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"The new EHR system included a Practice Management Module, and billing software! With it, I thought that I could do it all myself, and just send the claims directly."
We have heard this same story from most of our new clients, over and over and over. We hear it almost daily from practices that have bought into the claims of the software salesmen and the promises of free government money to pay for the systems. Typically, the practices have seen their revenue stream plunge to levels where they are struggling to pay their bills and meet their financial obligations to themselves and their families.
Many doctors have discovered that these new systems serve one purpose best - managing patient records, their original intent!
How many doctors have the time to read each and every bulletin from each and every insurer that they accept, wherein the insurer has made some change to its billing standards?
How many doctors have the time to read through the complicated federal regulations governing coding, billing, mandated health plan changes, and the like?
How many doctors have the time to be physician, biller, collector, and office manager?
For doctors heavily involved in the practice of medicine, few.
In order to perform in-house billing and practice management - even with the best or most expensive of systems, a practice needs to hire a biller or manager just to keep track of coding, regulatory changes, payments, rejections, and of course, patient billing and collections.
Then, of course there are the inevitable software upgrades that your vendors REQUIRE in order for you to remain compliant AND for your system to continue operating properly. Here is a sound you become familiar with - KA-CHING! That's the sound of their cash registers opening and your bankbook emptying.
So, how does this all save you money? EHR cost: $2K on up. Biller: inexperienced - $24K / experienced - $30K+. Benefits: $9,000.00 (Average U.S. cost for single person health insurance, worker's compensation costs, vacation costs, sick days.)
Now, let's toss a couple of curves into this mix. Are you adding in the costs of CMS5010 for 2011? The cost of ICD-10 in the future? The cost of postage and handling for patient statements?
How are you doing with all of this so far? Right now, you've spent at a minimum, over $40,000+ to start, and those costs continue each and every year into the future.
So, for a solo practitioner bringing in $25,000 per month in insurance payments, we would average $1,125.00 per month or $13,500.00 per year. That includes everything. No postage costs or material costs for patient statements. No cost for scrubbing claims or tracking down problems. No down time. No sick time. No benefit costs.
You save an average of $26,500.00 per year in this solo practitioner example.
We can save your practice from financial disaster in this era where new rules and regulations simply toss one iceberg after another in your path.
Contact us today!
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