The process of data entry and invoice-generation, putting bills in envelopes, mailing those envelopes, and then waiting for them to be received is a very time-consuming and labor-intensive process. While time-saving is a major benefit, the reduction of manual labor on monotonous tasks allows finance employees to focus their time on more strategic activities.
The shift from paper-based to electronic bills also inherently creates better organization and results in fewer errors. Traditional billing and payment methods relied heavily on paper and checks.
This process made organization a difficult task with no clear system of record SOR. Modern finance and accounting applications allow for digital SORs to exist for both the payer and the payee.
Billing and invoicing systems often integrate directly with payment platforms, furthering the ability to keep a clean, organized SOR. E-billing adds efficiency to multiple business units, ranging from accounting to customer service.
E-bills are generally created by the AR department, which acts as the payee, and are paid by the AP department or the payer. E-bills make it easy for accounting personnel to balance and reconcile the books and for customer service representatives to access electronic records and resolve issues.
E-bills typically look a lot like paper bills. In many cases, an electronic bill is merely a digital version of the physical bill, often presented in PDF format. E-bills generally contain all pertinent information that relates to the payment, such as date, amount, due date, and payment terms.
Fortunately , there is good news for small to mid-sized Legal Departments. A group of vendors that cater to this market segment has emerged. They offer complete legal operation solutions or stand-alone e-Billing systems. The systems are user-friendly and easy to learn. At the same time, they are built with robust financial controls and security.
Workflows are simplified and streamlined to fit the needs of smaller operations. These solutions, particularly cloud-based offerings, can be implemented within a matter of days. Finally, the new e-Billing solutions are attractively priced. The charts below illustrate some of the differences in the workflow that would be encountered when using the two types of systems.
The process takes place within the Legal Department. Law firm and Legal Department communicate directly and resolve billing issues in real-time. If the invoice has no flagged items or non-compliance issues, the in-house counsel may route the invoice directly to AP.
This has been an overall overview of what an e-Billing system and supporting guidelines can do for a Legal Department. We hope we have helped you identify focus areas and system features that will help as you search of an automated solution to streamline your legal invoicing process.
A comprehensive guide for In-house Counsel looking for legal billing solution. What is e-Billing? Reprinted with permission. An e-Billing system can handle invoices from all these sources. How Does e-Billing work? Why are Billing Guidelines Important? The success of an e-Billing system hinges on thoughtful, well-designed guidelines They must be published in a format that outside counsel can easily follow.
Finally, there must be a meeting of the minds between the Legal Department and the law firm, agreeing that the guidelines are acceptable and achievable. It is a good practice to formalize the guidelines in the firm or matter retention letter. Examples of individual Billing Guidelines might include: Establishing maximum hourly rates — by resource type for a particular case e. For example: Draft interrogatory requests; telephone conference with Dr.
What are the Pros and Cons of Cloud vs. On-premise Solutions? Please click on the button to evaluate your needs for a e-Billing System. Needs Assessment. The page invoice. Smaller departments shied away from e-Billing because they encountered issues with the established solutions such as: Laborious and lengthy implementation.
Large Firm e-Billing Systems 3rd party process moves invoice electronically between law firm, e-Billing vendor, and client. Conclusion This has been an overall overview of what an e-Billing system and supporting guidelines can do for a Legal Department.
Contract Management. Do Legal Departments need a separate Solution? Case Management Systems for In-house Counsel. A Primer on Contract Management. Schedule Demo. Contact Us. Must See Guides. This immediately reduces the need for training, which Kareo Clinical will provide anyway as part of the package and without charging extra for.
The dashboard provides easy access for licensed users to patient appointments and records as required, along with billing and sales, and built-in analytics. There's also a patient portal which is optimized for mobile devices, so patients can easily check their appointment or prescription details from their cell phone, and there's even a video-conferencing option built-in.
Kareo Clinical also offers one of the cheapest rates among the EHR providers here, yet it doesn't demand a contract term to try or use its services, making it an inviting platform for a small practice to try.
Overall, Kareo aims for a specific market niche and by all accounts does a very good job of doing so, finding a way to balance practical needs and cost into a package that works all round.
