medical billing systems. Far from having the time to run these systems themselves, large dedicated administrative staffs specialize in managing these systems and interacting with the account holders on a daily basis.

Medical Billing Training. With the complexity of today's health care and insurance system, medical billing has become an industry of its own. In order to manage the thousands upon thousands of patient, insurance company, and HMO accounts, doctors and hospitals rely on sophisticated medical billing systems. Far from having the time to run these systems themselves, large dedicated administrative staffs specialize in managing these systems and interacting with the account holders on a daily basis.

I maintain site http://www.popular-softwares.com having info on most popular softwares.

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 {a rel="nofollow" href=" http://jbilling.com/"} http://jbilling.com/

Medical Insurance Billing Software

Working in a medical office can be hectic. However, medical insurance billing software can make your work day much more organized and easier. The days of hand writing all your patient's records are long gone. Using powerful software for organizing your patient's insurance information will make a big difference.

Having all of this information handled by a good medical insurance billing software means that you can automatically manage all insurance claims. This greatly decreases the amount of time you will need to spend sorting through past claims. Once all of this information is fed into the software, handling all this information becomes an easy task.

Medical insurance billing software can also notify you of any specific past due balances. With the click of a button you can send this notice to the proper place and have the patient notified of this balance. You can even have the system notify you of all patient's who have a bill due and take actions from there.

Privacy is a big concern with everyone and rightfully so. Medical insurance billing software gives you the option to encrypt patient's records. This greatly reduces the risk of having someone having his or her records falsely changed. No one will be able to view this information unless they have been given the proper rights to do so. Having this feature alone makes medical insurance billing software much better than a hand written file.

Another great feature offered by medical insurance billing software is that you will be instantly notified when a patient needs to make a co-payment. No longer do you need to make phone calls to the insurance company to verify this information. Everything will be automatically updated on your computer screen, and you will know exactly how much the patient is required to pay.

Streamlining your current office situation can be as easy as implementing a powerful medical insurance billing software. While they may take some time to get used to, it is definitely time worth spent. Training for these types of programs is even being offered in many medical schools around the world as this is the most effective way to manage this important information.

Read More About Medical Insurance Billing Software

Lee Leong is the owner of Cheap Software which specializes in providing 100% free software information and resources for everyone

Medical Billing - Software ROI

One of the most heated arguments in the medical billing world, at least when it comes to the software company, is ROI or return on investment. This is something that is very difficult to calculate as far as what you want your ROI to be and everybody has their own theory and opinion on the subject. If you're a software company just starting out, or better yet, thinking of starting a medical billing software company, there are some basic things you need to consider when figuring out what you want your ROI to be. What follows is a list of the most basic of these items. For starters, you have to figure out what your cost of production is going to be before you even hire any programmers to create this software. This basically involves the cost of the lease on the building you'll be using as well as any other fixed costs such as utilities, insurance, etc. Add all this up and put the estimated total in one column.

The next thing you're going to have to calculate is the salaries of all the people who will be responsible for getting your product out. This includes programmers, QA persons, support techs and all managers. You will also need a networking department who, though they won't be directly responsible for working on your software, will be keeping your operation going. You need to calculate these salaries not just for the time that the software will be developed but also for the time after while you're supporting the product, which will hopefully be for the lifetime of the product. Will you keep the same number of programmers. QA people and support techs? What salary increases do you foresee? Figure all this out and put it in a second column.

The next thing you have to figure out is the cost of any add on items that you intend to include with the software at no extra charge. For example, in the medical billing industry there are a ton of forms that customers are going to need. Are you going to include these forms or are you going to have your customers get them from an outside source? What about peripheral equipment? Are you going to include barcode and retail sales machines? If so, you need to include the cost of these. Also, you're going to need to calculate the cost of maintaining all the equipment. If you deal in peripherals, you're also going to need a tech staff.

