Guest Column | August 14, 2013

Top 3 Medical Billing Software Services

By Sandra Mills, contributing writer

In today’s medical industry, paper is becoming a thing of the past. In order to keep up with increasing medical costs, a rising number of patients, and rising patient demand for speedy information and billing, businesses must ensure their medical software is fully updated and optimized.

But understanding the specific advantages associated with upgrading or implementing new software isn’t always easy. Even if you’re unsure of the best choices, don’t fret. Read on for the top three ways medical businesses may utilize the latest and greatest medical software services.

1. Online Payment Automation
Most medical businesses use computers to log and store patient records, schedule appointments, and track medical supplies, but patients are rarely able to make remaining payments to their healthcare provider via the Internet. However, with new medical software service systems, medical billing and coding can be a comparative breeze. The way it works is simple. Once a patient’s insurance company has been billed, medical practices may e-mail patients for any remaining balance. Patients will then be able to view their bill online and conveniently make a payment. The patient is automatically sent a printed statement with options to pay online, by phone, by mail, or at the office if an online payment is not received. Data suggests that people are spending more online because of the Internet’s overall convenience. Why should healthcare payments be any different?

2. Streamlined Ambulance Automation
Some software companies now offer fully customizable medical billing and coding software for ambulance companies. These solutions feature a paperless work queue for any ambulance company, including features such as bi-directional HL7 interfaces, dashboard analytics, CCHIT Certified EMR, medical necessity training, and much more. Fast, efficient, and effective medical billing and coding are absolutely essential for the success of any modern ambulance service. A streamlined ambulance automation computer system will not only increase overall efficiency but it will also effectively nullify any chance of data loss.

3. Healthcare in the Cloud
With an increase in the number of patients comes rising storage costs for the myriad of records, schedules, and other assorted demographics associated with healthcare. For growing healthcare businesses, medical billing and coding simply requires too much computing power and storage to handle 100% internally. Despite claims that security and compliance issues would hinder the shift to cloud-based healthcare computing, many medical businesses are beginning to utilize the many advantage of cloud-based computing. Cloud-based computing offers these medical businesses a way to connect information and data that is typically stored in “unconnected silos.” Consolidating all of a medical business’ fragmented data stores significantly reduces inefficiency and error in information management. Once a medical business’ data is all stored in one easy to access location, patient records will become more accessible and chance of patient misinformation or disinformation is significantly reduced. The time is ripe for the medical industry to utilize cloud computing.

Fast, easy to use, efficient, inexpensive, and customizable medical billing and coding software is simply a necessity in today’s health careindustry. Thanks to a highly competitive and saturated technology market, there are tens (if not hundreds) of different medical billing and coding software companies which all offer unique packages and services to healthcare organizations and businesses. Options are always a good thing but, in order to make the right decision for a medical business, one must effectively weigh each and every viable option. Thankfully, there are a few different websites that offer quick, easy, and thorough comparison tools to obtain all the information necessary in making the right choice.

Author bio
Sandra Mills is a freelance writer who has been focusing on the healthcare industry the past few years. Sandra enjoys covering topics related to ICD-10 and software.