For many years I worked as a medical biller for a hospital based radiation oncology practice. Whenever I was asked what I did for a living, the most common response to the answer “medical billing” was “Wow; that must be so hard. I never understand my bills.”
Even though that is not my profession any longer, as a customer support representative for a medical billing software compan
y, I am still involved in the process. In trying to keep up with what’s happening in the billing world, I am more and more frequently seeing online articles posted on the “medical biller villains”. Even during conversations with friends or acquaintances, most people have a story to tell about a bad billing experience they or someone they know has had.
Somehow the attitude that medical billing specialists are up there with rocket scientists has turned to associating them with the likes of Ponzi schemers.
After my initial irritation on seeing the article “Don’t let medical billers cheat you” at philly.com, I was prompted to read what the author Paula L. Stillman, MD, MBA, had to say. It seemed an especially provocative title after I saw the author was a doctor. Usually the physicians and the billers are on the same side, so my curiosity was peaked even more.
As I provided the article link above, you can read all the details, but as soon as I started into her first patient billing anecdote, I recognized a familiar scenario:
The patient was billed for a service that should have been filed to their secondary insurance.
This is not something I consider a way to intentionally “cheat” the patient. More often it reflects an innocent error:
The
patient has failed to provide complete or accurate insurance coverage information.
Front offices that diligently discuss and verify the patient’s coverage prior to or on the first visit can usually avoid this problem. This is a crucial step in the front office workflow process.
Get our free white paper “Medical Office Workflow”.
The ability to verify coverage and benefits through electronic real time eligibility inquiries make this task extremely quick and painless. Iridium Suite cloud based practice management software has the RTE inquiry integrated right into their system eliminating the need for users to log into another database/website to perform this function.
Check back here next week to learn more about how to avoid billing misunderstandings and preventing the backlash of cheating allegations.