After you have figured out what all your yearly costs are going to be, you then have to decide what you want your return to be. In other words, let's say you plan to spend $1,000,000 a year and you want a 10% profit each year. You first have to figure out how many software packages the market will allow in a year. Let's say it's 10,000. If you want a 10% return, then you want to sell $1,100,000 worth of product. If you sell 10,000 units, doing the math, you will need to sell each unit at $110. This is actually very cheap for medical billing software as most packages go for several thousand dollars. So most likely, if you price your software correctly, you will make much more than a 10% ROI.

This is of course greatly simplified, but basically, this is what you need to do in order to figure out what your ROI is going to be for your medical billing software.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Medical Billing

What Is Billing Or Time Tracking Software?

Any business needs to be clear about their transactions to ensure smooth functioning. But often, it is found that the off invoice has gone missing or that there is no record of it. Most of the times, it is a simple case of the record aligning itself in the wrong place. Not much you think, but identifying this itself can be quite a headache eating into precious man-hours and not to mention the anxiety it can cause.

A full-fledged billing software suite can save you from these and many other hassles. Billing software that is rich in features can often help you ensure that you do not miss out on any details in invoicing. Take taxes for instance? you did not intentionally leave out one of the tax charges for your client, but who?s going to explain that to the taxman? What it also means is that you have to fork out this money from your pocket for the time being at least! Not a nice scenario, eh?

While the above processes may be streamlined in case of a large corporations where they have full-time finance departments that are paid to ensure all billings are done correctly, in case of smaller companies and more so in the case of a start-up, this could be a troublesome area. Why burden yourself with something that is not your job? Find a good package and just enter all the right data. The rest will take care of itself.

Another advantage most time tracking software offer is the ability to configure and make repeat invoicing easier. So for your long-term jobs, you don?t need to remember to make a new invoice every time. Come the time and your invoice will be ready. What?s more is the invoice can also be a custom made one that satisfies your and your client?s needs.

But even before you reach the billing stage, there is the need to know how much to bill. Even if you are working on a project that does not need you to charge by the hour, it would be worthwhile keeping track of how much time you have spent on what just to make sure you are working optimally. Using a proper time tracking software can help you do just that. In fact, there is some software that sits in your Outlook and can help you optimize the time spent on a particular client by syncing up with your appointments. So by the end of the month, you know exactly how much time you have spent on which client and how much to charge them.

Remember that your time is valuable and also your only tool to prove to your client the effort you have put in. No matter how passionate you are about your work, there is satisfaction in knowing that you have been compensated correctly and there is peace of mind in knowing that your books are up to scratch.

Aaron Reed writes technical write-up for AECTek - Offshore Software Outsourcing Company. AECTek is based in India and also provides Billing and Time Tracking Software solutions

Dental Billing Software

Dental billing software is an essential part of the medical billing industry. Dental offices either take care of their own dental billing or hire a medical billing specialist to take care of it. Either way, the need for dental billing software that is fast, effective, and inexpensive, is a prevalent one. Do you need to purchase dental billing software? Here is some advice that will help you.

Your first step in purchasing dental billing software is to do your research. Which dental billing software programs are considered the best? Which ones have the best prices? Find reviews of the software in magazines and on websites. Ask other dental billing specialists which software they use. The more information you can find, the easier it will be to make a wise purchase decision.

After you do your research, you will need to purchase the dental billing software. Once you have a particular software package in mind, you can start comparison shopping on the price. Check online, in stores, and in catalogs. Make sure you understand the warranty information and the return policy. When all the factors meet your approval, you can make the purchase with confidence.

Good dental billing software has a few functions. It helps manage patient accounting. It issues bills and invoices. It also manages patients? insurance and helps make the process of submitting a claim much easier. It is also important for the software to be easy to learn and easy to use.

When it comes time to purchase dental billing software, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, do research to find the best product. Search for information online, in magazines, and ask other billing specialists. Once you are confident you found a good product, you can start to compare prices. Keep in mind that you want the software to be easy to use.

