Guest guest Posted July 26, 2011 Report Share Posted July 26, 2011 Tammy,What state are you in? Different states have different rules and are harder to survive in. Are you in residency, planning on striking out on your own from a group situation? Who are you and what are you planning? Sounds like you have a lot of very basic questions and a lot of preparation work to do. Tell us a little about yourself. Kathy Saradarian, MDBranchville, NJwww.qualityfamilypractice.comSolo 4/03, Practicing since 9/90Practice Partner 5/03Low staffing From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of Tammy McGarveySent: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 2:18 AMTo: Subject: Rates/Billing... For those of you who are not accepting insurance but instead providing the patient with a super bill / encounter form with CPT & ICD-9 codes, how do you determine your rate? Is it based on length of the visit, complexity of the visit? What are the going rates these days? How do you handle payment (Cash, check, credit card….anyone use Paypal or ProPay)? Do any of you do phone visits? What kind of visit qualifies for a phone visit and when do you feel you need to see the patient? How do you explain your rates to the patient who is not used to seeing the “real” cost of health care? Or don’t you explain it? Do you offer anything for low-income families? Sliding scale? Payment plan? Or only fee for service at the time of the visit? How do you advertise? Do you post your rates or wait until a patient calls for more info? Do you offer supplements? Do you charge full retail price or do you provide a discount or do you only charge what you paid? What software do you use for billing? Any recommendations for those who do not bill ins. Companies? Any feedback would be very much appreciated. -Tammy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 26, 2011 Report Share Posted July 26, 2011 Because we are a Medicare provider, we follow Medicare guidelines for coding & billing ALL patients, regardless of what their insurance is (or is not). We take all forms of payment. Most patients in our area use a credit card, cash or check. But we also offer online bill pay. We had a paypal account, but I have issues with paypal from something unrelated to the office, so I don't promote that any more.Phone visits are charged when steve feels that the patient really should have been seen in the office. Again, we follow the CPT guidelines on this one. When explaining our charges, we tell people who ask that because we are a Medicare provider, we are required to code and charge the same for everyone, regardless of insurance type or lack of insurance. When you "blame" it on the government, everyone sort of just understands. We are to the point of no advertising. Word of mouth gets you more patients than anything else, IMO. No low income except for a handful of Medicaid patients that we were seeing before we dropped Medicaid. No supplements. E-MDS. If I were starting fresh, I would contact the local REC for assistance, or at least as a starting place. But we are very happy with e-MDs. No financial interest - just very happy customers. And our REC is great, even though we haven't needed to use them. I think if you look in the archives, you will find discussions on all of these topics and more. For those of you who are not accepting insurance but instead providing the patient with a super bill / encounter form with CPT & ICD-9 codes, how do you determine your rate? Is it based on length of the visit, complexity of the visit? What are the going rates these days? How do you handle payment (Cash, check, credit card….anyone use Paypal or ProPay)? Do any of you do phone visits? What kind of visit qualifies for a phone visit and when do you feel you need to see the patient? How do you explain your rates to the patient who is not used to seeing the “real†cost of health care? Or don’t you explain it? Do you offer anything for low-income families? Sliding scale? Payment plan? Or only fee for service at the time of the visit? How do you advertise? Do you post your rates or wait until a patient calls for more info? Do you offer supplements? Do you charge full retail price or do you provide a discount or do you only charge what you paid? What software do you use for billing? Any recommendations for those who do not bill ins. Companies? Any feedback would be very much appreciated. -Tammy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 26, 2011 Report Share Posted July 26, 2011 HI ,,,I got that eMD is an EHR ,,, what is a REC? too many acronyms... LOL Because we are a Medicare provider, we follow Medicare guidelines for coding & billing ALL patients, regardless of what their insurance is (or is not). We take all forms of payment. Most patients in our area use a credit card, cash or check. But we also offer online bill pay. We had a paypal account, but I have issues with paypal from something unrelated to the office, so I don't promote that any more. Phone visits are charged when steve feels that the patient really should have been seen in the office. Again, we follow the CPT guidelines on this one. When explaining our charges, we tell people who ask that because we are a Medicare provider, we are required to code and charge the same for everyone, regardless of insurance type or lack of insurance. When you " blame " it on the government, everyone sort of just understands. We are to the point of no advertising. Word of mouth gets you more patients than anything else, IMO. No low income except for a handful of Medicaid patients that we were seeing before we dropped Medicaid. No supplements. E-MDS. If I were starting fresh, I would contact the local REC for assistance, or at least as a starting place. But we are very happy with e-MDs. No financial interest - just very happy customers. And our REC is great, even though we haven't needed to use them. I think if you look in the archives, you will find discussions on all of these topics and more. For those of you who are not accepting insurance but instead providing the patient with a super bill / encounter form with CPT & ICD-9 codes, how do you determine your rate? Is it based on length of the visit, complexity of the visit? What are the going rates these days? How do you handle payment (Cash, check, credit card….anyone use Paypal or ProPay)? Do any of you do phone visits? What kind of visit qualifies for a phone visit and when do you feel you need to see the patient? How do you explain your rates to the patient who is not used to seeing the “real” cost of health care? Or don’t you explain it? Do