Technology Helps Reduce Escalating Health Care Costs
Physicians Find Savings Using Electronic Billing
BY NATASHA LEE
Staff Writer
Local private practice doctors are adapting to the wave of the future and saving a few dollars while they’re at it.
In looking for ways to reduce overhead expenses and cover rising health care costs, doctors are turning to electronic billing companies as a faster, reliable service.
A few years ago, doctors would either hire an in-house billing clerk or outsource to a company to file claims to insurance companies. Factoring in paperwork and postage, the whole process would take 30 to 90 days for reimbursement.
Electronic billing companies have reduced the turnaround time to 14 days, and electronic transmission of the claims eliminates paperwork and costly postage.
“We’re one of those companies that help other companies save money,” said Erik Marquis, owner of E-Billings Solutions, a full-service medical billing service.
Marquis and his wife, Adriana, operate the business out of their home in San Diego and work with mostly independent and small teamed chiropractors, psychologists and therapists.
According to Marquis, his service is $200 to $300 a week less than what an employee or outsource company would cost a doctor.
Besides the savings, smaller practices that are understaffed and can’t afford the costs of laborious tasks, are using electronic billing companies for services such as patient billing, collections and tracking.
Many of Marquis’ customers have turned to his business out of frustration caused by the inadequate service provided by some of the larger billing companies.
Working with a two-person company, a smaller medical practice can get the personal attention it’s seeking.
“It’s a people business , if the doctors come to trust us with their revenue, then they’ll hire us,” he said.
“I would not go back to the old way,” said Dr. Joan Friedson, a local psychiatrist and E-Billings’ client.
Friedson approached the company after her outsource person went on maternity leave. She’s found the service to go beyond just reducing her expenses, but also more efficient.
“There’s not as many hassles, and it expedites the process,” she said.
The latest technology is allowing doctors to sign, seal and deliver claims to insurance companies , all at the palm of their hands.
CHMB Practice Management Services, a San Diego-based billing service, is one such company embracing these new tools, including Palm Pilot data charts and electronic medical records.
Soon doctors will be able send a patient’s medical chart and file a claim , all from a hand-held Palm Pilot.
The company is aiming to provide these services by the end of the year.
“It’s about maximizing reimbursement, while minimizing exposure , and that’s what technology can do,” said Janet Boos, president of the outsourcing and consulting firm to physicians.
Electronic billing companies even experience the benefits.
Companies, such as CHMB, that service large practices no longer have to worry about postage expenses, mailing or time, Boos said.
“Fifty-five thousand claims that have to be folded and mailed monthly is not lucrative for us , to send claims electronically is a huge cost savings for our company as well,” she said.
While this type of billing service is not the newest technology, more and more practices are jumping on the bandwagon to upgrade and change their systems due to recent government regulations.
Medicare and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) Act, require practices to have software systems that restrict the access of insurance companies and healthcare providers to patient medical information. HIPAA must be implemented by 2003.
In helping its clients comply with these regulations, CHMB is working to provide its customers with the ability to log in from their home base and into its system , one that has encrypted data and firewalls for privacy and information protection.
“It’s definitely a creative way for (practices) to access information without having to purchase a $100,000 computer with the software,” Boos said.
Since practices are embracing electronic billing, medical staff might start to feel the effects trickle down in a decrease of positions and opportunities.
This may throw a damper on the industry, but it’s also leading personnel in a new direction.
Many people previously employed at offices are now starting their own billing services businesses, Marquis said.
“Perhaps some people are being affected, but that’s the nature of capitalism,” he said.
“If you don’t have the skills and ambition, you’ll fall to the bottom of the food chain.”
