Lytonya Johnson, CPC, CIMC, CPEDC, Precise Medical Billing Service: We’ve been with Kareo for six years, and I can honestly say it was one of the best business decisions we’ve ever made.
When you’ve spent your entire career in medical billing, you learn to appreciate tools that streamline the process and help you maximize reimbursement. During her 25 years in the medical billing industry, Lytonya Johnson has worked both sides of the claims game: she started billing in a medical practice when she was a teenager, and worked for two large insurance carriers processing claims and conducting utilization review. She’s managed a multi-specialty medical practice and ambulatory surgery center, served as the National Operations Manager for an Oncology billing service that serviced over 25 clients in multiple states, and then finally started her own medical billing business. That was nearly 14 years ago, and today she specializes in working with solo and small group practices in such diverse specialties as family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics and community mental health. To say she has used a number of software programs to handle billing over the years would be an understatement.
“I have worked on several different medical billing softwares, from low-end to very high-end,” Lytonya states before listing half a dozen different programs. “I realized six years ago the system I was using was antiquated, and that I needed something different.” A promotional mailer from Kareo caught her eye, and she decided to investigate by taking the online demo. She immediately found plenty to like.
“Kareo was very user-friendly and since it is Internet-based, there’s no hardware or software to maintain or update. That was a key selling point for me. Because we don’t house software in office anymore, there’s no need for daily or monthly back-ups or upgrades. And I can’t remember a time in six years where we’ve had any downtime or couldn’t access the software. I can honestly say that moving to Kareo was one of the best business decisions we’ve ever made."
Affordability was—and continues to be--another key decision point for Lytonya. “Kareo had all the features of higher-end expensive products without the cost or the contracts. I also like the pricing flexibility because it allows us to select the package that best suits the need of the particular client we’re working with at the time.”
Kareo’s software-as-a-service model offers a compelling selling point that Lytonya uses when negotiating with potential clients. “We can offer our clients 24/7 ability to log into their databases anywhere they have internet access. That level of transparency between our office and theirs is very appealing to them,” she says. With Kareo, Lytonya can also offer reporting capabilities that enable providers to keep abreast of their productivity on a monthly basis and compare them to any period they choose. “The automated monthly performance report gives them a quick snapshot of encounters, charges, days in AR and more in one single report. We’ve gotten lots of compliments on that one.”
Even after six years, Lytonya still finds features to like about Kareo. “Patient statements are handled electronically and sent with the click of a button. They are easy to read and understand, so we get very few patient phone calls—a real timesaver. The address scrubber feature checks the validity of the address on a patient statement and verifies it against the US Postal service database to see if it needs to be updated. If so, it will automatically update it on the statement and then send you a notification so you can update it in the Kareo database with a simple push of a button.”
Finally, Lytonya gives high marks to the online training videos and Kareo support staff. “I’ve always found them to be friendly, helpful and very knowledgeable,” she states. When bringing on new externs who are learning medical billing, Lytonya finds Kareo’s training resources save her a great deal of time in getting them up to speed on the software.
“Those are my two cents’ worth on the value of Kareo,” Lytonya declares. “It you are thinking of switching to Kareo, those two cents will save you lots of dollars in the long term and allow you to provide cost-effective services that turn your clients into raving fans.”