Regardless of what industry pundits say, opening a medical
practice can be both very rewarding and very lucrative. Of
course, as with any business, medical offices have their own
specific financial challenges. One of the biggest challenges for
medical practices of all sizes is adjusting to the long payment
cycles of private insurance providers and Medicare/Medicaid. It
is not uncommon for bills to insurance companies to take up to
120 days to pay. This slow payment cycle wreaks havoc in the
office’s cash flow, forcing the medical office to carry the
costs of doing business – paying rent, equipment leases and
office staff – while waiting to get paid. This can be
prohibitively expensive and prevent the office from growing and
hiring additional staff. At its worst, it can threaten the very
existence of the medical practice.

However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is a
financing tool that lets you capitalize on your slow paying
insurance companies and turn their slow payments into immediate
payments. The solution is to factor your medical receivables.

How does medical receivables factoring work?

Medica
l receivables factoring (or medica
l factoring for short) is a financing tool that allows you
to turn slow paying invoices into actual cash, by selling them
to a medica
l factoring company. The medical factoring company pays you
for them and waits to be paid by the insurance companies. It
eliminates the slow payment cycle, reducing the payment time
from 90 days to two days. This provides the medical office with
the necessary funds to meet expenses, such as paying rent and
staff. It also frees up capital to grow the business into new
areas.

The medica
l factoring process is fairly simple. Once a factoring
arrangement is established, your office sends its weekly
receivables to the factoring company for immediate financing.
The factoring company will calculate the actual amount paid by
insurance companies (called the net collectibles) and advance
you up to 80% of that amount. The recentraling 20% is called the
reserve, and is used to settle billing discrepancies. Once the
insurance company pays the medical bill, the recardinaling 20% is
rebated, less the financing fee. The financing fee varies based
on how long the invoices were financed.

Although qualifying for factoring is relatively simple, most
financing companies will only work with medical offices that
have net collectibles of at least $50,000. Terms usually get
better as the practice grows. Medical practices, testing centers
and medical supply companies that have over $200,000 a month in
net collectibles are in the optimum position to get the highest terms.
This is because insurance payment processing can be very complex
and there are a number of efficiencies that can be realized with
high volumes.

Advantages of medical office factoring

Medica
l office factoring has some advantages over other financial
products. The most important is that the financing is recurring
and happens every time you invoice an insurance company. This
makes it a cash on demand product. As opposed to loans and lines
of credit, the factoring line has flexible limits. As a matter
of fact, the limits are based on your ability to invoice, making
it an ideal growth tool. Lastly, doctor
office factoring is easy to qualify for and the personal
credit of the practice owners is usually not involved in the
financing decision.

Invoice Factoring Group

Invoice Factoring
Group is a factoring
company and can provide you with a free medica
l factoring or medica
l receivables factoring quote. Marco Terry, the president,
can be reached at (866) 730 1922.

About the author:

None

Medical billing company thrivesEl Paso Times, TX – Nov 10, 2006. The company is celebrating 20 years in business. The company does medical billing and collections. . The company does medical billing and collections. .

For more information: Billing Medical Scheduling Software

Tags: Medical Billing

The internet has created a new business model for the smaller
medical practice, specialty clinic and medical service (e.g.
dermatologist, plastic surgeon, physical therapist,
psychologist, et. al). More and increased, patients are looking to
communicate with their healthcare providers as they do in their
personal and business lives – via email.

Email as a communication solution for the smaller clinic can be
a time-saving resource. It can replace the many phone calls and
postal mailings, adding a financial benefit to the smaller
clinic.

Does email eliminate the office visit? No nothing can replace
the personal face-to-face office visit, but email can be an
additional tool clinicians can implement to streamline their
practice.

Some healthcare practitioners do however feel that emailing
their patients equates to working for free, but some clinics
have already adopted charging for email consultations.

