Optometric Billing-Why I Hate Officemate-Part 2

Problem #2: Upgrade Apology

A few days after officemate released its version 11 software, they took the download link off "MyInstall Center" and issued the above apology. The problem is, how could you release a non-working piece of software into the world to people who pay you good money for software knowing it doesn't work properly? (Coincidentally, that in and of itself is the underlying premise to this entire series of articles.) Especially after you told everybody that you had been testing it for months?

What Does This Problem Mean to the Average Office Mate User?
Well the answer here is a simple one. Let's use our office in Stowe as an example. When we upgraded to office mate we had 9 workstations and lap-tops that needed to be updated and a server. Also, the update instructed that from now on, A SERVER IS REQUIRED TO USE OFFICEMATE. Trying to be smart, we updated the server first, then the dr's computer, billing computer and front desk. After those were verified as working, we began to move to the smaller, less important computers. However, after getting our optical computer updated, the updated was removed from the install center, leaving us without the ability to finish the update for several days and rendering our non-updated computers...useless!

Apply that scenario to a less technically advanced office. What if the server wasn't installed and the update was made hastily, as in the case of many users? What if the update was removed before the office had the opportunity to update the doctor's computer which is vital to charting and other exam information?

All that aside, the bottom line is this: if you are going to charge people $1 or $10,000. for software that you claim is the "greatest thing since sliced bread", shouldn't you make sure it works %100 before you sell it to them?

Issues like this (and crap apologies from your software vendor) lead to losses of precious revenue and time and a lowered standard of care for patients at many practices in the United States, is yours one of them? What are you going to do about it?

Click here to contact opticXpress today for help finding the right software for your practice.

Optometric Billing-Why I HATE Office Mate-Part 1

I have been meaning to write this for a long time but for some reason, all I have done is just collect evidence on the subject without actually pulling the trigger on the situation. Hell, I even sent the software designers some of the screen shots that I am going to share with you in an effort to get them to fix these important mistakes BEFORE releasing a new version of the software....it didn't work. So, I am here today to begin my attack on Office Mate.

Office Mate is by far, the worst piece of crap that has ever been sold to the optometric community. I can go into a million reasons as to why but for the purpose of these posts, I am only going to highlight the issues that I can explain to you visually. That is, I have photo documented proof of why you shouldn't spend your money on this piece of Sh88, and if you did these photos prove that you should not only stop using office mate, you should fight tooth and nail to get your money back.

Lastly, before I begin, I want to point out that after speaking to various high level technicians and programmers at office mate ( or eyefinity or who ever the hell owns these people), every single one of the issues that I am going to share with you has been acknowledged by office mate as "known of for quite sometime, program works as designed. No Immediate plans to fix." Did you hear that in your mind as you read that last sentence? OFFICE MATE DESIGNED THIS TO WORK WRONG AND HAS NO PLANS TO FIX IT!

Now, without further adue:

PROBLEM #1: FEE SLIPS DON'T CORRECTLY CARRY OVER TO CLAIMS

In the above image, this patient's exam was coded using  Exam Writer and each diagnosis code was correctly pointed to the respective procedure codes as the Dr. here wanted them submitted to the insurance company. However, when the exam was carried over to the fee slip by our secretary, only #2 diagnosis code appeared on the fee slip for her to choose from. When I received the claim in "3rd party processing" at the end of the day, the above is what I got. The Dr. had actually pointed 1,2,3,4 to proc code 1 when she charted that day and used #2 for the PQRS codes, yet how is it that the claim in the picture above was generated? 

WHAT DOES THIS PROBLEM MEAN TO THE AVERAGE OFFICE MATE USER?

The average optometry practice does not have a billing department and may not have an actual biller. The job of batching claims and submitting to the insurance company is usually left to a secretary, office manager, another un-qualified individual in the office or the doctor. None of these named individuals have the time, desire and in many cases, knowledge to properly research and correct the error above on a daily basis. In fact, most offices don't even batch and submit on a daily basis, many do it weekly. What if you had to fix EVERY CLAIM for 10,20,30 or even 50 patients at the end of a long week? The issue above is a primary reason why claims generated by office mate can't be trusted. 

CRAP CLAIMS LIKE THE ONE ABOVE LEAD TO A LOSS OF PRECIOUS REVENUE IN MANY PRACTICES IN THE UNITED STATES.