How do you go about finding
the right
electronic billing clearing house for you? It is fairly easy to find the
right one when you know what to look for. The internet makes it easy to
locate one by doing a quick search.
First, it is important to know
that you don't necessarily need a clearing house to send your
claims. You can file them directly to some insurance
companies. Here's more information on the differences between filing
directly to
the insurance company and using a clearing house.
You need to get a little information together before you start comparing
benefits. If you get your information together before you start, you
will find it a lot quicker to find the electronic billing clearing
house that is right for you.
Remember, not all insurances can be
submitted electronically. Medical claims processing is changing with
emerging technology, but not everyone is on board yet.
We suggest that you check at least 2 - 3 different companies – the more
the better. Over time, the difference in cost can be substantial. You'll
need to know:
• Which insurance
companies are the most important to you to send
electronically? Or another way to ask it is which insurance
companies are the biggest for your area? Usually Medicare is a big one,
followed closely by Blue Cross Blue Shield. Choose the ones that you
send the most claims for.
• How many claims do
you send in a week or a month that are capable of going
electronically? Once you know what insurance companies you want to
submit electronically and about how many claims you submit you are ready
to start comparing the options. Now you want to know:
• Is this electronic billing clearing house capable of submitting electronically to the insurance
companies I want? They will have a list available to you of
all of the companies that they are currently set up with for electronic
transmission. Check their list to make sure your big companies are on it.
If there are one or two that are not on it, but most are, make sure you
check to see how often the list is updated. You may want to check with a
representative from the Clearing House to see if that company has been
recently added, or if they are in the testing process, which means they
will be on the list soon.
- How much
do they charge? Is it a per claim fee? Is there a monthly minimum? How
much if they drop the claim to paper? Do they have a set up
fee?
-
Do they
offer support with their service, or is there an extra
charge?
Some of the ones you check on may not be equipped to submit electronically
to all the companies that are important to you. You will need to
decide how important the company is, or find out if they will be adding
them soon.
The prices will vary
between clearing houses. But you will want to compare all aspects, not
just the price. Be careful when choosing the one that is right for you,
but don't be afraid to change if somewhere down the road it doesn't work
out.
We started out with a Electronic Billing Clearing House that we thought
was good, and it turned out to be run by a couple people in their garage!
We had to switch and we had to switch quick. Thankfully, we didn't have
much money tied up with the first one. The second one we used worked
great, until they got bought out by a bigger company. Then we switched to
software that allowed us to act as our own electronic billing clearing
house. That worked well for several years, but another buyout later and we
were searching again. We have bought yet another program to do it
ourselves and it's working great. This may seem like a lot of switching
around but considering it was over a 13 year period, it really isn't. My
point is, if something isn't working, find something that
does!
Return to Home Page from
Electronic Billing Clearing
House
