Home Forums Discussions Problems Cheap Temporary PM, Waiting for Jon???

Does anybody have a good, yet cheap temporary Practice Managment solution while trying to wait for Jon and AC PM??? It seems wrong to spend $1250-$1500 bucks on x-link, plus $1000-$2000 or so on another PM program while we know that Jon is hammering away on making his own PM for AC that will intergrate seemlessly with the EMR we are all using and happy with. Worse yet, instead of paying Jon who we like and respect because he respects us, we'll be basiclly paying most of those funds to some other company. But, some how we need to do our own e.billing now before our billing company bleeds us dry. They just aren't bringing home the bacon, when viewed by what I'm sending them in gross charges. Any suggestions????

P.S. Jon was nice enough to write me and tell me that AC PM probably won't be ready until at least the 2nd quarter of '07, so waiting may not be a great options for many of us either....
Jon's email:
I can't really say, but my guess is sometime in the second quarter of 2007 for the pm. all depends how fast/slow development, testing and debugging go.

sorry I can't be more specific.
Jon

office ally is about to come out with theirr free PM, ASP also.
Might want to take a look at that.

i have been looking for an efficient, low cost/free system of practice management and billing, and here are the current conditions:
the pm features of AC are minimal, and the lab interface with further development of a patient registry for preventive and chronic care is the current top priority.
ezclaim (EZ) is one solution, however it costs 500$, and still initially requires double entry with respect to the payer library. EZ does have some other features, like aging and accounts receivable. overall, i have found it cumbersome and confusing to use. there is also a monthly fee to interface with an electronic clearinghouse.
i have called EZ and spoken with the author, al nagy, and asked him to make appropriate changes such that any double entry is avoided and it is less cumbersome to use; i don't know if that's happened.
in the meantime, i learned about office ally (OA), which is free.
unfortunately, right now, the exported AC billing file format is not in an acceptable OA format.
scslmd here created a file converter, which i have tried, but it does not work without several machinations.
however, OA does have online claim entry, which i have started using, and it's pretty easy, even though there is significant double entry. i have dual monitors, so i bring up the AC cms form on one screen, and enter the information into the online OA cms form on the other.
the information entered is saved, and that's a big timesaver when filling out claims either for the same insurer and/or patient.
i have asked OA to email jon their acceptable file formats, so jon can make simple fixes to the exported file to be compatible with OA, and i am waiting for this.
OA is also coming out with a free pm solution, with accounts receivable, but it's not there yet.
so, for right now, i am using OA online entry, and keeping track with their downloadable reports, and in AC on the patient account tab. AC also will print out invoices to send patients for their co-insurance payment, and i believe the invoice can be folded for a left window envelope.
the only remaining costs are for envelopes and postage.
no attachment to anyone/anything.
hope that's helpful.

I use PMG out of RIchmond Virginia. It isn't a complete program but they have written a patch that communicates with AC nearly flawlessly. I send out billings and get checks within 1.5 weeks. I too signed up for Suredata. Gordon, the president has made me promises they cant keep. Suredata is a joke. It took 6 weeks for us to see checks crawl in and we had to go into retained earnings to the tune of 50k to keep the offices running. It's now January 07 and they are sending out billings from June 06. Thankfully PMG suggested that I rebill everything I sent to suredata through them. I did and lo and behold about 70k in checks and eob's came in over the space of about a month. I got these huge mailings from my payors with duplicate EOB's coding because suredata is just getting around to billing for stuff that they had 6 weeks before PMG and never even billed until now. Suredata should be named "Sure way to go bankrupt" By the way PMG stands for Professional Management Group.

Another thing to those of you who have signed a contract with Suredata. The contract states that they have 90 days to submit billings to the payors from the time they get them from you. Like I said it's Jan 07 and I am just getting EOB's from billings I submitted to Suredata back in Jun-Aug 06. IN other words they have breached their own contract so you have no legal obligation to stay with them. I checked online to see if my payors were even receiving my billings. Imagine my surprise when I found out that months after I had filed claims, the payors had not even seen them. I called suredata and one of the girls let slip that they re-enter every single billing that is sent. SO they aren't automated at all and therefore not cost effective. So every single claim you send has to be re-entered manually into their system which, depending on their staffing levels, can take weeks. So again. They have breached their own contract with us so I talked with Gordon, ( he said he is the president) and told him to just stop doing everything. DOnt file any claims, dont send out any statements, just pretend they our offices dont even exist.

Hey Eric, this sounds interesting but when I went to Ask.com and typed in PMG I found a medical place called "Priority Mangament Group". Are these the ones you're talking about? Tell us more about these guys and what is their website and contact info? Is their software ASP type only with hollow promises of that you can take your data with you when you go? Will they sell you a working copy of their software so you can always use it as you see fit? Are they a clearing house like Officeally or a software and or Medical Managment type place or both? What are their charges and costs, terms and conditions. Are all of your clean claims coming back paid or are you losing some in the wash? Do you have access to quality reports that can help you track such things and more? Come on Jon!!!Thanks much...
Paul