Doing research for your health insurance software options can be a time consuming process, but if you don’t do your homework, you can choose the wrong billing software for your business and cause many problems in the future. The time spent on conducting thorough research is worth it.
Many leading medical billing programs allow you to register insurance claims (both electronic and paper), patient billing, planning, and also provide detailed reporting and receivables. Many medical billing programs will have options available for specific specialties, such as dentists or electronic medical records (EMR), which are becoming very popular.
As if you didn’t have enough solutions to make, you will also fall into a discussion about whether PC-based software or web-based software is better. Here are some of the pros and cons of each:
PC SOFTWARE
This is a traditional PC-based or client-based health insurance billing software that has been around for many years and is still the most widely used.
PROS:
Control. Health insurance billing software is actually on your computer, so if a software company goes out of business, you can still continue to billing in most cases. (Although you would not have technical support if you had problems with your software).
No monthly fees. As a rule, you will only have a reasonable annual fee and / or support fee and, possibly, an additional fee, if your health insurance billing software provider releases a newer version.
Does not depend on the Internet. Especially useful if you live in an area where there is no reliable high-speed Internet access.
MINUSES:
Big advance costs. Although the cost of health insurance billing software varies considerably, the initial investment may be thousands, and some of them are more than 10,000 US dollars.
Limited access to data. It is much more difficult for your doctors to access their data. This often requires frequent calls from doctors or their patients who need information about the insurance premium or patient balance. It also requires that you provide more weekly and / or monthly reports for your doctors.
Software installation and maintenance - you will be responsible for installing the software and any updates and patches. You will also need to manually back up data and protect data to comply with HIPAA standards.
WEB SOFTWARE
Thanks to the evolution of the Internet, you can now easily find a wide variety of medical billing programs.
PROS:
Limited Advance Payments
Easy access to data. You and your doctors can safely and securely access your records anywhere you have a computer and high-speed Internet access.
Unlimited users - most offer this feature at no extra charge.
No software to buy or install
No cost to upgrade. Most do not have additional annual or modernization costs (but you know the exercise, always check the fine print).
No server needed
Automatic backup online data
Chance to go paperless
MINUSES:
Monthly fees - Monthly fees vary significantly between ISPs, which can be expensive if you have a lot of small doctors.
Depending on the internet - if your internet service goes down, you no longer have access to your database
What do you do if they go out of business? This is a negative that you really need to carefully study. Make sure you are sure that you can still access your data anyway, if the software web provider suddenly goes out of business.
Medical billing business packages: you’ll come across companies that offer what is often called turnkey medical billing packages. They typically consist of medical application billing software combined with software training, technical support, and various levels of marketing assistance.
But buyer beware! Although these package offers are convenient and sound very attractive, they are often much higher prices than you can get by buying services separately from several sources (as described in detail on this site). You also have the risk of paying a large down payment and taking the company out of business.
No matter which option you choose, it is imperative to carefully examine each company. Do not forget the old standbys, such as the Better Business Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission. Be sure to order the demo version of each medical billing software you are considering, and also visit some of the medical billing forums to get additional ideas.
