Optometric Billing: Why I Hate Officemate, Part 4

In part 4 of this mini-series we will look at Officemate's Automatic Insurance Payment Posting System. The bottom line...IT IS BROKEN and has been since the first generation of the software.

Take a look at the below screen shot:

In the above example, the user imported a remittance advice file into office mate and auto-posted it. It clearly shows that the patient paid their $25.00 co-pay but still transferred a $25.00 copay to the patient's responsibility! As usual, I approached office mate tech support with the issue and they told me what they always tell me : "Works as designed, no plans to fix".  Can you believe that?!?!

What this means to your practice:
Quite literally, this means that if you are using auto-post, you will never be able to trust the system when it applies payments to patients' balances. The problem goes deeper as financial errors always snowball (think back to that missing check # in your check book that you can't reconcile for the life of you). If you don't check the work, which literally defeats the purpose of auto-posting, you will not be able to keep accurate financial records or send accurate statements and invoices to patients. This will not only mean that any financial reports you run out of officemate will NEVER be accurate (which again, defeats the purpose of having automated office management software), but you will also cause your patients to either over-pay you or get extremely upset at you causing you to loose customers and receive negative reviews in the community that you serve....all because you chose officemate. I can tell you from experience, having an patient call you due to an officemate-generated statement you sent them is NEVER pleasant experience.

There is good news. There are tons of software solutions you can choose and opticXpress can help you find the right one...

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Optometric Billing-Why I HATE Office Mate- Part 3

The Problem:

In Part 3 of this "mini-series" on reasons not to purchase office mate, or get rid of it if you already have it, we are going to explore Ledger Balances.

In Office Mate, ledger balances are often incorrect, as seen below. (HINT: The picture is quite large so you will need to click on it in order to get a better view. )

What this means to your practice:

This is kind of a no-brainer. As has been my mantra with Office Mate, and ALL Eyefinity produced software for that matter, you purchase office management software to help you MANAGE YOUR PRACTICE which means that you are entrusting it to provide you with accurate financial information. As seen in the example above, however, Office Mate provides you with a balance for the patient, "Alexa" of $54.89 but if you click on the detail you will find that the ACTUAL ACCOUNT BALANCE is zero!!! These in-accurate balances are found throughout the patient ledger in office mate and usually occur after legitimate write offs have been posted to patient accounts. Basically, your staff is writing off these charges but a balance remains. Often, these erroneous balances are left to age and generally end up being billed to patients on statements! To Office Mate's credit, they have created a separate program you can download to "TRY" and fix some of these errors (this program is called "iBal" and will be explored in a subsequent post) but the program does not always work and you have to ask for it if you want it. It is not offered to you by Office Mate when you purchase the program nor can it be found in the Office Mate download center. 

As with every other error I have posted about and will post about in the future, Office Mate does not deny the existence of this costly bug and has deemed it to be part of the program "as designed" which means they have no immediate intention of fixing it. When you buy Office Mate, regardless of what price you pay for it, YOU ARE BUYING SOFTWARE THAT DOES NOT WORK PROPERLY AND YOU PAY A YEARLY MAINTENANCE FEE OF UP TO $2,000.00 TO SUPPORT THIS BROKEN SOFTWARE!

Did I mention that not only are these ledger errors reflected on patient statements but on the reports you and your staff generate using Office Mate as well? It's true! This means that if you run an "open balance" report or an "aging report" YOU CAN'T TRUST THE NUMBERS THE SYSTEM IS GIVING YOU WHICH EFFECTIVELY MEANS THAT YOU WILL NEVER HAVE A TRULY BALANCED ACCOUNTING WHEN USING OFFICE MATE! This is truly a COSTLY shame.

For recommendations on the best software for your practice, contact opticXpress today by clicking here. We can point you in the right direction and help you get the best, most cost-effective software for your practice.

Optometric Billing-Patient Payment Expectations...UPFRONT!

For years I have been yelling at the top of my lungs about the need for optometrists to tell patients UPFRONT, THAT YOU EXPECT TO GET PAID IF THE INSURANCE COMPANY DOESN'T and to collect a payment method AT THE TIME OF SERVICE!

