medical billing transcription supplier information

Owning a busy medical practice demands organization, tight schedules, and don’t forget �" plenty of time to care for every patient. In all the hustle and bustle, the very backbone of your financial well-being, medical billing, can get put on the back burner if you’re not careful. But, don’t let it get out of hand. Use the tips below to develop a steady stream of capital for your practice and keep your medical billing in check.

Organize your Medical Office

The first step to saving time and overhead costs is to get organized in the office. The office is where all patient information and billing is processed. You can’t afford to lose patient or billing information. To organize your office, be sure every paper, form and bill has a designated area or file. Be sure the employees are trained properly so they’ll know exactly where all paperwork belongs. This helps prevent lost paperwork, and benefits both your practice and the patient. A lost bill every now and then could result in hundreds or thousands of lost dollars each year!

Use Medical Billing Software

Another time-saver is sophisticated web-based medical billing software. This software is designed to make your medical billing easier and keep it organized. You can quickly retrieve records or past-due bills and claims when needed. You can enter information for insurance companies for quick access to process claims. Medical bills and records are stored at a secure online server instead of on your computer’s hard drive. You can access the records from anywhere twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

EMR (Electronic Medical Records)

Some web-based medical billing software includes an EMR, or electronic medical records, feature that enables you to file medical histories on each patient, scan related images for each medical record, and even dictate information for a transcriber to access from another computer. The EMR feature works through online technology, making it easy to outsource jobs such as medical transcription, medical billing, etc.

Use a Medical Billing Service

You may choose to outsource your billing needs by using professional medical billing services. Companies that offer medical billing services usually will provide the necessary medical billing software, training and staff to get the job done �" saving you many future headaches! Once you have the software in place, it’s just a matter of entering information into a computer, and the medical billing company handles the rest. They keep your medical billing and claims organized, so you don’t have to worry with it. You are able to concentrate on treating patients and keeping other pertinent office functions in operation.

Most medical billing companies today will provide medical billing software and training on how to work with the software to help make the process easy for you and your employees. For example, if the medical billing software is designed to be integrated with Microsoft Office, you might receive a video or materials for yourself and employees with the necessary Microsoft Office training.

Whether you choose to do your own billing with web-based medical billing software or use medical billing services, follow the tips above to create a smooth-running office and watch your profits soar!

The medical transcription field continues to grow in conjunction with the demands on the health care industry. For those who are suited to this job, there are some good opportunities. But isn't it just a case of listening to the voice of a health care professional and typing up exactly what's been said? While that's the basic idea behind the medical transcriptionists' job, there are some reasons that health care professionals and facilities want to hire those trained for the job.

The terminology is one of the biggest reasons training is so vital. While you don't have to be able to name the bones in the leg, you do need to learn to recognize words like "tibia." Terminology is one of the reasons medical transcriptionists need training, and one of the points that will be taught and practiced during Medical Transcriptionist training.

But is there really a need to learn those things? After all, you can certainly stop the tape and look up any words that you don't recognize. That constant starting and stopping are the difference between an experienced transcriptionist and someone who's filling in. If you have the right training and the right real world practice provided by most medical transcription training programs, you'll find yourself able to meet the demands of the terminology.

Specialized training is one of the many options of medical transcription training, and many health care professionals who have a specialty are seeking out those people who can most accurately transcribe notes and medical details. In that case, the transcriber learns those words that apply specifically to the system, disease or other narrow focus of a particular doctor's practice. Adding those specialties make you more valuable on the marketplace.

Remember that doctors aren't the only ones who need medical transcription, and you'll find most training programs offer at least some exercises and information to prepare you for those situations. You may be called on to create exit notes for patients at a hospital. The patient is about to leave and those notes have to be legible, accurate and available now.

One point of the training is to learn to be fast and accurate in real-life situations. A busy emergency room isn't going to suddenly quiet down so that you can concentrate on transcribing a doctor's orders for a patient who is about to be released. Many medical transcription schools will put students into those noisy, busy, stressful situations with orders to transcribe. As important as it is to learn the terminology, it's also vital that you learn to listen - regardless of what's going on around you.

There are even those outside the medical field that use transcription. Though the demand for attorney transcribers isn't as big as for medical transcription, there is definitely a need in that field.

There are other points that will become part of your training. How to make use of technology, software and resources that are available to help you better accomplish your tasks as well as the best ways to handle various situations you're likely to encounter. Take a look at the courses being taught by MT schools. You may be surprised at how thoroughly you'll be prepared for a career in medical transcription.

There are so many benefits to outsourcing your medical billing, you will see changes almost immediately in your bottom line. The first benefit you will notice is your staff is much less stressed and harried when you outsource your medical billing. As a bonus, you will also realize extra monies saved in the fact you don't have to pay an employee sick leave/vacation or even a regular salary. You have no state or federal taxes and you don't have to worry about unemployment claims.

