Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Billing/practice management dilema

Found several other posts related to billing but none that really hit on what I was looking at so started this one. I have been holding out for the AC integrated billing module, since I'm one of the folk that likes it all to be "in the same place". Currently I've been using a web based billing/emr system that I started using back before starting AC (CureMD is the system and after signing up for it, I started to realize the EMR part of the service stunk so I only used it for the billing...bad planning on my part at the time). Unfortunately my current billing service has given me the news that they are "upgrading" their product and thus are going to be bumping up the cost DRAMATICALLY so I need to dump them.

So now the dilema...do I hold out for AC billing or jump to another system? Are we looking at 4 months, 6 months, 6 years, never for the billing module? A general idea would be helpfull. If it is going to be 6 months, I'll just continue to get extorted by my current company for 6 more months and then jump on the AC billing system, but if we are looking at years or "never" then I will need to move to another party for billing. I was thinking maybe Medisoft with the xlink or such...any suggestions there would also be appreciated...and by the way, what really is the difference between the hl7 interface and the xlink interface? (I was looking at the interface options under the administration panel and noted that some of the practice management interfaces were hl7 and some were xlink)

Sorry about the LENGHTY post but any suggestions would be appreciated, especially any info on the AC billing module ETA.

Steve

I would not use X link - they upgrade it often I understand and it is costly. We use the Medisoft and double enter things - a bit of a pain ,but my wife does it and she is happy with it. She actually does not want me to buy X link (part of that is that she can double check my coding and the front desk of copying cards, getting insurance info).

I think that waiting for AC can always be problematic and you never know how long.

Steve,

I'm on the same page. I need that billing module. I've tried to do the double posting but by the time I get home it's too late.

Ac needs to finish the version 5.0 upgrade and fix and get to work on the billing module.

We use the X-link with AMD ( Advanced MD). It works, but not always smoothly.... and when AMD recently updated their software we had to pay a chunky fee to X-link to co-ordinate with the new version of AMD even though I purchased both AMD and the X-link software less than a year ago. ( Why I ended up with AMD is a long/boring story, I think many other AC users use practice management/billing software that is every bit as functional and not as costly.) I would look for some other solution. Double posting is not a very good solution for lots of reasons in my opinion. Hard for me to tell what the top 5 PM/billing software choices are for AC users, also hard to tell what the spectrum of practices are....some smaller groups and lots of solo practioners??? This type of conversation would be another reason why an ACUC would be so valuable.

I can see having to enter demographics twice but what about the insurance info? i am think of just scanning the insurance card into AC so the MA can see where to send labs etc. I would then send a hard copy of the card to my biller to eneter into their system.

How are others handling insurance info data entry?

You could enter the information into AC and then let the biller remote into AC as a user, they could pick up the insurance info from AC and enter it into their system. Then, down the road if you decide to change billing services YOU have the information, not them.

Medisoft might be more of the same -- we always seem to be facing "upgrades" so we can maintain our functionality. Weird how these "upgrades" never actually improve our function. Also, because we have a fairly complicated installation, we have to get a "value added retailer" to come install it. His charges are huge and excessive -- he charges by the hour, and it starts the moment he starts his car to come over.

AC website notes it does some sort of off site billing; doesn't anyone use it?

I use it with mixed opinion. It took them about 6-9 months to get things right but things flow fairly smoothly lately.

I would wait for the PM, but there needs to be a good clearinghouse associated with it.

I had problems betting Office Ally to connect to Illinois Medicaid and each was blaming the other.

When I could no longer wait, I switched to MTBC, the billing service associated with AC. Most of their employees are based out of Pakistan but their English was not bad. They changed reps a number of times and it took a while to get up to speed, they were not always following up on unpaid claims. One rep was so rude I called the main office and had them changed.

I might have changed by now but it IS working and I am waiting for V6.

We use MTCB, with AC version 4. We too are very frustrated with the set up and are anxiously waiting the AC billing system.

Does anyone have an answer to the original question of.... When?

Thanks.

PS: I am at the Pri-med South convention, usually AC is there. I will ask Jon if he is there.

Thanks for all the posts, sorry I didn't respond earlier. Just so happens,the week after my original post, our current web based billing service announced a "major" upgrade to their website, which of course was going to come with a "major" price increase. I hated the idea of laying out a bunch of cash for something I was planning on dumping within the year so we took the leap and went over to Office Ally using their Practice Mate front end. At least all the demographic info we had in AC could be imported into Office Ally using a CSV file, so we are only double entering new patients and updates to insurance rather than having to enter everything from scratch in Office Ally. So far, seems to be going well. They have better coverage of the insurances we deal with than our previous clearinghouse, and hard to beat the free pricetag. Just about any other solution that did not involve double demographic data entry came with a significant cost, either as an initial outlay or a monthly ongoing fee(or both). Since it takes my 10$ per hour front office staff member less than 2 minutes to enter the data a second time, I actually think the "free clearinghouse/double data entry" system is my lease costly alternative at this point!

I personally have used several billing software companies and have thought each one of them left a lot to be desired. That includes my current PM software which is CollaborateMD.

The bads: No interface to AC. The eligibility checker is poor at best. It prints horrendous looking patient statements. You can only have one patient opened and others can't even access the patient as a "read-only". It's sometimes quite slow and depends on the speed of your internet. It's a monthly $200. The code scrubber is a waste of money and time. Electronic EOB's are difficult to read.

The goods: A million different reports can be pulled. McKesson is the clearinghouse and is quite good considering how massive it is. Doesn't take long to learn. The company is responsive to problems/questions. ERA is easy and intuitive.

Find something cheap (Office Ally) and hang on until AC comes out with something.