CareCloud Charts offers a very simple and easy to use EHR that aims to provide clinical reporting and patient care tools for all sizes of practice. It provides patient information in real-time via its dashboard, with flexible reporting options and customizable templates. There's also a patient portal that allows relevant forms and checking in to be filled in.
One of the biggest selling points is that CareCloud Charts is priced according to the level of support required. While smaller or experienced teams may require little, due to the ease of use of the interface, there's a higher pricing tier in which CareCloud offer training in optimizing the system for better cost and efficiency savings.
Additionally, CareCloud's EHR also integrates with the company's general practice management system, CareCloud Central, which allows for a single clinical, administrative, and finance platform to work with. Overall, CareCloud Charts is a good middle-of-the-road solution that aims for a good balance between providing a wide range of services across the health sector, while being able to accommodate the needs of both small practices and enterprises.
There are two main versions available, with a cloud-based platform available which ensures that patient records are stored securely with regards to HIPAA compliance.
However, if you'd prefer to use your own servers there's an on-premises version available. There are hundreds of adapters available which allows the software to connect with labs, pharmacies, and various registries, as well as integration options such as for practice management systems. Of course, it also works with the iPatientCare portal and other software systems.
Overall, iPatientCare EHR aims to make its software relatively simple and easy to use, while providing all the information needed to manage patient health records, and except for a few minor niggles it does exactly that. Automates the process of creating, submitting, tracking, and processing medical insurance claims in order to collect payment from providers. Run claims through an auditing procedure before submitting them to find and correct any errors in coding.
This feature helps reduce denied or rejected claims and increase approval rates. Checks patient insurance eligibility ahead of appointments to ensure procedures and services will be covered by patient insurance. Inpatient care providers. This category of buyer includes hospitals and long-term care facilities that need to submit claims using UB forms.
This type of form typically requires a system designed for inpatient billing, although some outpatient healthcare billing software systems do have a module for UB billing. Outpatient care providers. This category is made up of the private practices that submit claims on the CMS forms. Software needs do not vary much by size of organization, although larger organizations will need a more robust, scalable medical insurance billing software program.
Specialists such as chiropractors, naturopathic doctors and mental health providers of varying designations typically see patients that pay directly via cash or credit card. Moreover, their patients typically do not submit many if any claims to insurance companies or government payers. As a result, these providers have more lightweight needs. Outsourced billing services.
These buyers are third-party companies that submit claims on behalf of providers. They are typically paid a percentage of collections by providers.
They have similar functional requirements to their respective provider clients, but may require a very broad, flexible system if they bill for clients of varying specialties or types of care. Integrated suite buyers. These buyers require billing functionality, but would rather implement one integrated suite for scheduling and EMR.
Their vendor selections are often driven by the EMR functionality, since most integrated systems are differentiated by their EMR offering, not their billing modules. Billing software is an integral part of the overall revenue cycle management process. Billing and other administrative tasks are notoriously paper-laden and cumbersome. A modern medical billing software system allows billers to be as efficient as possible at coding, submitting and following up on claims.
Moreover, staff will find that medical billing and coding software helps them code claims accurately to avoid errors. As a result, most providers find their collection rates increase when going from manually submitting claims to using medical claim software. Finally, advanced reporting tools typically provide insights that are tough to gain without a medical billing solution.
By collecting important data around claims and payers, such as which claims get rejected most often and which payers pay the slowest, providers can make data-driven decisions to improve collections. Here are common scenarios we often hear about during our phone consultations:. Transitioning from paper claims. Typically, solo or small practices are making the move from paper claims to an electronic system though that is not always the case.
They have a difficult time keeping track of patients and who owes what. They will implement medical billing software for the first time to reduce paperwork, track all data in a central place and improve efficiency overall.
Bringing billing in-house. Another common scenario, most practices choose to bring billing in house—as opposed to outsourcing to a third-party service —to cut costs, have more control of their billing and accounts receivable and get everything centrally located. Replacing antiquated software.
Many medical billing software solutions include functionality that enables HIPAA-compliant medical coding. Users can enter procedure and diagnosis codes and even look up codes online to find the correct ones. This capability allows users to file and track claims more easily and helps in the tracking of data over time. Many medical billing software solutions will also update codes automatically to ensure the accurate ones are always being used.
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