... your contract should be VERY specific about an exit plan. ...
... Remember that the client provides a "copy" of their source documents for you to provide the data, therefore making it "yours" at that point of translation. Make sense? ...
In most instances when we've needed data from the old billing company, and they refuse to provide it, it is up to the doctor to insist. Our experience is they don't want to bother. And building a database from scratch as the patients see the doctor isn't that big of a deal. Certainly nothing that has risen to the level of thinking that spending time in court is preferred over working the business and earning money.
If CMS comes calling or any insurance company, they WILL go to the billing service.
Assume paper charts and paper EOBs. The legal record is the chart, not the electronic data in the billing software.
For a given patient and a given date of service, one can match what is in the chart with what is on the EOB for that date of service. That would demonstrate whether the billing service billed appropriately. If the physician has both the chart and the EOB, why would anybody need to come after the billing service
I think what your asking Richard is really about "convenience" rather than "law" .. sure a provider would LIKE to have it all load nice and neat in a PM system they can just "open" .. tough cookies.