Medical Billing Software

Learn about the advantages of using medical billing software to improve your revenue cycle management process.

What is Medical Billing and Coding Software?

In a nutshell, it is software to facilitate efficiency in creating, filing, tracking, and recording payments for healthcare services. Medical billing software has traditionally been a program installed on a computer or computer network. The modern trend is using cloud-based systems made available on a subscription basis. The best medical practice software (EMR or EHR software) includes functionality for medical coding, billing, and accounting.

Why Use Electronic Medical Billing Software?

Electronic medical billing software opens the door to increased productivity, lower operational costs and optimal management of the revenue billing cycle. Per Software Advice, “in 2014, we found that 88 percent of buyers (from a sample of 385) preferred cloud-based deployment, over the 12 percent who wanted on-premise.”.¹ The most profitable practices and clinics utilize cloud-based billing solutions. Web-based solutions meet the needs of health insurance billing software and direct patient billing software.

Five key advantages of web-based medical billing software include:

• Affordability: A subscription model provides the lowest cost for entry and usage. With monthly charges, there is no down payment, and no requirement to pay thousands of dollars to buy software.
• Scalability: Web-based systems allows you to add as many users as you need. This makes a web-based solution perfect for any size medical practice, clinic, or hospital.
• Productivity: Cloud-based billing software allows multiple people to work on billing in-office or remotely.
• Privacy: Online medical billing solutions do not share data with big pharma or other commercial enterprises.
• Compliance: Cloud-based software is actively maintained by the software company. Upgrades and revisions are made to maintain compliance with HIPAA and ICD standards.
• Security: Cloud-based billing solutions 100% HIPAA compliant. Hosting servers have multiple layers of security including data encryption. Servers utilize active data backup to prevent loss of information from computer failures or natural disasters.

Is Outsourcing a Better Option?

Small medical practices often lack the staff to do everything the business needs. Billing is obviously a critical part of the business and is something that can be outsourced. Many clinicians opt to devote their time and staff to patient care and outsource certain business operations functions. Med-Ops is an affordable Revenue Cycle Management service whose website states a compelling reason to outsource medical billing. Per their website, “Our experienced team of coders and collectors can turn the sometimes arduous process of medical billing into a seamless procedure so payments come more quickly and you can spend more time caring for patients — and less time worrying about collections”.²

Stand Alone Software

Lower cost medical billing software for small practices is available. A 2019 article published by Technology Advice states, “The trend in healthcare is toward integration, but standalone products are often cheaper and may feature simpler functionality that works better for smaller practices that don’t plan on purchasing an EHR and PM system in the near future.”.³ Stand-alone products such as BillFlash provide options for e-billing and generating paper billing statements. BillFlash includes functionality for secure online and in-office payments. BillFlash is cloud hosted on secure servers and meets HIPAA requirements. This patient billing software has data storage, backup, and built-in capability for data recovery.

Medical Billing Software Specialty Customization

Being able to customize (semi-customize) is valuable, but often overlooked when shopping for EMR software. The reason this matters is that your EMR, including medical billing, should represent your practice workflow. For example, the EMR and billing software needs for a pediatrician are quite different than for an anesthesiologist. With this in mind, you need to work with a vendor who understands your medical specialty. A knowledgeable software vendor offers expertise to set up a solution designed to provide the best possible user experience.

What Software is Best?

Finding the best medical billing software can be a daunting task. There are numerous billing software companies to be found online. The list of top tier software vendors is rather short. CureMD and Lytec offer excellent cloud-based solutions. In fact, SelectHub rates CureMD as their top choice and stated, “CureMD Medical Billing Service supports payer management, electronic claims tracking and submission, electronic remittances, automatic charge capture, clean claim checks, and electronic payment posting. . . . CureMD supports excellent billing and collection functionality.”⁴

---

Get accurate information and save time researching software! Contact a medical billing software specialist to learn about features, benefits and critical support services. Call MediPro at 1-800-759-1321.

FOOTNOTES & CREDITS

• ¹ Lisa Hedges, “Practice Management Software Buyer Report – 2018”, March 15, 2018, Available from SoftwareAdvice.com
• ² MedOps, “Advantages of Outsourcing Medical Billing”, March 2018, Available from MedOps
• ³ Unknown, “TechnologyAdvice Guide to Medical Billing Software”, January 2, 2019, Available from Technology Advice
• ⁴ Bergen Adair, “Best Web-Based Medical Billing Software”, August 20, 2018, Available from SelectHub