You won't have the headache of upgrading and keeping up with software to process your medical billing. Your office manager won't have to watch additional employees and you will no longer have to pay a clearinghouse for your electronic claims submissions of your medical billing. As postage has become more and more expensive, you won't have the expense of stamps or postage for your medical billing either.

When you outsource your medical billing, you won't have the headache of keeping up with specific coding changes and the books that must be purchased, one more expense gone off your bottom line. Your medical billing partner will notify you of upcoming changes your staff needs to be aware of in order to keep your medical billing running smoothly.

Your medical billing partner will handle your aging for you and do soft collections, this frees up your staff to do what they do best: service our patients and help your practice grow.

Best of all, your claims will be reimbursed in less than 2 weeks as opposed to the up to 90 days you are most likely experiencing with your current method of processing your medical billing claims.

Many potential medical billing students and medical coding students can't decide which online course to take, medical billing or medical coding. Here are some simple facts about medical coding and medical billing to help you decide.


Federal regulations and health insurance policies have contributed to the strong demand for experienced medical coders. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), health information technicians are one of the ten fastest growing allied health occupations. Even thought there are pros and cons to working in the medical coding and billing industry, it is a challenging, yet interesting career.


The medical coder and biller are compensated according to the level of training and skills and how effectively these skills are used. In large medical record departments, experienced medical coders and billers may function as section supervisors, overseeing the work of the coding, correspondence, or discharge sections. The coder usually is compensated at a higher hourly rate than a medical biller.

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) is not in favor of the rise in Medicare bulk billing, which is not a good prognosis for the health system. Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott released some alarming statistics that show the extent of bulk billing, having risen to 75% nationally.

According to Dr Kim Bulwinkel, from AMA Queensland, when doctors get poorly compensated, they would resort to seeing more patients, in order to make it a feasible option. In his words, Bulk billing is a way of institutionalizing the undervaluing of medical service.

You can't provide a good caring service, you can't provide the time to care when you have to push through a patient every six to ten minutes for eight to nine hours a day to maintain enough cash flow to support the business of a medical centre.

Billing Quality is measured in terms of timeliness and completeness of payment. The shape of the distribution curve of Accounts Receivable illustrates billing quality. For several decades, medical billing was done almost entirely on paper. However, with the advent of computers it has become possible to efficiently manage large amounts of claims. Many software companies have arisen to provide medical billing software to this particularly lucrative segment of the market.


Based on the amount negotiated by the doctor and the insurance company, the original charge is reduced. Physicians believing that their billing professional care a lot and will not be doing any mistakes is at the head of the list.Take a copy of patients Insurance card. Also a second ID. Secure sign advanced Beneficiary notice when indicated.

Medical Billing is protected through HIPPA- servers, which gives access to members that mean you and you only. Since Medical Billing Software is not very costly though. Also there is no long-term commitment for the software use.


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High costs and obsolete processes are driving US healthcare companies to offshore work. Estimated opportunity: $4.5 billion by 2008 employing about 200,000 people.



Already, over a dozen companies are either consolidating operations or have kicked off pilots in this space. The opportunity: $4.5 billion by 2008 offering employment to about 200,000 people, according to Nasscom. The companies include Apollo Health Street (AHS), iHealthcare, Paramount Healthcare, Hinduja TMT, Ajuba, Affiliated Computer Services, Cognizant Technology Solutions and Vision Healthsource.


The American Healthcare Association estimates the profitability of US hospitals fell from 6.1% six years ago to 2.8% in 2002. Forty per cent of the US hospitals make losses: for every healthcare dollar spent, 21 cents go in administration and 11 cents in fraud due to overstating of expenses. The average margins for publicly traded healthcare firms were 4.4% in 2002. For medical insurance companies, they were a thin 2%. State-owned insurer Medicare had $20 million in liabilities.


So while other BPO work - in banking, telecom, retail, utilities, financial services et al - grew by leaps and bounds, medical transcription wrote its own epitaph. However, thanks to inefficiencies in the $1.4-trillion US healthcare industry, BPO work in healthcare is set to get a new lease of life. And no, it's not medical transcription resurrected, but a whole new range of processes that fetch returns of $16-18 per person per hour at the top end. These include medical billing, disease coding, forms processing and claims adjudication.

Alpha Thought, US second largest medical billing service company with a turnover of $40 million per annum is reducing its operations in the US to only the front office- liaison with the medical profession and the scanning of documents. The entire back-end is being shifted to India.


NEW DELHI: The recent spate of anti-outsourcing outbursts in the US notwithstanding, a US medical billing major is planning to shift bulk of its back office operations to India in a phased manner. Alpha Thought, which already has about 175 live seats operating from NEPZ, Noida hopes to add another 250 people hiring 30 people per month by December 2003. This is expected to go up to 900 seats by the end 2004-05.