Billing Software provides detailed information on Billing Software, VoIP Billing Software, Chiropractic Billing Software, Free Billing Software and more. Billing Software is affiliated with HIPAA Complaint Medical Billing Software.

Top 3 Electronic Medical Billing Software Methods For No-Show And Missed Appointment Risk Reduction

Most clinics lose an average of 20% of their revenue due to missed appointments. Lost revenue may not be the largest problem clinics face due to no-shows. Other problems span health damage, patient liability risks, reduced accessibility, and impeded resident education. Rigorous no-show management methods utilizing powerful vericle-like technologies, which integrate scheduling and billing data, reduce no-show rates and improve associated revenues by more than 50%.

No-Show Frequency Distribution

No-show rates average at about 20%, where 10% clinics have less than 10% no-shows, 42% clinics - 10%-20%, 34% clinics - 20-30%, and 14% clinics - more than 30% no-shows. Further, the top ten clinics range 3%-9% for no-shows, while the bottom 10 clinics reach 33%-57%.

No-Show Impact to Clinic

A missed appointment poses five kinds of problems:

 

1. Health damage: Damage to patient's health due to interrupted continuity of care or missed an opportunity to solve an acute health problem. The doctor also loses an opportunity for a timely review of patient health, treatment progress, etc.
2. Liability risk: A patient that missed an appointment and suffered an injury may have a viable cause for a lawsuit against the practice. To avoid such risk, the doctor must maintain evidence of giving clear directions and making reasonable efforts to ensure patient's compliance with care program, including keeping follow-up appointments.
3. Reduced accessibility: Other patients were postponed and did not get access to care because of a no-show or cancelled appointment.
4. Impedance to resident education: Resident doctor missed an opportunity to hone care skills.
5. Loss of revenue: Clinic is unable to make up revenue due to missed appointments.

Three-Phase No-Show Management Strategy

An effective no-show management strategy is based on tracking, rescheduling, and follow up:

1. Track
   1. Record all no-shows and reconcile with billing on a daily basis
   2. Record no-show reasons and followup notes in patient records
   3. Review End-Of-Day report daily
2. Reschedule in real time
   1. Allow patients request appointments online using Internet
   2. Overbook, use waiting lists
   3. Fill new openings with walk-ins or patients from waiting list
3. Follow up
   1. Activate a sequence of reminder calls/emails to all patients 10, 2, and 1 day prior to appointment.
   2. Follow up call to find reasons for no-show and reschedule
   3. Follow up with warning letters after one no-show
   4. Dismiss from practice after three no-shows

Reminder calls or emails prior to appointment remains the most effective method to prevent missed appointments. Additionally, sending reminders via email and allowing patients confirm online turns an office reminder into patient's action item, significantly outperforming the impact of a voice message or postcard.

Note that outsourcing reminder calls to calling services and using the Internet reduce the cost of reminders. Therefore reaching all patients prior to appointment makes good business sense.

Three technologies are especially useful in implementing the no-show management strategy outlined above:

1. End-Of-Day Report: End-Of-Day report displays New patients, Visits, Cash, Insurance, Free, Insurance (Billed, Collected), Cash Collected, Missed Appointments, Recalls, Patient Visit Average. End-Of-Day allows the manager to reconcile revenues with patient visits, eliminating no-charge visits and unbillable appointments.

    

2. Scheduler:
   1. Allow patient access to Internet-based appointment scheduler
   2. Update available appointment list due to cancellations
   3. Alert about new openings for patients on the waiting list
   4. Alert about appointments with missing authorizations
   5. Most schedulers allow monthly, weekly, and daily views. Today view should change color for no-show appointments, prompting the front-office person to follow up immediately or at the end of the day

       

3. Search: Search feature must allow finding all no-shows within specific time interval subject to specific patient name, attending physician, CPT and/or ICD-9 code combinations, or other demographic conditions. Upon finding specific appointment, drill down should be available for related appointment history or recurring appointment plan.

   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: 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