Medical Billing: Software Is Getting More Complicated

By Chin Ho


There are all different types of medical billing software that a company can use. It all depends on what establishment you are working for. In the 1990's, many medical billing software companies tried to get people to sign up for their software. They tried to make medical billing sound easy. Just buy our software and start your own business. Get doctors to work with you and make a full time income from home. Whoever bought the software from these companies were usually upset because the software was useless. Today, billing is handled a lot more differently. Today, it is important to be HIPPA compliant and have the proper software.

Medical billing in the United States is regulated in the United States by the Health Insurance Portability Act of 1996. It is amazing that we have come so far in billing in just 20 + years. It is now required that medical establishments must send patient billing electronically. There are a lot of laws that most people don't know about medical billing. Before buying any expensive software, please learn the laws around medical billing first. In this way, you can at least see for yourself that it's not as easy as the software companies want you to believe.

For starters, the software that you use must be HIPPA compliant. There are serious fines for those that do not comply with HIPPA. It is a serious offense. Please get to know more about HIPPA before deciding to become a medical biller. Next, it is important to learn what type of medical establishment you plan on working with. If you are billing for a dental office, there is customized software for that. If you plan on working for a chiropractor, it is different as well. Each practice has its own needs and therefore, customized software is often needed.

Most medical billing software today works with Windows. The billing process becomes easy and often automated. The more familiar someone is with the software, the easier it is for companies to see good progress in their billing. Make sure that the software that you buy can handle the longer codes that are being used in ICD-10. ICD-9 had shorted codes. There were only around 14,000 codes that were being used. Now there are over 100,000. That is a lot of codes and your software should be able to handle it. I recommend buying from a reputable software company that has had experience in this field for many years.

One of the most important jobs of a medical biller is to check on the benefits of the insured person. It is important to see what they are covered for. This is called a health care eligibility and benefit inquiry transaction. When you receive a response, it is called a health care eligibility and benefit response transaction. In order to do this, you need to have practice management software. Hopefully, this has given you a mini overview of medical billing software.




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