Meanwhile, the company’s operations in the US would be scaled down to only the front office- liaison with the medical profession and the scanning of documents. Ken Staten, Head of India Operations, stated that the company would incur savings to the tune of over 25 percent by shifting operations to India. Staten stated that his major advantage in having a center in India is the availability of manpower. "Not only is the cost lower in India, but we have also found the workforce to be more stable here than in our US operations," he added.


Alpha Thought has five centers in different states in the US and the major issue for the company is finding a stable workforce. Although, the attrition in the ITES sector in India is also very high, it is nothing like the rates in US, assures Staten. He said that the attrition rate for his center which has been in operation for the past two years is negligible because the work is basically data based.


Alpha Thought’s Noida center is in the business of providing billing services to patients on behalf of medical practitioners in the US and then processing and collecting the same on their behalf. Medical billing is a complicated procedure in the US as there is a huge premium in healthcare services, what with the insurance companies having made an aggressive foray into the domain.


Alpha Thought is the second largest billing company in the US after Per-Se Technologies with a turnover of over $40 million. The company also provides billing services to third party users.



Alpha Thought’s strategic move assumes significance in the light of the recent Shirley Turner Bill introduced in the New Jersey State Senate which seeks to ban government outsourcing jobs to places like India. Although the Bill has been put on hold for certain amendments, the Bill has started a trend among other US states. Nasscom and other industry watchers, including the US industry, believe that this is just a flash in the pan and that economic sense would over-rule patriotic feelings.


In the early 80s and the 90s, the US auto industry also had to shift their manufacturing base to cheaper destinations in order to remain competitive. Although there were protests then, it died down eventually as the economic needs prevailed.

If you need to deal with too many medical bills yourself, here is some solution for you. Decoding your hospital bill is too daunting a task. Now you may consider doing what some peeved patients are doing: Pay someone else to do it. A growing group of so-called medical billing advocates will wade through your hospital invoices for you. While still a small group, they've fought to make insurers cover out of pocket expenses and hospital overcharges, like a $12 "mucus recovery system" payment for a box of tissues in one case and a 1,004.50 toothbrush fee in another.

Work at home medical billing seems like the perfect job for you. You own a computer, you want to stay home, pick your own hours. You will even be trained and given leads to professionals that need your service. But the chances of making the money claimed are slim. Consumers don't realize what they're getting into. Newcomers to the medical billing market with no experience and no contacts in the medical field will face fierce competition in this home based business.

As the FTC alleged, most of the consumers didn't earn a dime. Not all medical billing opportunities are scams. For consumers interested in buying a medical billing home based business opportunity, the FTC offers advice: Check with the state Attorney General's office, consumer protection agency and the Better Business Bureau in your area and the area where the medical billing promoter is based to learn whether any unresolved complaints about them or the promoter are on file.

Be aware, however, that the absence of complaints doesn't necessarily mean the medical billing company is legitimate. But at least you can rule them out if there is.

• Be wary of the medical billing promoter wants to only provide a few references.
• Interview these references in person and ask for the names of their clients and a description of their operations.
• Consult an attorney, accountant or other business advisor before signing any agreement or paying any money.
• Consult with organizations for medical claims processors or medical billing home-based businesses and with local doctors.

o If the medical billing opportunity sells another company's software, check with the software company to find out whether company representatives know of any problems with the medical billing promoter.

All these things may seem like a difficult task, but real medical billing is a business. You need to treat it like one. Don’t be afraid to ask the medical billing promoter questions.

Offshore Medical Billing

Work at home medical billing seems like the perfect job for you. You own a computer, you want to stay home, pick your own hours. You will even be trained and given leads to professionals that need your service. But the chances of making the money claimed are slim. Consumers don't realize what they're getting into. Newcomers to the medical billing market with no experience and no contacts in the medical field will face fierce competition in this home based business.

As the FTC alleged, most of the consumers didn't earn a dime. Not all medical billing opportunities are scams. For consumers interested in buying a medical billing home based business opportunity, the FTC offers advice: Check with the state Attorney General's office, consumer protection agency and the Better Business Bureau in your area and the area where the medical billing promoter is based to learn whether any unresolved complaints about them or the promoter are on file.

Be aware, however, that the absence of complaints doesn't necessarily mean the medical billing company is legitimate. But at least you can rule them out if there is.

o Be wary of the medical billing promoter wants to only provide a few references.

o Interview these references in person and ask for the names of their clients and a description of their operations.

o Consult an attorney, accountant or other business advisor before signing any agreement or paying any money.

o Consult with organizations for medical claims processors or medical billing home-based businesses and with local doctors.

o If the medical billing opportunity sells another company's software, check with the software company to find out whether company representatives know of any problems with the medical billing promoter.

