Archive for category Medical Billing
What Is Medical Billing?
Medical Billing has turned around in a big way nowadays. There was a time when the patient used to go to doctor, get the treatment for any ailment and pay the doctor’s bill. Until few years back, medical insurance was significantly complicated; it was a rare event, the doctor had to raise the paper bill towards his treatment charges and submit it to the private, Medicare or Medicaid insurance provider. We are much aware of the fact that such paper bills could get lost very easily. Anyways, those days are history now, yet there are a few doctors who still believe in the orthodox procedures and use paper bills for their treatment charges. Most of the doctors have today started using the latest technologies and begun raising electronic Medical Bills to their patients for the treatments provided by them.
Electronic Medical Billing is a paperless billing process; wherein the bill is printed out after making the entries related to the patient’s treatment in the computer system and handed over to the patient by his doctor. Such electronic Medical Billing incorporates all the related information like, the insurance provider’s data, your detailed treatment charges, medicines and other incidental expenses incurred by the clinic while extending your treatments. All these information are essential for claiming the medical expenses incurred by the clinic, from the patient’s medical insurance providers. Read the rest of this entry »
Medical Billing Terms and Medical Coding Terminology
Those in medical billing and coding careers have a terminology of unique terms and abbreviations. Below are some of the more frequently used Medical Billing terms and acronyms. Also included is some medical coding terminology.
Aging – Refers to the unpaid insurance claims or patient balances that are due past 30 days. Most medical billing software’s have the ability to generate a separate report for insurance aging and patient aging. These reports typically list balances by 30, 60, 90, and 120 day increments.
Appeal – When an insurance plan does not pay for treatment, an appeal (either by the provider or patient) is the process of formally objecting this judgment. The insurer may require additional documentation.
Applied to Deductible – Typically seen on the patient statement. This is the amount of the charges, determined by the patients insurance plan, the patient owes the provider. Many plans have a maximum annual deductible that once met is then covered by the insurance provider.
Assignment of Benefits – Insurance payments that are paid to the doctor or hospital for a patients treatment. Read the rest of this entry »
What is Medical Billing Software & Who Are Qualified Medical Billers?
Few people today realize how complex the process of accurate medical billing has become. This has created a flood of new medical billing services and new medical billing software solutions. Not surprisingly, medical billing software scams abound.
It is critical therefore that both health care providers and those looking for employment as medical billing workers understand the advantages and disadvantages of various types of medical billing software and what it takes to become a qualified medical biller.
Medical Billing Is Hard!
If anyone thinks that processing medical claims is hard and confusing now — just wait, it’s about to get worse.
With the anticipated growth in Medicaid and payments linked to outcomes (because of health care reform), plus the coming huge expansion of diagnosis codes (from 14,000 ICD-9 codes to over 100,000 ICD-10 codes), the complexity is only growing – and at an accelerating pace.
Fortunately, sophisticated medical billing software exists to help health care providers automate and manage data. The danger, however, is that the software systems that have been developed in response to an increasingly staggeringly complex medical billing process have become themselves increasingly complex, and this has created a situation that is ripe for misusing these tools to not only accidentally over-reimburse but to submit false claims-with the attendant risks and penalties. Read the rest of this entry »
