Home Forums Discussions General Discussion PM while waiting for AC

Hello everybody,

I downloaded AC, I played with it, I liked it, I am thinking to buy, but I got a dilemma. Their practice management software will be ready not sooner than in the end of the year. So I need to get by somehow. Should I just go ahead and buy the cheapest version of EZ Claims - EZClaim Advanced Medical Billing - $395.00? I suspect all new customers of AC would have to face a similar question. I would really appreciate some thoughts and ideas.
Thanks

That is what I would do for now.
I used the cheapest Medisoft for years.

Cheapest EZ claims will not do - I just talked to them. It is only for paper billing. In order to get ANSI file, I need to buy much more expensive module - around $1100.

Please take alook at the interesting discussion going on under CCHIT and PMR. This is a discussion about how to use AC with officeally for the time being. It is working well for some.

There was another thread (Re: Does this mean AC is CCHIT Certified?) that I was in showing how you could go straight to office ally. OA does have some PM features, but I don't know whether this will mesh with them.

I intend to explore this more next month.

EasyRider, I am not sure you need that package. I use EZClaim and the package with ClearingHouse is $100 more.

Well, the difference in price is concerning the use of the clearinghouse you use now. If you use EZClaim's clearinghouse they charge you monthly for that service, but I have heard that it works better that way. Our office wanted to use Availity and EZClaim never worked well with them for us. We had to pay the extra to use the ANSI module. We ended up not using EZClaim anymore after that because of the problems we had getting paid.

We have been using Emedware PM system for 4 years. It's worked well for us. Bert followed my example and used this when he went solo a year after I did. The monthly fee for their clearing house is roughly $70, maybe less.

Where is there info on eMedWare, I looked online google and no hits???

medware by sage software

Please check out this link.

This may not solve the question, but just an an FYI, EZClaim will be updating their next version to SQL server as well so it could be a good guess that the interoperability between the 2 could stand to continue.

Also, for anyone looking at tablets, I thought I would pass this little tidbit along, I was on the Office Ally site and found a pdf advertising "Winter" prices of the C-5 Motion Tablet for $1300.00, which I am guessing might not be the newest model but maybe one back, but at any rate these sold for 3k, so anyway you may want to look as this is the sealed unit with a handle.

http://www.officeally.com/oa.asp?GOTO=Register&SUB=PayerListsForms#

This is the forms page and just go down to the link for the C-5 and you can take a look. It has 512 ram, but that's an easy fix if $1300.00 is the overall price.

I know I don't get over here very often and I am now doing some posts on EZClaim's blog. Don't forget my blog at the Medical Quack when you get a chance, I have been posting quite a bit about data reporting devices that are on a roll, like the blue tooth inhaler coming soon. I can' believe how fast and how cheap the data reporting devices are rolling out and many are connecting to a PHR, namely HealthVault too.

http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/05/smart-inhaler-with-blue-tooth-and.html

Hope I added some worthwhile information here and this week I am helping one of my practices set up Amazing Charts too, a new client.

Thanks again for letting me hop in here once in a while!

Has anybody ever used Navicure? Website looks very good, price is competitive. They use ANSI 837. When you are exporting the file under the billing tab, AC gives you the option to export to "837 Fields". Is it the same format as ANSI 837?

I suggest looking for Motion Computing C5 tablets on eBay before buying one for $1,300. New or company refurb tablets with 512MB RAM (the oldest model) can be bought for $800-900. There are occasionally recent model used C5s with 1GB or 2GB RAM offered -- usually go for $1,000 at auction. The tablet version of Windows XP is very fast on the 512 tablets, however.

Amazing Charts runs excellently on these tablets, which have sufficient resolution on their 10" screens to display the windows at a very readable size. They are also very durable, and can survive the occasional bang or drop.

If you want to link AC with a PMS and send claims to a clearinghouse AND have full PMS features (like all financials, reports, etc) check out our Basic and BasicPlus Services at www.mbpros.com.

Think about trying Office Ally and Practicemate (Its sister program). The cost is minimal it it seems to be doing the job until we see the AC PMR.

Frank J. Paiano, DO
Internal Medicine
Leesburg, FL