At some practices, patients pay a flat rate from $100 to several
hundred dollars per year for this type of service. Harvard
professor of medicine Dr. Daniel Z Sands, a proponent to a
digital clinic, stated “I think it’s reasonable to assume that
if lawyers and accountants charge for time, then physicians
should too. (1)”

Sustainability of Health Information Technology is also on the
government’s radar. As part of the President’s mandate to move
the medical field towards a digital clinical setting within the
next ten years (2). The National Coordinator for Health IT, Dr.
David Brailer, noted the value-added benefit of investing in
Healthcare IT:

Information technology supports treatment choices for consumers
and enables better and extra cost-able care. Health IT not
only adds value to the way people lead their lives, but it gets
massed out of our investment in healthcare overall. (3)

It is possible for clinics to shift towards a digital medical
office while recrucialing financially solid. Rights management
software tools have become a reality for the small and medium
business office (4). Small Business Rights Management (SBRM)
reflects a shift Rights Management software tools.

SBRM solutions provide clinics and practices of a smaller scale
an equal level of user rights management and encryption
previously available to larger medical organizations (e.g. state
hospitals, large research facilities, university medical
networks, etc.).

With any medical advance, the side affects of a solution or
cure, must also be considered. While email is beneficial
time-wise and financially, there are also cons to using this
tool – many HIPAA related. According to the Health Privacy
Project’s 2005 study, 70% of Americans are concerned that
personal health information (PHI) could be disclosed as a result
of weak data security (5)

Currently, healthcare organizations are required to provide a
disclosure statement when communication is sent to their
patients. A sample of a healthcare professional’s email
disclosure statement may read like this:

Client information gathered by [Clinic or Organization's Name]
is protected by Federal Law. If this communication contains any
client information, including information which would identify a
client, you are prohibited from redisclosing it to any person or
organization in any manner, and you are required to centraltain it
as confidential. Failure to do so is punishable by civil and
criminal penalties. If such information has reached you in
error, please contact [Clinic or Organization's Name]
contact@emailaddress.com

With the advent of phishing, malware, and spyware, the
unintended recipient could possibly spread a patients PHI like a
virus; using or selling data to any number of damaging sites.

Protecting a patient’s PHI is an ingrained concept within the
medical profession. Laws and government mandates are take this
notion a step further, medical facilities not compliant to
protecting their patient’s PHI face stiff penalties under HIPAA.
PHI includes and is not limited to:

* Patient’s address, phone number

* Treating Hospital/Clinic number assigned the patient

* Patient’s date of birth/ SSN

* Patients legal next of kin/guardian and their telephone number

* Patient’s insurance information (pre-certification/ DSHS/
Medicare)

* Anticipated Admission date and time<

While there are some drawbacks to email, patients want the
option of emailing their doctor, pharmacist, therapist or
clinic. “People are often fresh comfortable talking to a computer
than they are to a doctor,” said Dr. Delbanco, a professor of
medicine at the Harvard Medical School and the lead author of an
article on doctors and e-mail in the New England Journal of
Medicine (6).

Dealing with HIPAA compliance issues can often be frustrating to
the small clinical practice. SBRM solutions bridge the gap
between staying current with healthcare industry regulations and
keeping a small physician practice open. Patient/client
information, private communiqué regarding diagnosis/treatment,
and medical billing can stay discreet, only the intended
recipient will see this information.

With SBRM solutions; clinics don’t have to worry that their
email content breaks the Hippocratic Oath’s creed of
confidentiality by revealing patient’s PHI. Healthcare providers
can recardinal both respectful and compliant under HIPAA regarding
the patient privacy.

