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I currently have 6.3.3 version and will be doing billing with local in-town services. I am going to get charged 6% of total income. Can anybody tell me if there is a better reliable option to do in house PM and billing services? I understand 6.3.3 may have a problem migrating insurance data to new version. I am not sure if new version of AC has bugs or if waiting for AC-Medfx combo will be worthed. I am affraid Medfx - AC combo will have issues and they will point fingers at each other and when a problem comes there will be no easy solution. I don't know if there is an independent affordable PM software that works smoothly with AC database. Office Ally is free but their clearing house seems not to be strong and I dont think they support billing services.

Anybody with a good experience?

Manuel

Manuel,

I'd like to respond to your post, however, in the interest of full disclosure and honesty, please note that I am the IT Pro and Developer for a medical billing company.

6% may or may not sound like a lot, but before making any decisions, consider the following details:

* Is this billing company charging 6% of what is billed out or 6% of what is collected? There is a big difference between the two. 6% of what is billed out means the billing company gets their money whether or not you get yours. Just because something is billed out doesn't mean it gets paid. If the biller is charging 6% of what is collected, then that means the biller doesn't get paid unless you do. The biller has every reason to go after every dime of every claim that they can.

* Is the billing company willing to integrate with Amazing Charts? If so, how much will this integration cost?

* Can the billing company generate custom reports for you? Many billers can provide only those reports that come from their billing software. If your request isn't one of those reports, the answer is often no. Creating custom reports is something I do all the time.

* Does the billing company do daily follow-ups?

* What is your collection rate going to be? Will the billing company collect 90% or more of receivables?

* What is the cost of the billing company versus the cost of hiring someone to work in-house and the cost of a billing software? What percentage of receivables do you expect an in-house employee and your own billing software to collect considering this employee may have other responsibilities? Are you willing to pay a bigger wage to hire someone with billing experience or are you going to hire the cheapest person you can find?

These are questions to consider before getting stuck on the 6% service fee charge your billing company is going to charge you. You have three choices:

* Stay with the billing company you have now.
* Go with another billing company.
* Pull billing back in-house.

Make certain your decision is an informed one before taking any action.

JamesNT

Thanks..that taught me a lot as well...

I have heard that multiple Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) companies are looking to make their platform available to practices, offer integration, and provide that as a monthly service.

The concept being that you do as much of your billing as you want, and get their assistance/services on-demand.

We believe that this will be an alternative that can benefit clients in 2014, and are working to make that happen.

Manuel,

Welcome.

I'm assuming you are a solo practitioner. Using a billing service makes a lot of sense. We are a 4 provider practice which IMHO is about the tipping point for going it alone.
There is a break even point out there where having your own biller is better. There are a lot of caveats to this. If your talent pool is large, then finding a good biller can be straight forward. If not, it can be awful. We are lucky in having found good talent.

I have been in practice almost 40 years. Having used billing services in the past there are some other issues James only touched on. Assume for a moment you own a billing service. You get 6% of whatever number. You need to minimize your own overhead, so you hire the minimum number of people you need to maximize your profits. Now, you have invoices provided by a number of practices. Some are primary care, billing a fairly large number of low cost items. Some are medical specialties, billing high-cost procedures. Your staff is busy (because you hired the minimum number, remember), and has to put their efforts someplace. Are you going to direct them to focus on collecting 50 99213's, or on 10 surgeries at $3,000 each?

This is what we hit more than once, as a primary care provider. The billing companies would promise to give equal effort to every claim. Reality, however, was quite different, and impossible to police. All I can say for sure is that with a 4 provider office, we come out way ahead having a billing person who answers to us alone.

All answers greatly appreciated. He is going to use AdvanceMD with all their reports. and I will only activate the cost of an additional user. I dont feel I am ready to get married with Advance MD by buying entire new PM / billing software and get the x-link program in house. I can't stay with current biller anymore, I was having a big hole in my pocket. I am in small town, billers are not available. It is going to be 6% of collected money and a independent accountant will give him the monthly check.

Manuel
Neurologist

I use Resolutions Billing company, Kareo PM with no link to AC. I love the set up. Resolutions is awesome. Heck, they fought a claim over 11 cents the other day and by golly, I got my check from United Healthcare for that 11 cents.

The new version (6.6.3) had some issues with migrating insurance information. I thought it would be a nightmare, but realistically, it has been a smooth transition. We do all PM, coding, and billing in house and would not have it any other way. Granted, it is easier when I only have one provider to keep track of.

please post a copy of that check if you can...that is awesome

I think one additional aspect to consider for all parties involved with in house billing versus out of house billing, is the projected cost of ICD-10 implementation in your office in both scenarios.

How is your group postured do deal with the implementation process this year and the ensuing years, and which billing scenario makes the most sense for the viability of your organization over the long haul?

Do you have the resources and cash flow to do this implementation in house or not?

Is this transition to ICD-10 better done in house or by another out of house entity?

Now that is awesome!