Comments on: Readers Write 9/9/09

By: Al Borges MD

Al Borges MD — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 01:47:05 +0000

What clearing houses have you all found to be decent? I am currently checking out Office Ally since they are free, but I am willling to pay a decent amount for an entity that produces results…

BTW, Tom, sorry to hear about DC and Medicare rejections. If true, then you guys are really hurting, because I’m getting burned by Medicare.

By: Tom Necela DC

Tom Necela DC — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:05:27 +0000

Medicare’s claims rejection rate varies widely by profession; I work with chiropractors who unfortunately are among the leaders in claims errors. Jim Denny’s comments about the benefits of utilizing electronic clearinghouses are right on the money, if the provider uses the clearinghouse tools properly. The challenge – especially in the small provider office — seems to revolve around educating the providers and their billing staff/service on how to meaningfully use the variety of reports, tracking tools and other analytics available to them to improve their billing and revenue cycle.

By: Suzie, RN

Suzie, RN — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:54:30 +0000

Clearing houses serve as parasites adding another layer of useless beauracracy.

Denny makes meaningfully useful comments.
Assuring that a patient’s records are available is not as complicated as the HIT makers would have you believe. A library of recors is needed with unique identifier access…one click that quick.

One problem: a certain patient may not want certain records to be seen by a certain doctor.

I don’t.

By: Al Borges, MD

Al Borges, MD — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:23:00 +0000

Jim Denny’s article is right-on! The double digit claims rejection numbers are a horrific state of affairs, especially for the small medical office, like mine.

Anyone have any figures on the claims rejection rate by Medicare? I suspect it too has grown to as much as 20% or more. “Lost” claims are a real problem there.