Medisoft: Medical Billing & Accounting Software for Medical Practitioners - Essay Sample

Introduction

Medisoft is medical billing and accounting software that is used by medical practitioners to record patients’ data, submit claims to insurance companies, and manage the cash received from patients (Flom, 2010). The software is based on the Windows operating system, and it presents a friendly and easy to use interface for the users. The developer, McKesson Corporation, is responsible for its regular updates that keep the software conformed to any changes in the healthcare system, insurance corporations, and the statutory (Harpole, 1998). The software comes in different versions, which cost differently depending on the requirements of the user. Medisoft is essential software that has contributed significantly to the transformation of medical billing and accounting.

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Medical Billing and Patient Accounting

The software works more or less an application that can store real-time financial data that can be processed to give meaningful interpretations that are vital in decision making. Its interface presents an amalgamation of simple icons that are used to identify the day to day tasks that are essential in the management of patient accounts. These tasks include patient co-pays, write-offs, and collections, among others.

The software allows the user to review patient receivables and their previous payments, which will help in developing payment plans. McKesson Corporation always ensures that the accounting feature is compliant with the HIPAA. HIPAA regularly monitors electronic transmissions from particular healthcare transactions for the safety of the two involved parties. It determines insurance eligibility and helps in the management of all electronic patient transactions.

Integration with Other Software

Medisoft is integrated into BillFlash, which is capable of printing emails and statements with patient data. This aspect informs the preparation of customized professional mails and invoices after one has uploaded their billing data. The application goes further to send the emails and invoices a day after they have been prepared. This aspect reduces the administrative tasks related to making mails and sending invoices. Previously, more time was consumed in the stuffing of envelopes, printing invoices, and applying sufficient postage. The software also allows one to enroll in it through Medisoft and set automatic uploads of statements and other files from Medisoft.

What Kind Of Things Do You Do In Medisoft?

When booking an appointment for a new patient, medical office assistants have to stick to the clinics’ scheduling treatments to make sure appropriate care. For many health facilities, a new patient must be given a chart number before scheduling so that several systems could communicate and transport information. Chart numbers are unique numbers that recognize an individual that might stop being offered to new patients until their info is entered on the website.

In Medisoft, a chart quantity backlinks together all of the info about a patient. The data is kept in many databases, like name, address, charges, and even insurance claims” (Flom, 2010). When a new patient calls to arrange for a scheduled appointment, a medical office assistant should collect their basic info like complete name, date of birth, contact info, the reason behind the trip, and then insurance info visit (Sanderson, 2016). Information regarding previous providers and past health backgrounds may also be required based on the healthcare facility.

When interacting with Medisoft, one needs to understand some terms. For instance, an established patient is an individual who has been examined for at least three years by the same scoop or subspecialist provider in practice. A guarantor is a person who has financial responsibility for patient billing. This person may or may not be a patient of the practice. A new patient is an individual who never received services from one of the providers within the same practice for three years period. When searching for the patient’s name, you can search using his or her last name or using the first name and chart number. The Medisoft program will automatically filter out the letter or number that does not match. Creating a new Chart Number is using eight-character patient identifies, which includes five first letters of a patient’s last name. The program also allows one to perform other functions, such as adding guarantors. One can change the patient’s number and also use social security numbers.

Additionally, a new patient’s insurance info needs to be verified before booking a scheduled appointment, “It is essential to find out whether the individual has insurance and, in that case, to get the identification number, program name, the title of the individual who’s the policyholder” (Sanderson, 2016). After the insurance is obtained, the patient’s benefits and eligibility will be confirmed with the insurance business, which is usually carried out before the individual arrives at the appointment. If a patient doesn’t have insurance, a planned method of transaction may be established with the individual before the examination.

Medical facilities typically verify the patient’s demographics or perhaps update their info when they turn up for an appointment. Patients tend to be asked to complete or probably update a patient info form, which has their private, employment, and healthcare insurance information must collect transaction for services (Sanderson, 2016). Most medical facilities require their patients to update their info periodically to ensure it’s accurate and current. Nevertheless, updates may also be produced when a patient reports something different, like a new address, telephone number, or perhaps healthcare insurance. Based on articles by advancing the company’s healthcare, “If the affected person is a returning patient, verify the health cover with the data on file before the individual’s appointment, which means you can review and correct some discrepancies (Verhovshek, 2014). Be positive reception reviews the records for legibility and accuracy. Failure to do this can result in billing as well as compliance issues.

Additionally, a medical office assistant can verify a patient’s benefits and eligibility by referring to the current insurance company paperwork or perhaps by calling a representative. If patients require referrals, the physician is going to file anyone to the insurance provider for approval. Nevertheless, “If the receptionist has conducted the insurance verification, and also the patient doesn’t have coverage, the receptionist must inform the patient that total payment is anticipated after the program. The receptionist ought to give an estimation on the charge in addition to being, if needed, reschedule the patient” (Verhovshek, 2014). Among the reasons that I can easily confirm a patient’s advantages is by calling the insurance business or even searching the device through the Eligibility Verification function in Medisoft. Most medical programs have a comparable element that allows internet inquires to some payer to be delivered from within the program. (Sanderson, 2016). This aspect can allow one to determine if the patient is looking for a referral, has a co-pay, or perhaps coinsurance.

Importance of Having Medisoft

Medisoft is one of the few software that can assist in several ways in various organizations (Flom, 2010). When thinking of the benefits when using specific software to track clients’ records and human service resources, Medisoft will be helpful when looking at history to help the client’s needs better. It helps the practitioners to give a better quality of care and also less frustration to go through the struggle of finding the records in the loop of other systems. It also helps see the kinds of medication that patients have been previously taking and those that they are currently. The applications give useful information, like organizing the client records with all the valuable information recorded in them. When using the more significant source of Information technology, you can look up all kinds of information on current medication and its benefits for various patients.

References

Flom, B. J. (2010). Mastering Medisoft. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson Education.

Harpole, G. (1998). Patient billing: Using MediSoft for Windows. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.

Sanderson, S. (2016). Computers in the medical office (9th ed.) NewYork: McGraw-Hill.

Verhovshek, J. (2014). Insurance verification and patient demographics. Advancing the Business of Healthcare. AAPC. www.aapc.com/blog/28482-insurance-verification-and-patient-demographics/

West, S. K., Turner, S., Billington, C., Johnston, R. L., & Ferris, J. D. (2010 February 01). A demonstration of the Medisoft strabismus electronic patient record. Journal of Aapos, 14(1).