A study released by The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc., found that the health care industry's reliance on paper to file and pay medical claims contributes to the high cost of health care, and industry-wide adoption of electronic claims remittance processing could improve efficiency, cut costs and reduce medical billing errors.

Pittsburgh, PA (PRWEB via PR Web Direct) April 3, 2006 -- A study released by The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC), found that the health care industry's reliance on paper to file and pay medical claims contributes to the high cost of health care, and industry-wide adoption of electronic claims remittance processing could improve efficiency, cut costs and reduce medical billing errors.

The survey of executives from U.S. hospitals, health systems and insurance companies further

found that hospitals and health plans have the capability to file, process and pay medical claims electronically, but lack of standards continues to be a barrier to automation despite evidence that improved efficiency would eliminate extraneous costs and alleviate the hassles patients experience when covered claims are lost or denied.

“As consumers shoulder more of the cost of their own health care and demand greater transparency of pricing, market forces may make automated, electronic medical claims remittance processing a business imperative and competitive advantage,” said Paula Fryland, manager of PNC’s national health care group.

PNC conducted the e-Health survey to benchmark the current state of electronic claims remittance processing in the private health system, and to identify barriers to and opportunities for industry-wide adoption. Highlights of the findings include:

o 90 percent of hospital executives and 86 percent of insurance executives agreed that making the claims remittance process more efficient industry-wide would help slow the rising cost of health care.

o 85 percent of hospitals and 74 percent of insurance executives agree that the nation’s healthcare costs would actually decrease if health plans were required to publicly report the efficiency/performance of their claims filing and billing processes.

o 83 percent of insurance company executives agree that health plans should have to disclose information about the payment processes in the context of how these costs ultimately affect healthcare premiums.

o Half of hospital executives and four out of 10 insurance executives said their organizations could save at least $1 million and as much as $10 million a year if their billing and payment processes were more efficient.

o These savings could be used to improve patient care, according to 90 percent of hospital executives surveyed. Seventy-five percent said they would pass these savings directly to patients and two-thirds would use savings to provide care to more of the uninsured.

The majority of hospital and health plan executives surveyed said they consider their organization’s current billing and payment process to be highly efficient, yet the study showed there is significant room for improvement.

o On average, hospitals must submit a medical claim four times before it is paid in full. Health plans said they have to go back to providers. on average, six times to get additional information to pay a claim. Five percent of all insurance-covered medical claims are never paid.

o Nine in ten executives surveyed said they still use regular mail to send and receive claims and remittance information. Paper-based, back-up information is heavily relied on by both hospitals and health plans, particularly for payment and remittance advice.

Want a rewarding career in medical billing? It isn't hard to get the process underway. In fact, if you are truly interested in learning medical billing you can take up such studies right from your own desk at home. That's right; there are numerous online institutions that can prepare you for the online medical billing field. Learning medical billing will get you into the medical field and prepare you to work in doctor's offices.

To take on the tasks in a doctor's office and its billing department you will need to become educated. Your education will include communication skills, office management, billing, coding, insurance coding, insurance law, computer science and more. Once you have completed your education you will be in high demand as many doctors' offices are looking for individuals with skills pertaining to medical billing.


There is no excuse not to pursue your career interest. Just because you have a family and a full time job, it doesn't mean you cannot get another degree for a different field. Online institutions make it possible for you to study from home with Internet access and you can do so at your own pace - part time or fulltime, whatever is most convenient for you. Work and study around a schedule of your own devising.


Such an opportunity is not something that should be missed. You no longer have to worry about childcare, travel expenses, having a vehicle, room and board, moving to another location or any of the other common worries college student’s experience. With at home access to online classes you will be able to remain with your family while you study and you won't have to travel anywhere to do so. No traffic jams, no travel hassles, just an easy education and degree online.


Many online institutions accept financial aid so the excuse that you could not possibly afford online studies goes right out the window with all the other excuses that can be devised not to pursue your dreams. Financial aid can help you afford your online endeavors and you can get student loans that you will not have to begin repaying until six months after your graduation date. Why six months? Loan companies are willing to give students a 6-month grace period to become gainfully employed after they have earned their degree.

Medical Billing and Coding Specialists maintain patient financial accounts and arrange for the collection of payment, which is precisely what we train you to do. We teach you to handle day-to-day medical billing procedures by completing claim forms and billing insurance companies, among many things.

In order to be reimbursed for services, medical facilities must document everything done to a patient using correct medical terminology. We'll show you to achieve this by assigning proper codes to medical tests, treatments, procedures and other clinical activities

Job prospects should be very good. The fastest employment growth and a majority of the new jobs are expected in offices of physicians, due to increasing demand for detailed records, especially in large group practices.