There are many types of medical billing software available, so choosing the right software for your practice can be challenging. Medical Billing Software is a requirement for your practice in order to achieve meaningful use, and it can help with HIPAA compliance. However, medical billing software costs can be high, so before investing in a software, take advantage of trial versions to see which software is the best fit for your practice.
Revenue Management
A revenue management feature of medical billing software allows you to keep track of payments received and outstanding. It comes with most software because it helps improve the payment cycle of your practice. It includes accounting and payment tracking features that can help organize and quicken payment schedules.
Fast Medical Billing Coding
Medical billing software allows you and your staff to quickly find and insert billing codes, rather than having to search through paper manuals to find the right code. This greatly simplifies the medical claims preparation process.
Therefore, make sure the billing software you select has a comprehensive and automatically updating list of codes (CPT, ICD, and HSPCS). Most medical billing software vendors provide annual medical codes updates for a small fee. Also, be sure to test the software to make sure this process is easy to use. The billing codes should be easy to find and enter into the claims.
Electronic Claims Management
Submitting electronic claims can increase the speed of payments and can also reduce the number of claims rejected.
A claims management system in medical billing software can reduce time and save money during the claims process through these various features:
- The visual editing feature: allows you to create and alter insurance claims using a graphical interface, which makes it easy to add information and submit claims.
- The error correction feature reduces errors in claims by notifying you of missing information, incorrect ICD/CPT codes, incorrect insurance policy numbers, and other potential errors. This decreases the chances of your claims being rejected due to incomplete or incorrect information. It also prevents you from having to resubmit claims, which can save you a lot of time and effort.
- Claim Submission feature: allows insurance claims to be submitted online electronically. This reduces time since electronic claims can be processed within 48 hours, while paper claims can take up to 28 days. There are two main types of claim submission features of medical billing software:
- The clearinghouse system sends the claims to a clearinghouse, which then forwards the claim to insurance companies (this service costs extra).
- Direct online billing with the insurance company. This does not cost extra, but requires you to be a provider with that particular insurance company in order to do direct online billing with them.
HIPAA Compliance
Medical billing software can help your practice meet some of the HIPAA requirements related to security and privacy of medical information.
There are four main features of medical billing software that can help with HIPAA requirements:
- Data encryption: ensures that the medical billing data is secure and only viewable by authorized recipients. A 128-bit encryption is standard.
- User Authentication: ensures that medical billing is restricted to authorized users. This may include password login, limited access to restricted areas, and automatic log out for idle sessions.
- Audit trails: record all of the activity on a system. This allows administrators to view changes to records, which files were accessed, and who logged in at what time.
- Automated backups: help prevent data loss. Medical billing software with this feature will automatically backup all your important medical bills to on-site servers or to an off-site location, ensuring that you will not lose important data.
Not all software may offer these features, so make sure you understand what features are included with the medical billing software you are considering for your practice.