But no one listens. You are all to scared to piss off your patients because you are worried you will lose them if you do. None of you stop to think that if you let a patient get away with not paying you, you are not keeping the patient anyway because if they know they owe you money THEY STILL WILL NEVER COME BACK! It all boils down to the same thing...you always think you are right, and you think no one else knows your business. Well guess what, those of us that are actually in charge of your money actually know a great deal about your business and in most cases (except providing actual healthcare) we know MORE THAN YOU DO ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS!  That is because we are trained business men, at least I am, and you are a TRAINED DOCTOR. It is my job to count dollars and cents and it is your job to provide healthcare. Stop trying to be superman (or woman). Stop trying to wear so many hats (or capes) in your practice. Entrust those you hire to care for the health of your practice...TO CARE FOR THE HEALTH OF YOUR PRACTICE, while you worry about the health of your patients!

That being said, Instamed has posted on their blog an article outlining this exact problem in health care practices. Unfortunately for optometry, the numbers are even worse than what this article details because of the reason I expressed above. Here it is below:

"When you stay at a hotel, are you able to check in without giving your payment card?  Of course not. However, patients receive access to healthcare services with no assurance that they will pay their portion of the bill on time, or at all. As a result, you may spend up to 90 days, send multiple paper statements and even make phone calls to collect payments.  And frequently, the payment is written off as bad debt.  This is costing your business a lot of money.
Providers have opportunities to use Smart Big Data and technology to accurately estimate patient responsibility and automatically collect payments, which creates a level of payment assurance already happening in consumer-focused industries.
Transforming the Collection Process with Smart Big Data
Here’s how Smart Big Data transforms the collection process:

1. Before the patient visit, verify patient eligibility information and generate an estimate of the patient’s payment responsibility, using data stored from payer remittance information.
2. Automatically send a communication to the patient to set clear payment expectations upfront.
3. Securely save the patient’s payment card on file.
4. When the claim is adjudicated, automatically collect the exact amount due, or set up an automated payment plan.  As a best practice, send another communication to the patient to remind them of their payment.
5. Automatically post the payment to your accounting system.

When providers can leverage Smart Big Data to accurately estimate patient responsibility in real-time, it becomes functional on a day-to-day basis, enabling you to efficiently collect payments and thrive in the evolving healthcare industry."
(https://www.instamed.com/blog/finding-payment-assurance-in-the-healthcare-industry-with-smart-big-data/)

Click here and contact opticXpress today. Let us worry about your business while you worry about your patients.

Optometric Billing-Billing for Contact Lens Training

When doing my usual look up of site stats for The Optometric Billing spot today, I noticed that someone Googled us using the following key word: "can you bill for contact lense training" . 

I was a bit baffled by this considering that this is historically considered part of the contact lens fitting but I figured I would look 
it up for you cause it piqued my interest. So, here is what I came up with. NO, YOU CAN NOT SPECIFICALLY BILL SEPARATELY FOR 
THE TRAINING. The one area where you might be able to get away with it is insurance companies that take "S" codes
as there is an "s" code for Comprehensive Contact Lens Evaluation. However, I doubt the reimbursement is even worth your time.
I also doubt that insurance company would let you bill for both a Contact lens fitting (92310) and the Comprehensive Evaluation
(S0592) for the same patient, but maybe someone better than I can figure that out for you. 

Bottom line, as always in the Medical Vs. Insurance world....Play it safe and don't get greedy!

Need help with insurance billing? Want as close to a guarantee as possible that you will get paid for EVERY insurance claim yousubmit to insurance? 

Click Here to contact opticXpress today. If you send us your claims, chances are, they will get paid the first time,

WE GUARANTEE IT!*

Optometric Billing-By opticXpress

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(866)688-3335

Optometric Billing-Copays, Co-insurances and Deductibles-To Collect or Not Collect ?

Thanks to our friends at EyeCOR The answer to this question is simple. View below

There you have it, COLLECT CO-PAYS, CO-INSURANCES AND DEDUCTIBLES FROM EVERY PATIENT THAT FALLS INTO THESE CATEGORIES...OR ELSE! (You are not responsible if you bill the patient and the patient doesn't pay, you just have to prove that you billed them!)

Click here to contact opticXpress and we will take care of this for you...then you will never have to worry about a problem like this :)