Medical Billing Forum
Starting a Medical Billing Business => Starting Your Own Medical Billing Business => : midwifebiller September 23, 2011, 08:08:46 PM
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Craigslist strikes again! A doc on the other side of the state needs a biller who knows Medisoft. I responded and sent my resume, complete with the advantages of a remote billing service. He called me within 30 minutes and was interested, but a little hesitant about the remote part. Turns out several people came in for interviews, they had billing experience, but were not familiar with Medisoft. He let me log in to check activity so I could quote a flat fee. He called back today and said he liked what he heard and was willing to "take a chance" on a remote billing service--because he knew he wouldn't have to train us on Medisoft. Two things I was able to use, thanks to this forum:
I knew how to figure a flat fee (we have been charging a %);
I offered to log in to their system to do our work (we use a different program).
Both of these ended up being an advantage for us and we now have a new client.
Thank you to all who contribute to this forum!
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Yey for you! Congrats! Glad you shared your success. We appreciate it.
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That is great!! I am also a "new" remote biller, which means, i have no clients yet..but i was wondering, when you said he let you log in to his system, how did you do that? Just curious. thanks so much!!! :D
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Craigslist strikes again! A doc on the other side of the state needs a biller who knows Medisoft. I responded and sent my resume, complete with the advantages of a remote billing service. He called me within 30 minutes and was interested, but a little hesitant about the remote part. Turns out several people came in for interviews, they had billing experience, but were not familiar with Medisoft. He let me log in to check activity so I could quote a flat fee. He called back today and said he liked what he heard and was willing to "take a chance" on a remote billing service--because he knew he wouldn't have to train us on Medisoft. Two things I was able to use, thanks to this forum:
I knew how to figure a flat fee (we have been charging a %);
I offered to log in to their system to do our work (we use a different program).
Both of these ended up being an advantage for us and we now have a new client.
Thank you to all who contribute to this forum!
That's great... CONGRATS!!!
That is great!! I am also a "new" remote biller, which means, i have no clients yet..but i was wondering, when you said he let you log in to his system, how did you do that? Just curious. thanks so much!!! :D
In terms of marketing yourself, I don't like the term "remote biller" it doesn't do the position justice. Remote connections should be offered as a "service" or "option" within your marketing. There are many ways to connect to a provider's system remotely. Some examples are remote windows login, or other remote application software's or third party solutions such as logmein.com As long as they meet all the requirements of HIPAA these are great way for billing companies to utilize a provider's system so that they do no have to take on the added costs of a new PM software. Many billing companies make the grave mistake of not having this as an alternate solutions for provider's who do NOT want to utilize the billing companies software. Of course the billing company needs to be experienced and ready to learn on the various PM systems out there. Don't get me wrong, there are some downsides.. I've taken on clients where I just hated using their software, but the plus side is that you can ease them into a better solution along the way :)
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ruthie72--The doc uses LogMeIn to remotely log in to his office computer from home. He sent me his user name and password so that I could log in from my home office and run numbers. It actually made me nervous, because I could see (and had access to) EVERYTHING on his desktop. Of course I only logged into Medisoft and I assumed someone in his office was watching me, but I was uncomfortable with having that much access. I have asked for limited access with my own user name and password as we move forward.
PMRNC--We have one other client where we do the billing on their program. It's a terrible program! But they know it and are considering a more robust program, which is where I have offered our program.
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ruthie72--The doc uses LogMeIn to remotely log in to his office computer from home. He sent me his user name and password so that I could log in from my home office and run numbers. It actually made me nervous, because I could see (and had access to) EVERYTHING on his desktop. Of course I only logged into Medisoft and I assumed someone in his office was watching me, but I was uncomfortable with having that much access. I have asked for limited access with my own user name and password as we move forward.
HIPAA requires that you have your OWN secure login and that goes for Windows (on the host computer) as well. That is not only a HIPAA requirement but it is a part of the audit trail requirements. If you are a Billing company, it's best to have your own acct with LogMeIn and then your own unique and secure login for their host computer.
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I hadn't thought of that, but of course it would be a HIPAA requirement to have our own login and password (I need to reread those HIPAA rules). We have or are getting our own logins for each step of the way.
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Thank you all so much. You are helping me so much!!!
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COngratulations to you!!!!!! THat is wonderful news!!! :)
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Please do more than read them. Every billing company needs a FULL compliance manual and P&P in place.. protects YOU!!! The separate login is not only a HIPAA requirement but it also protects the audit trail which is critical when there is a third party involved!!
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Linda:
Do you have a sample compliance manual?
I read the compliance piece and working on my compliance manual as we speak.
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You really can't use a sample because it's something you have to not just devise, but follow and it's going to be different for everyone. You can take a look at the OIG's recommended third party compliance plan guidance but you will need to update quite a bit with it as it's from the late 90's. http://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/docs/complianceguidance/thirdparty.pdf
Basically this is your road map to compliance which you will reference when you need to, it should be with your policies and procedures as well.
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We do have a compliance manual and P&Ps. As we are new to logging in to the provider's billing program, this has not come up before. We are updating the manuals.
For those still working on their compliance manual, the link that Linda gave is the best place to go to get started.
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I took the third party guidelines and a 5 in binder (loose leaf is best so you can easily make changes, amend, etc) and created my topics first with seperator tabs, I then made a check list using the OIG guidelines and took each topic and just attacked it that way so it was less overwhelming. For my P&P I pretty much kept a diary of things I did, questions that came up, etc and put it together, I thought of this as the office bible in case god forbid I were to drop dead tomorrow. If you hired new employee's this could be a good training tool for them as well down the road.
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Linda I LOVE how your brain works! Why aren't you running a Fortune 500 company? Or better yet, training young people how to logically think problems through? So much common sense, honey you deserve a raise!!!
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Linda I LOVE how your brain works! Why aren't you running a Fortune 500 company? Or better yet, training young people how to logically think problems through? So much common sense, honey you deserve a raise!!!
LOL.. na..tell you a secret... I'm just overly anal! LOL
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That certainly is an easier way to create the compliance manual than the hair-pulling that I did!
Here is a question for all of you who log in to your provider's program to do their billing: how do you get reports to print on your computer, and not the computer in the provider's office?
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It depends on how your logging in.. the paid version of Logmein.com has print options where you setup the printer for either the host or remote computer. I have set this up in Windows remote as well but it was a ROYAL pain in the #$# . You have to also be sure your printer is remote printing capable/wireless.
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It worked!
Thanks so much. :-)
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Another thing I might not have mentioned is that having separate login also protects the audit trail, so if your ever audited or there is a simple problem to be resolved about who did what, that audit trail is intact because you can easily determine who made the error. Your audit trail IS VITAL to the practice if your ever audited!! The practice, as well as any third party billing company can be fined for not having a proper audit trail in place.