Question
When you are billing for medical equipment do you need a clearing house.
Answer
Dear Lee,
You may possibly be able to bill a small amount of medical equipment on HCFA forms and submit by mail, but Medicare is pushing to make everyone bill electronically. When you do bill electronically, you must either use a clearing house or purchase the software to bill directly to the insurance company. If you are billing a very small amount you may qualify for an exemption from electronic submission from Medicare. But we expect that in the not too distant future, electronic billing especially to Medicare will be mandatory.
Your options are:
#1 a clearing house. Look for one with little or no set up charge and without a minimum charge. Make sure they are setup with the insurance carriers you need to bill.
#2 Purchase the software. This can be much more costly. If you do a large volume it can be worth it. We bill for over 50 providers so for us, the software to submit ourselves is the best route.
#3 Use a billing service. You may want to consider outsourcing your insurance billing. A billing service should have the capability of submitting your claims electronically and it may cost you less than submitting them yourself.
Alice