- – - – - – - – - -

End Notes:

1.) Dr. Daniel Z. Sands as quoted in Liz Kowalczyk’s article “Is
E-Mailing the Future of Doctor-Patient Relations?” The Boston
Globe, D2, April 27, 2004, Lexis Nexus -
http://www.lexisnexus.com

2.) United States Department of Health and Human Services,
“Secretary Leavitt Takes New Steps to Advance Health IT,” Press
Release on HHS website, June 6, 2005, http://www.os.dhhs.gov/

3.) “Remarks by David Brailer, MD PhD National Coordinator for
Health Information Technology HIMSS 2005″ February 17, 2005,
http://www.himss.org

4.) SBRM on Wikipedia -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Business_Rights_Management

5.) “Majority of Americans Have Privacy Concerns about
Electronic Medical Record System,” Health Privacy Project
(www.heathprivacy.org):

6.) Anahad O’Connor, “Take Two Aspirin, E-Mail Me Tomorrow,” The
New York Times, Section F; Column 5; Health & Fitness; 7., 30
September 2005, Lexis Nexis – http://www.lexisnexus.com

About the author:

Ms. Veniegas is an alumni of the University of
Washington Marilee joined the Marketing team at target="_blank">Essential Security Software, Inc. in 2005.
She also serves as one of the ESS site editors for “I Want My
ESS!”

ID theft scam used medical billing infoThe News Journal, DE – Nov 18, 2006. the pair’s crimes were particularly troubling since they used medical records to . people from computers at the New Castle-based Hospital Billing & Collection .

For more information: Medical Billing Software

Tags: Medical Billing

Medical Billing Home-Based Business: Success in Marketing and Consulting
an anthology of “The Electronic Biller” newsletter articles about marketing and consulting for the medical billing business.

Medical Billing Mix-UpKUTV, UT – Oct 17, 2006. LAKE CITY How would you like to be hounded by a medical bill that is not even yours? A Layton woman says she fought it, but when the billing departments for .

For more information: Billing Dme Medical Software

Tags: Medical Billing

Nationally Certified Billing Expert Joins MediSys Advisory BoardYahoo! News (press release) – 22 hours ago. Sheets: MDYS – News) announced today that Rene F. Gomez, President and founder of Gomez Medical Billing, has accepted a seat on the MediSys Advisory Board. .

For more information: Medical Billing Software Prices

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This articles purpose is to allow women and men to take an
in-depth look into avoiding the scams associated with starting a
home based medical billing business.

In 1999-2000 several entrepreneurial and financial magazines
stated that medical billing was one of the top ten home based
businesses for the new millennium. While the reports were
correct it took almost 3 years before the information sunk into
the heads of those that were desperately looking for ways to
leave the nine-to-five rat race and work from home.

What the masses didn’t know was that during those two years
several so called home based medical billing support companies
were in full swing selling their wares and services to the
undereducated looking to get into this lucrative field. The
majority of the companies were well thought out scams and
because most people had no idea of what was needed to
successfully run and operate a business in this industry the
companies quickly became rich while giving nothing to the
clients in return (except for empty wallets, dashed dreams and a
lot of headaches).

Today, while the industry is still a growing field there are
several companies (usually the same ones from 2000 on but with
the same product and different names), that spend a lot of money
advertising in different venues to take further advantage of the
unsuspecting public. These companies know that the majority of
folks will not do any research before getting involved, they
make it easy for you to contact them, they have very convincing
sales reps waiting to con you out of your money and for a mere
$400 they tell you that they will supply you with everything
you’ll need to make $40-$60K per year from the comfort of your
home.

Friends, let me tell you right now that there are no companies
out there that can afford to supply all of that for $400 and
stay in business! Common sense would alert most people that this
is a scam, but because most people are so blinded by the money
making potential they don’t listen to that little person inside
that usually yells “It’s Too Good To Be True”.

How Do You Go About Avoiding The Scamsters?

1. Don’t answer those ads that you see in your favorite local
shopper magazines (Globe, Sun, Examiner, Thrifty Nickel,
PennySavers, etc.) or in some of the major daily newspapers.
They usually go something like this:

“You Can Earn $50,000+ Processing Medical Claims From Home.
No experience necessary! Call 1-800-*-* for
information.”

