Kareo recently released the August issue of our monthly e-newsletter, Getting Paid, and it featured a variety of articles you will want to review in order to improve your medical billing results. Also, be sure to subscribe to the newsletter so you receive it in your inbox automatically. The articles featured included:
Five Ways NOT to Manage Your Medical Billing
By Sara M. Larch, MSHA, FACMPE
We all love a “Top 10” list, whether it is on the David Letterman show or on YouTube. For this article, let’s explore each of the “Five ways NOT to manage your medical billing,” starting with… Read More
Medical Billing Advisory: Hold Those Hospital Charges!
By Betsy Nicoletti, M.S., CPC
It seems like heresy: hold charges? Isn’t it the best practice to post charges on the day they were provided and to submit those claims frequently? For most services, yes. But, for hospital services there are good reasons to hold claims until after the patient is discharged… Read More
Complimentary Webinar: Everything You Need to Know About Maximizing Patient Collections
Thursday, August 25, 2011
1:00 PM EDT/10:00 AM PDT
Speaker: Elizabeth W. Woodcock, MBA, FACMPE, CPC
In the era of consumer-directed health care, more financial responsibility is in the hands of the patient — and it’s up to you to collect from them. Industry research reveals that more than 80 percent of self-pay bills are never collected, and more than 50 percent of patient responsibility after insurance ends up as bad debt as well. Join speaker Elizabeth Woodcock for this webinar to prevent bad debt from sinking your practice into real debt. You will learn how to:
• Recognize how pre-visit processes can improve collections - and customer service – and how to structure them
• Increase time of service collections and eliminate billing altogether
• Improve patient collections after the service is provided
• Hold your collection agency accountable and improve your results
• And much more
Register Now!
Best Practices: How to Hire the Right Billing Team for Your Practice
By Judy Capko
Physicians and managers dread the day an employee says she will be leaving the practice. There are just so many challenges to think about: How long will it take to find a replacement, can I find a competent person… Judy Capko offers tips and sample interview questions… Read More
ICD-10 Training Camp: Dissecting the 2011 ICD-10-CM Official Guidelines for Coding and Reporting
By Nancy Maguire, ACS, PCS, FCS, HCS-D, CRT
The official 2011 guidelines for coding and reporting ICD-10 diagnosis codes are a set of rules giving guidance on how to code encounters using official conventions, notes, and sequencing priority… Read More
Join Us for a Kareo Demo Webinar: How to Streamline Your Medical Billing
You are invited to join us for a free demo webinar on August 11 or August 30 to learn how Kareo medical billing software will make medical billing easy for you as you improve your profitability. You’ll hear how you can… Read More
Case Study
“Now that we have Kareo, I don’t have to worry about the money coming in. I can go home and not be so stressed out!”
Paula Ponthieux, The Therapy Center of Avoyelles
As the office manager of a busy physical therapy practice, Paula Ponthieux has a lot on her plate. The last thing she needs to worry about is cash flow and claim denials… Read More
Case Study
“I can honestly say Kareo was one of the best business decisions we’ve ever made.”
Lytonya Johnson, CPC, CIMC, CPEDC, Precise Medical Billing Service
When you’ve spent your entire career in medical billing, you learn to appreciate tools that streamline the process and help you maximize reimbursement… Read More
Billing Tip of the Month
Fast Method for Checking Eligibility in Kareo
Melissa England, Complete Balance Solutions Institute for Rehab
For eligibility checks, most people take the hard route and go into the patient and their case to check the eligibility by each insurance company, going into each separate insurance company. I’ve found a much easier route to this… Read More
Top News and Ideas from Industry
How Debt Deal Could Squeeze Medicare Pay Even More
Charles Fiegl, Amednews, Aug. 8, 2011
The last-minute agreement that lawmakers and the White House reached to avoid a default on the nation’s debt also considerably raises the stakes for physicians pushing for congressional action on Medicare payment before the end of the year. The debt measure President Obama signed into law on Aug. 2 does not address the sustainable growth rate formula that is set to slash doctor pay by 29.5% on Jan. 1, 2012… Read More
New Interest Rate for Medicare Overpayments/Underpayments
AAPC News, July 29, 2011
Providers and suppliers of health care services and supplies to Medicare beneficiaries will pay contractors more in interest for unrecouped overpayments and delinquent underpayments in this third quarter. The Treasury Department recently notified the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) that the private consumer rate has changed… Read More
Revised Medicare Forms Ask Doctors If They Accept New Patients
Charles Fiegl, Amednews, July 25, 2011
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in July added the question “Do you accept new Medicare patients?” to its enrollment forms for health care professionals. Physicians and nonphysician practitioners must complete applications — and answer yes or no to the new question — when enrolling in the Medicare program or updating their enrollment information… Read More
California Patients Can Sue If Personal Data Are Released During Billing Disputes
Alicia Gallegos, Amednews, July 11, 2011
The Supreme Court of California has ruled that patients can sue doctors, debt collectors and others who disclose their medical information to credit agencies during billing disputes. The ruling exposes California physicians to more lawsuits and hinders their ability to collect outstanding bills, said an attorney involved in the case… Read More
CMS Proposes 2012 Payment Policy and Rate Changes
AAPC News, July 15, 2011
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ran a triple play on July 1, issuing proposed rules that will affect physicians, hospital outpatient departments (HOPD), ambulatory surgical centers (ASC), and suppliers of renal dialysis services in the upcoming year. Most notable in all three proposed rules are the updates to payment policies and rates for 2012… Read More
CMS Issues ICD-9-CM Code Additions, Revisions
Rob Kurtz, Becker’s ASC Review, July 27, 2011
CMS has issued updates to ICD-9-CM codes, which includes the addition of new codes and revision of existing codes. The changes are effective Oct. 1… Read More
Physician Alignment Presents Biggest Obstacle to ACOs
Pamela Lewis Dolan, Amednews, July 25, 2011
The biggest challenge to forming an accountable care organization is physician alignment, according to one survey. It’s such a big challenge, 40% of organizations not forming ACOs point to that as a reason why… Read More
A Perspective On: Cloud-Based Modular EHRs Offer Advantages for Meaningful Use
John Haughton, MD, MS, Chief Medical Information Officer, Covisint, July 26, 2011
Physicians who seek to obtain government incentives for “meaningful use” of electronic health records have two options: 1) They can use a legacy client-server EHR that has all of the components associated with Meaningful Use; or 2) They can utilize “best-of-breed” EHR modules (often secure-cloud based without up-front hardware costs) that are certified to meet Meaningful Use functional criteria… Read More
We hope you enjoy this issue of the newsletter. Be sure to subscribe now to the newsletter in order to insure you receive future issues.
Felton Qualey said:
Hi! I can have sworn I’ve been to the website before but right after going through some of the article I realized it is new to me. Anyway, I’m definitely pleased I located it and I will be bookmarking and checking back again often!
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - 7:31 am
Kathy McCoy said:
Hi, Felton! We’re glad you found the blog useful. Please feel free to let us know what topics you’d like us to cover in future.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 - 2:00 pm