At this time of the year we often take the time to reflect on the things that we are thankful for in our lives.

We at Advantage Medical Billing Solutions LLC are thankful for all of you who have enriched our lives and been supportive of our company.

Each and every one of you from our clients, to their office staff, our employees, and all of our support vendors, have enriched our lives because of great people you are.  You make up the success of our company.  We don’t often get the chance to express our gratitude and thank you for all that you have done.

We wish all of you and your families a Very Happy Thanksgiving and we look forward to working with all of you in 2015!

Thank you!

As a Billing Service that serves the NE area we have the pleasure of serving the Naturopathic community for their billing and technology needs. And although it has been challenging to pave this way, we believe in what this specialty does and feel strongly that Americans need to be educated to take responsibility for their own health to insure the quality of theirs and their families’ futures. After all “Everything in life starts and ends with your health.”

Insurance coverage for naturopathic doctors is coming into its time. As the country continues to debate about the Affordable Care Act, the naturopathic specialty is working to set the stage for when our healthcare system transforms from treating and paying for care after illness has occurred to, keeping you healthy and aware so illnesses don’t happen in the first place. Long term health and quality of life starts with awareness. Naturopathic doctors are making their patients aware of the right choices from life style to food choices, diet, exercise, and supplementation. Naturopathic doctors are working alongside with the patient’s medical doctors to insure continuity of care as well.

Leading the way for insurance coverage were Connecticut, Washington, Oregon and Vermont. Following soon behind were Montana and New Hampshire, and we are now starting to see the same in Maine and Hawaii as well. Naturopathic medicine is showing evidence of the effectiveness and long term cost savings that this treatment model provides.

While many insurances are now enrolling ND’s (naturopathic doctors), Medicare continues to eliminate ND’s  from the list of specialties are allowed to participate in Medicare. Many patients now seeing ND’s as their PCP will have to end that relationship when they turn 65 or pay out of pocket to continue their care. The word needs to get out that naturopathic medicine helps to reduce healthcare costs in the long run. Once Medicare gets on board everyone else will follow, Medicare is already trending in that direction with its addition of many covered routine and preventive services.

The long term goal should be reduced healthcare costs through quality and effectiveness of care, self care and education.   All medical specialties have the same goal and we see everyday how hard each and every one of our clients are working to achieve this goal one patient at a time and we are working right alongside them because we have the same goal and believe in what they are doing.

   Please feel free to call on us at any time if you feel we can help you achieve your goals!

                      

An evening by the sea, a gala cocktail party to support breast cancer
patients in the greater seacoast area will be held at Wentworth By The
Sea Country Club on August 17, 2014 at 6 PM. Advantage Medical
Billing Solutions LLC is a sponsor for this great event and we look
forward to seeing you there!! If your interested you can obtain tickets
at the link below. Proceeds will benefit My Breast Cancer Support.
Thank you!! http://www.mybreastcancersupport.org/sea/tickets.htm

 

Try to collect more than just the copay at the time of service.  Collecting the copay has become routine for most practices, but collecting past due payments, deductibles, and coinsurances or non covered services is a bit more challenging. Discipline and procedure at the front end of the revenue cycle is key.  Taking a little time to find out about high deductible/coinsurance plans up front is much less costly than trying to collect it after the service has been provided.  Keep an alpha list of patients with their balances at the front desk and review it daily against patients that may be coming in or patients calling in for appointments and ask them for payment.  Most of them are aware they have a balance and why because they have been receiving a bill from your office, but due to busy lives and financial issues they haven’t addressed it.  You may be surprised at how many patients will agree to pay at least part of what they owe or are willing to set up a payment plan. 

Have a claim denial strategy.  Be aware of the most common reasons claims may deny in your practice.  It could be referrals, or maybe the patient wasn’t eligible on the date of service.  Whatever the common reasons are, have a strategy in place that will eliminate the majority of them. 

Keep an eye on the reimbursement of your most commonly billed CPT’s, make sure you are being reimbursed what your contracted rates are for your largest payers.  Ask the biggest payers to provide you with your fee schedule for your top codes.  Many systems have contract management features and reports.  Fees can be loaded and compared.  

If you missed Part I of Stopping Revenue Leaks in your Medical Practice click here https://advantagemedicalbilling.com/2014/03/stop-revenue-leaks-in-your-medical-practice/         

I urge you to be proactive with this, just a few small changes can make a big difference in you’re A/R.    As always please contact us if we can assist you with any of your billing and software needs… 

                                                “Take Advantage” call toll free 1.877.666.5279

Since implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the challenges facing primary care doctors have multiplied. Even verifying new health care exchange coverage has become a Herculean task.  The launch of ICD-10 has been deferred for another year, but the AMA estimates it will cost $56K-$226K for a small practice to implement the new codes.

Many providers have decided that only hospitals or large health systems have the resources to get through this next hurdle.  Many have closed their private practices for the security of the large hospitals and what they can offer.   Hospitals face pressure to downsize, eliminate excess beds, lay off personnel or implement pay cuts when faced with large costs to implement new systems and regulations.   And….what happens to that physician when they don’t see the required 4 patients per hour or meet monthly and yearly quotas for revenue and patients seen?   Where has the security gone?   And what about patient care?  Isn’t that the reason the private  practice was started in the first place?  What happens to the patient in this scenario?  What happens to quality of care?  Both of these things suffer.  It’s all about hospital economics and not about the patient or quality of care.

We do not believe the private medical practice is going by way of the dinosaur.  In fact,  we are working with private medical practices everyday to help them be profitable,  keep their medical practices, and provide the quality care that they want to give their patients without the constant pressures of hospital economics.  We are ready for ICD-10 and it isn’t costing our clients hundreds of thousands of dollars to implement.  Our systems are ready, we are trained, and we are working with each client to make it easy for them to implement the codes for their specialty.  We also are working with our clients to optimize coding for each insurance company for each patient encounter by educating, and reviewing medical records to obtain maximum allowed reimbursement for all services provided to each patient.

Please give us a call if you’re concerned about your privately owned practice, we would be happy to help you in any way we can.   There is nothing better than the gratification of a your practice full of happy patients!

As always call toll free…..   1.877.666.5279 ….  and…Take Advantage