2. This one is usually seen on the Internet but lately it can be
found in any number of widely sold financial/entrepreneurial
magazines. These ads are placed by medical billing opportunity
vendors that want you to purchase training, software, marketing
materials, and lists of doctors as a package deal for
$4000-$9000. Now there are a handful of well known medical
billing opportunity vendors in the nation, but if you aren’t
sure who they are you must research the company in depth before
you contact them, but they do exist.

3. Watch out for what is called medical billing resellers of
well known/branded medical billing software programs that are
the most basic in design and won’t be able to support your
business for years to come. So you in turn will need to call
them back and spend further money with them to upgrade the software
(so you get taken twice). You can find these cheap pieces of
software all over the net, on Ebay and from people’s personal
websites (most of whom don’t know anything about doing medical
billing as a business).

4. Look out for software companies that also claim to be their
own clearinghouse companies. They will claim to give you
discounted clearinghouse services because you initially bought
software from them, but you will have to agree to submit your
claims exclusively through them. Again you are paying twice,
except this kind of service is an extended and drawn out milking
of your wallet and the biggest problem is what happens if the
company goes out of business? That’s right you’re stuck big-time
and you’ll have to spend a lot of money to get things back on
the right track. This is the same as putting all of your eggs in
the same basket that we’ve been hearing about since we were
young.

5. You should always research a company before you do business
with them unless you are getting a referral from a very trusted
friend. The optimum way to start your research is by going to the
BBB and doing a search for the company you are looking to do
business with. You can learn a lot about the company including
if the company has any open complaints against them from their
customers. You will also see if they have a favorable rating,
which goes toward their credibility.

6. The next thing that you should do is visit and partake in the
discussions at any one of the several medical billing forums.
These forums will become the basis of your support network and
will give you the opportunity to ask questions of established
home-based medical billing business owners. The other benefit is
that you will also meet other new medical billers that are on
the same level of getting their business started as you are, so
you know that you’re not the only one who has fears about
getting started. Once you dispel the fears then you can focus on
the topic at hand and proceed with full confidence in your
decisions.

Many people that try and start their own medical billing
business usually fail to do so because they have skipped one or
all of the aforementioned. The sad part is that they cry foul
and say that the home based medical billing industry is a scam
instead of owning up to their own faults.

The home-based medical billing industry is a great business to
start but it’s not for everybody so before you decided to get
involved I suggest that you research the industry in full and
read all the books on the topic that you can. There are several
books on the market but the majority of them are rather outdated
so they aren’t going to do much for you since the industry tends
to change quickly.

Good luck to you in all of your endeavors.

About the author:

If you are entertaining the thought or you’re just curious about
the home based medical billing field then do yourself a favor
before you do anything else and read the ebook entitled “Medical
Billing Book For Home Based Beginners” by Paul G. Hackett. Get
Your Copy At: http://medicalbillingbook.tripod.com/

Medical Billing Mix-UpKUTV, UT – Oct 17, 2006. LAKE CITY How would you like to be hounded by a medical bill that is not even yours? A Layton woman says she fought it, but when the billing departments for .

For more information: Medical Billing Software Free Download

Tags: Medical Billing

Clinic needs management upgradeTechworld.com, UK – 12 hours ago. we have been planning out an implementation of electronic medical record (EMR . The first phase was practice management, rolling out scheduling and billing to all .

For more information: Medical Insurance Billing Software

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Learn about medical factoring, a tool to finance growing medical offices.

Regardless of what industry pundits say, opening a medical practice can be both very rewarding and very lucrative. Of course, as with any business, medical offices have their own specific financial challenges. One of the biggest challenges for medical practices of all sizes is adjusting to the long payment cycles of private insurance providers and Medicare/Medicaid. It is not uncommon for bills to insurance companies to take up to 120 days to pay. This slow payment cycle wreaks havoc in the office’s cash flow, forcing the medical office to carry the costs of doing business – paying rent, equipment leases and office staff – while waiting to get paid. This can be prohibitively expensive and prevent the office from growing and hiring additional staff. At its worst, it can threaten the very existence of the medical practice.

However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is a financing tool that lets you capitalize on your slow paying insurance companies and turn their slow payments into immediate payments. The solution is to factor your medical receivables.

