Anyone thinking about purchasing medical billing software is probably thinking about using it to do medical billing for physicians. One might think cost should be the primary determinant in making this decision, but factors such as medical specialty, report types, number of physicians and software modification are just as important in selecting the proper software.
Healthcare billing software
Specialty
The specialty of the physician for whom billing will be provided could make a difference in the type of software one might purchase. For instance, if you're doing billing for physical therapy physicians, there are statistics such as how many patients were being treated at once and which patients were Medicare patients at the time that need to be highlighted that software geared only for them might provide. General billing software will mean that a person would have to remember to enter that information without being prompted for it.
Reporting
Getting the types of reports that will help understand the accounts receivables of a physician is important for both revenue and money management. There will be reports the owner of the billing company will want to help her do her job. There will also be reports she will want to generate to provide to the physicians for whom she's doing the billing. Each software program provides different types of reports that might not present the information in the same way, or in a way that works well for the purchaser. Without information that can be readily used, reports hold little value.
Number of Physicians
If a person is only billing for four or five physicians, complex medical billing software probably wouldn't be needed. If the numbers start escalating, though, it will be important to make sure the software being used can accommodate each client. If the business grows, the owner might want to have the ability to bring in additional help, which means the software will also have to be capable of being used by more than one user. This could mean selecting software that offers more user options.
Modification
Almost no medical billing software comes perfect for every user. The software needs to be flexible enough to add fields to help enter information on the billing form, whether electronic or paper. It needs to be flexible enough to allow the user to decide which information he wants to make mandatory to protect against claims going out with missing information. It needs to be flexible enough to create different coding categories based on different insurance plans. If an owner buys software he can't modify, it limits how effective he'll be in working medical claims.
Costs
The cost of medical billing software varies from as little as $600 to as much as $20,000 for small medical billing companies. All of them will do electronic billing, since Medicare requires it as do most state Medicaid programs, so that's not an issue. There's also Web-based software that might offer some options users like. Owners need to use the criteria above as a start in deciding what they need. Then they need to look carefully at different systems to see which might best meet their needs. A system that gives an owner everything he needs but is not, for example, user friendly, wouldn't be a good choice.
Tags: medical billing, billing software, medical billing software, flexible enough, needs flexible, needs flexible enough