Medical Billing Software > Medical Billing Software Reviews
Practice suite
RichardP:
Electronic claims are cheaper for the Insurance Carriers to process than paper claims. The Insurance Carriers save money on processing when Office Ally sends electronic claims to them. Therefore, it is in the interest of the Insurance Carriers to pay Office Ally part of the savings that come from processing electronic claims rather than paper claims - just to keep Office Ally in business, so that more billers can submit the cheaper electronic claims rather than the more expensive paper claims.
That is how Office Ally earns money - by offering an electronic billing platform for free, and getting paid part of the savings that accrue to the Insurance Carriers from processing the cheaper electronic claims. (Medicare does not pay Office Ally as the commercial carriers do. Therefore, if Medicare claims are greater than 50% in any given month, Office Ally charges $20.) I know this is true because I was in a meeting with the head honcho from Office Ally several years ago where he stated this.
I am guessing that Practice Suite makes their money the same way: The Insurance Carriers pay them. But Practice Suite is double-dipping; they get paid from the carriers, and they charge the users (Office Ally doesn't charge users for claims sent to commercial carriers). Practice Suite's Web site says there is a $15 fee for billers who use their Clearinghouse. That fee allows users to bill commercial carriers only, with BC/BS, Medicare, and Medicaid excluded (if I'm remembering correctly). I imagine the fee to submit electronic claims to BC/BS, Medicare, and Medicaid is a separate charge that you will not find out about until you sign up with them. With Office Ally, you can submit electronic claims to BC/BS for free. With Practice Suite you cannot. Office Ally tells you up front that there is a $20 per month charge if Medicare charges are greater than 50% of the total claims submited for that month (because Medicare does not pay them as the other carriers do). I could not find the charge for Medicare and BC/BS electronic claims on the Practice Suite website.
I'm just providing a comparison - I'm not pushing Office Ally.
Here's a point to consider: I think the Insurance Carriers are pushing these free or low-cost cloud services in an effort to get as many people as they can away from submitting paper claims (it is difficult to go back to paper once you've switched to electronic). I fully expect that, in a few years, the Insurance Carriers will have succeeded, and most claims will be submitted electronically. At that point, I think the carriers will stop paying the likes of Office Ally and other cloud-based providers of medical billing services. At that point, what does one do when they have years of patient history stored in a database they neither own nor control - and the provider of the software as a service starts charging huge fees to use their systems? For those just starting out as billers, the likes of Office Ally and Practice Suite can help you get going without having to lay out large sums of money. But I think billers should think through what may lie down the road, if and when the commercial carriers stop subsidizing these software as a service companies.
BWesley:
FYI
Practice Suite is a much more comprehensiveness medical billing application than Office Ally
list of feature - http://www.practicesuite.com/compare
Office Ally is does not offer HL7 Interface to Other EHR very closed system
Office Ally does not allow you to bring your own clearing house
NON Commercial Claims & ERAs - .15each
tallmanusa:
Practice Suite is PM and EHR systems. They are not a clearinghouse; they use Emdeon for the clearinghouse. They also have www.freechiro.com, their chiro system.
Their prices are one of the lowest in the marketplace and the system seems very user friendly.
Michele:
OfficeAlly is a clearinghouse so I'm not sure what you are doing other than trying to put out a link to practicesuite which I am leaving.
Office Ally as a clearinghouse is wonderful. We've been using them for over 2 years and I have NOT ONE complaint. AND they are FREE.
--- Quote from: BWesley on May 20, 2013, 03:14:57 AM ---FYI
Office Ally does not allow you to bring your own clearing house
--- End quote ---
Because they ARE a clearinghouse. ???
tallmanusa:
Office Ally has services in addition to a clearing house; some of them cost minimal fees.
These include PM, patient reminders, EHR and e script. They are constantly improving. At this time OA is the best buy, that is until Practice Fusion unveils its free PM system, as they tell me.
By the way, PF is the best EHR, regardless of how much money you spend to get one.
I am a believer in free systems, I for one don't believe in paying for something you can get for free. Our client doctors subscribe to these, and they appreciate us helping them in saving money. That is what they are paying us for anyway; if we can't help them save money, we should be looking for something else to do.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[*] Previous page
Go to full version