How does medical receivables factoring work?

Medical receivables factoring (or medical factoring for short) is a financing tool that allows you to turn slow paying invoices into actual cash, by selling them to a medical factoring company. The medical factoring company pays you for them and waits to be paid by the insurance companies. It eliminates the slow payment cycle, reducing the payment time from 90 days to two days. This provides the medical office with the necessary funds to meet expenses, such as paying rent and staff. It also frees up capital to grow the business into new areas.

The medical factoring process is fairly simple. Once a factoring arrangement is established, your office sends its weekly receivables to the factoring company for immediate financing. The factoring company will calculate the actual amount paid by insurance companies (called the net collectibles) and advance you up to 80% of that amount. The releadinging 20% is called the reserve, and is used to settle billing discrepancies. Once the insurance company pays the medical bill, the recontrollinging 20% is rebated, less the financing fee. The financing fee varies based on how long the invoices were financed.

Although qualifying for factoring is relatively simple, most financing companies will only work with medical offices that have net collectibles of at least $50,000. Terms usually get better as the practice grows. Medical practices, testing centers and medical supply companies that have over $200,000 a month in net collectibles are in the number one position to get the inimitable terms. This is because insurance payment processing can be very complex and there are a number of efficiencies that can be realized with high volumes.

Advantages of medical office factoring

Medical office factoring has some advantages over other financial products. The most important is that the financing is recurring and happens every time you invoice an insurance company. This makes it a cash on demand product. As opposed to loans and lines of credit, the factoring line has flexible limits. As a matter of fact, the limits are based on your ability to invoice, making it an ideal growth tool. Lastlyhttp://www.articlesfactory.com/pic/x.gif” alt=” border=”0″>, doctor office factoring is easy to qualify for and the personal credit of the practice owners is usually not involved in the financing decision.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Invoice Factoring Group is a factoring company and can provide you with a free medical factoring or medical receivables factoring quote. Marco Terry, the president, can be reached at (866) 730 1922.

Copyright (C) 2006. Commercial Capital LLC. All rights reserved. Article can be reprinted provided it is not modified and all links are kept live.

Trusted Medical Coding and Billing Career Guide Redesigned to .Newswire Today (press release), UK – Oct 27, 2006. the Internet in March of 2000 and its key to success is its vast array of articles, tips, and specific guidance that speaks to all medical billing and coding .

For more information: Medical Office Billing Software

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Medical Office Management and Practice Marketing Solution iMARS .Newswire Today (press release), UK – 10 hours ago. a small to medium-sized medical office. From patient information data-basing, office and procedure scheduling, digital photo archiving, and billing invoices to .

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Medical Billing : Dr. Jack Doe Primary Care Physician Full Practice Management Training Book
The Best Hands-On Medical Billing Center and Physician’s Office Training Tool. The book consits of one weeks worth of primary care physician billing. It uses real superbills, diagnosis codes, procedure codes, patient information sheets, insurance cards, daily encounter forms, and EOB’s (Explanation of Benefits).We have created an actual demo of billing from a real physicians office. The only thing that is pretend about this account is the Patient Names. You will be able to work at your own pace and get hands on experience. This will give you great confidence when scheduling appointments with physicians knowing that you can do this. It is also great for a physician’s office that needs to train a new employee on Medical Billing.

Medical Billing Mix-UpKUTV, UT – Oct 17, 2006. LAKE CITY How would you like to be hounded by a medical bill that is not even yours? A Layton woman says she fought it, but when the billing departments for .

For more information: Billing Medical Service Software

Tags: Medical Billing

Medical Billing Marketing Success: Finding Local Clients
marketing your medical billing home-based business.

Medical Billing Mix-UpKUTV, UT – Oct 17, 2006. LAKE CITY How would you like to be hounded by a medical bill that is not even yours? A Layton woman says she fought it, but when the billing departments for .

For more information: Software Medical Billing

Tags: Medical Billing