In the current computer generation, health care professionals need not worry about bundles of paper documents piling up on their tables. The introduction of software technology to the health care system has helped to ease the process of documentation and information processing. With the invention of electronic medical billing software, the whole process of billing and collection is just few clicks away.
Medical billing is a process of submitting the claims to the insurance carriers in order to receive the reimbursement for the services provided to the patients. Earlier, the whole process of claim used to be done on papers. But, paper claiming is a snail pace process and takes couple of months to get the reimbursement. Since, whole paper claiming was done manually, the mistakes were higher, the cost was higher and the numbers of rejections were very higher. However, with the usage of electronic medical billing software, health care professionals are able to get their reimbursement very fast and the rate of insurance denial has been reduced dramatically. Electronic medical billing software also saves time and money of health care professionals by eliminating printing, folding, sealing and mailing the billing statements.
Electronic medical billing software has reduced the requirement of man power to a greater extent in the health care facility. The daily paperwork and documentation is done with more efficiency and accuracy using the electronic billing system. With the usage of electronic medical billing software, the errors in the billing are reduced greatly and so is the rejection. Any error occurred in the data entry can be brought to the back office personnel’s notice within few hours of submission, which can be corrected and resubmitted. The error free billing process helps to get the reimbursement in couple of weeks. The incorporation of automation in the billing process has helped the health care professionals and their staff to concentrate more on patient management rather than processing the claims.
There are two types of billing software available in the market. One is called ‘client server’ and the other one is ‘application service providers’. In client server the entire software is installed in the hospital computer and it does not have any external connection. This gives maximum security to the confidential patient information stored in the computer. However, they are expensive and any glitch in the software may not be fixed by the users and they have to hire an IT professional to do the trouble shooting. As the technologies are evolving, the software gets outdated and this forces the doctors to buy new software in every 3-4 years. In application service provider the central server is located in the software company and not in the hospital computers. The vendor manages the complications in the software, any installation and other technology related issues. The application service providers charge monthly fee. Hence, in application service providers the upfront cost is less and maintenance of the software is much easier.
As per the government rule, all electronic medical billing software should be HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliant. HIPAA was enforced to prevent any fraud and abuse in health care delivery and health insurance. In built HIPAA compliance in the software does not allow any fraud in the billing process. While most of the current billing software is HIPAA compliant, some are partially HIPAA compliant. Hospitals and doctors should be extremely careful before purchasing any billing software, as any form of HIPAA violation can end up with huge penalties and financial breakdown of the health care facility.
The financial strength of any health care system depends on the billing department. Well programmed electronic billing software ensures increased cash flow in the medical facilities.
Equipment/ Software