I waited until my 35mm film camera died to by a digital one. I didn’t get my smartphone until I wore out my slide phone. When I bought my most recent car, I didn’t particularly care about the Bluetooth calling capability.
I admit, now that I have those things, I don’t want to do without them. 
The camera makes sure I have captured the memory perfectly. My smartphone keeps me in touch with everyone and helps me find my way to unknown places. I love being able to talk and keep my eyes safely on the road.
As we all get a new technological convenience, we eventually think “What did we do before”. Those technological advances though can be intimidating. Sometimes getting up to speed takes longer than expected and frustrates us. Once mastered, I think we tend to forget that learning curve and just enjoy our new skill/convenience.
I thought about all of this today on my way home from a doctor’s appointment. I happened to ask him if he was ready for ICD-10 as its right around the corner. He looked me straight in the eye and said “No. I took one class, but I’m not ready.” At least he didn’t say “What is ICD10.” Necessity will ensure he gets up to speed sooner or later.
The same goes for all of us that are involved in the medical billing business. Whether it’s ICD-10, new CPT codes, new practice management software training, or new just updated functionalities, I think in hindsight we tend to appreciate the change.
When I first started using Iridium Suite, it did take some adjusting to a few of the advanced functions, but wouldn’t give them up now.
Auto-adjudication of ERA files:
I was used to logging into a site to retrieve the ERA files, then manually importing them into my billing system. Many of the payments posted, but the system had no way to “understand” the complexity of information attached to secondary payments. It also could not post any type of denial.
With Iridium Suite, the EOB control panel can be programmed to decipher the incoming reason, adjustment and remark codes. These provide the information about primary payer prior payment amounts and non-payment data also. This streamlines the payment posting process immensely.
A paperless accounts receivable workflow:
When I used to manually post those denials, I had to make a paper copy that I would use to follow up on the issue. Even though Iridium Suite has the intelligence to post the denials, it never automatically “accepts” any denial. Instead they are marked in a “Needs Attention” status that users find easily when opening the Accounts Receivable module.
In addition to showing the needs attention denials, the AR module provides a full profile of all outstanding ARs and allows users to select the priority “buckets” of low, medium and high. It eliminates the need to print out pages and pages of AR listings to go through manually.
My doctor admitted he has been keeping his head in the sand about ICD-10. I suggested a couple of coding resources. Maybe you need them too: CMS.gov for free information and Coding Institute for guides to purchase. If you need ICD-10 compliant software, contact us right away to get your free Iridium Suite demo.
