Billing for medical services is a time-consuming, and sometimes complicated, process.
With countless codes, changes in regulations, and a steady stream of new invoices to create, keeping up can be a challenge.
By integrating anesthesia medical billing software into your daily operations, staying on top of your accounts receivable isn’t a hassle.
While indeed an investment, medical billing software can pay big dividends in efficiency and accountability.
How Much Does Anesthesia Medical Billing Software Cost?
Anesthesia practices and hospitals purchase medical billing software in one of three ways:
- Buying the software and accompanying technology
- A monthly subscription with cloud-based technology
- Access to a cloud-based system
Outright purchasing medical billing software and the necessary technology, such as tablets, can run upward of $10,000.
Monthly and cloud-based subscriptions are the cheaper options. They cost between $25 and $100 a month. But beware — many medical billing software companies do make up for lost revenue by charging for services such as:
- Technical support
- Routine maintenance
- Additional training
- Software customization
These additional costs — which don’t include hardware — can wipe out any initial savings.
It’s also of note that some medical billing software providers do levy additional charges on the number of claims processed each month and the number of accounts linked to the system.
Why Use Medical Billing Software?
Whichever way you choose to integrate medical billing software into your day-to-day operations, there’s no mistaking its impacts on your bottom line.
Benefits of medical billing software include:
- Improved charge capturing
- Reduced billing errors
- Up-to-date documents
- Streamlined collection cycles
- Reduced audit risks
- Satisfied patients
Improved Charge Capturing
When paired with anesthesia EMR (electronic medical record) software, medical billing software automatically begins the billing process.
Medical services are immediately — and accurately — logged on-the-spot. There’s no need to sit down later and decipher a doctor’s chicken-scratch handwriting to determine what billable services a patient received.
Uncaptured medical charges add up. Medical professionals lose millions of dollars each year in unbilled services.
Additionally, billing software allows for quick analysis of revenue streams. Perhaps there’s a service that’s being undercharged.
Reduced Billing Errors
Medical bills can be complicated. The smallest error — be it a transposed code number or empty field — can result in an insurance company rejecting a submission. Even worse, an error can mean a patient is billed for the wrong service.
Billing software takes the guesswork out of creating and submitting an invoice. Most software pre-populates forms and only allows the proper billing codes to be entered.
In addition, medical billing software acts as another layer of review. If information is incorrect or incomplete, the software recognizes this and alerts you before submitting a billing statement.
Up-to-Date Documents
Healthcare record-keeping standards can change quickly.
Traditional paper billing is burdensome — especially when new regulations come out. Bringing paperwork into compliances often means informing your staff of the change, creating new documents, printing them out, and double-checking invoices for weeks on end.
With anesthesia medical billing software, billing procedures and documents are updated once. Those using the software are guaranteed to use the right standardized documents. What’s more, there’s no overlap between using the old documents and new ones.
Streamlined Collection Cycles
There’s nothing worse than an unpaid bill because of lags in processing. That’s essentially leaving money on the table.
Billing software automates processing invoices. Staff overseeing accounts receivable no longer need to worry about a stack of invoices piling up. As soon as an invoice is finalized, it can be sent out immediately.
As an additional benefit, billing software allows for easy tracking of unpaid bills. It can automatically send reminders, too.
Reduced Audit Risks
Every so often, federal or medical regulators may audit your practice’s finances.
Medical billing software ensures an accurate portrait of your financial dealings. Reports are also easily accessible and generated.
Satisfied Patients
While no one actually likes to receive a bill, people do appreciate receiving bills efficiently.
Billing efficiently and accurately is a reflection of your practice. As far-fetched as it may sound, providing patients with bills in a reasonable time demonstrates your professionalism and can lead to positive reviews and referrals.
Anesthesia Medical Billing Software: A Wise Investment
By accurately and efficiently charging for services, anesthesia medical billing software is an invaluable tool. Not only does it modernize billing practices, it also simplifies billing procedures across an entire operation.
Put simply, the benefits of EMR software far outweigh the cost.
Looking to simplify your anesthesia medical billing process?
Graphium can help! Learn more about our software.