you offer anything for low-income families? Sliding scale? Payment plan? Or only fee for service at the time of the visit? How do you advertise? Do you post your rates or wait until a patient calls for more info? Do you offer supplements? Do you charge full retail price or do you provide a discount or do you only charge what you paid? What software do you use for billing? Any recommendations for those who do not bill ins. Companies? Any feedback would be very much appreciated. -Tammy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 26, 2011 Report Share Posted July 26, 2011 REC: Regional Extension centers ( they centers that are supposed to help you get Meaningful use EMR wise). EMDs is a EMR vendor. I visited my REC in Orlando, they mentioned to me that they can help me to get a lower price when I buy my EMR. my 1/2 cent, adolfo To: Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 3:49 PMSubject: Re: Rates/Billing... HI ,,,I got that eMD is an EHR ,,, what is a REC? too many acronyms... LOL Because we are a Medicare provider, we follow Medicare guidelines for coding & billing ALL patients, regardless of what their insurance is (or is not). We take all forms of payment. Most patients in our area use a credit card, cash or check. But we also offer online bill pay. We had a paypal account, but I have issues with paypal from something unrelated to the office, so I don't promote that any more. Phone visits are charged when steve feels that the patient really should have been seen in the office. Again, we follow the CPT guidelines on this one. When explaining our charges, we tell people who ask that because we are a Medicare provider, we are required to code and charge the same for everyone, regardless of insurance type or lack of insurance. When you "blame" it on the government, everyone sort of just understands. We are to the point of no advertising. Word of mouth gets you more patients than anything else, IMO. No low income except for a handful of Medicaid patients that we were seeing before we dropped Medicaid. No supplements. E-MDS. If I were starting fresh, I would contact the local REC for assistance, or at least as a starting place. But we are very happy with e-MDs. No financial interest - just very happy customers. And our REC is great, even though we haven't needed to use them. I think if you look in the archives, you will find discussions on all of these topics and more. For those of you who are not accepting insurance but instead providing the patient with a super bill / encounter form with CPT & ICD-9 codes, how do you determine your rate? Is it based on length of the visit, complexity of the visit? What are the going rates these days? How do you handle payment (Cash, check, credit card….anyone use Paypal or ProPay)? Do any of you do phone visits? What kind of visit qualifies for a phone visit and when do you feel you need to see the patient? How do you explain your rates to the patient who is not used to seeing the “real†cost of health care? Or don’t you explain it? Do you offer anything for low-income families? Sliding scale? Payment plan? Or only fee for service at the time of the visit? How do you advertise? Do you post your rates or wait until a patient calls for more info? Do you offer supplements? Do you charge full retail price or do you provide a discount or do you only charge what you paid? What software do you use for billing? Any recommendations for those who do not bill ins. Companies? Any feedback would be very much appreciated. -Tammy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 27, 2011 Report Share Posted July 27, 2011 Regional Extension Center. :-). Sorry, I should know better than to use too many acronyms!! HI ,,,I got that eMD is an EHR ,,, what is a REC? too many acronyms... LOL <347.gif> Because we are a Medicare provider, we follow Medicare guidelines for coding & billing ALL patients, regardless of what their insurance is (or is not). We take all forms of payment. Most patients in our area use a credit card, cash or check. But we also offer online bill pay. We had a paypal account, but I have issues with paypal from something unrelated to the office, so I don't promote that any more. Phone visits are charged when steve feels that the patient really should have been seen in the office. Again, we follow the CPT guidelines on this one. When explaining our charges, we tell people who ask that because we are a Medicare provider, we are required to code and charge the same for everyone, regardless of insurance type or lack of insurance. When you "blame" it on the government, everyone sort of just understands. We are to the point of no advertising. Word of mouth gets you more patients than anything else, IMO. No low income except for a handful of Medicaid patients that we were seeing before we dropped Medicaid. No supplements. E-MDS. If I were starting fresh, I would contact the local REC for assistance, or at least as a starting place. But we are very happy with e-MDs. No financial interest - just very happy customers. And our REC is great, even though we haven't needed to use them. I think if you look in the archives, you will find discussions on all of these topics and more. For those of you who are not accepting insurance but instead providing the patient with a super bill / encounter form with CPT & ICD-9 codes, how do you determine your rate? Is it based on length of the visit, complexity of the visit? What are the going rates these days? How do you handle payment (Cash, check, credit card….anyone use Paypal or ProPay)? Do any of you do phone visits? What kind of visit qualifies for a phone visit and when do you feel you need to see the patient? How do you explain your rates to the patient who is not used to seeing the “real†cost of health care? Or don’t you explain it? Do you offer anything for low-income families? Sliding scale? Payment plan? Or only fee for service at the time of the visit? How do you advertise? Do you post your rates or wait until a patient calls for more info? Do you offer supplements? Do you charge full retail price or do you provide a discount or do you only charge what you paid? What software do you use for billing? Any recommendations for those who do not bill ins. Companies? Any feedback would be very much appreciated. -Tammy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 Nothing to add to 's usual eloquence! ________________________________________ From: [ ] On Behalf Of Pratt [kpratt.1022@...] Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2011 7:26 AM To: Subject: Re: Rates/Billing... Because we are a Medicare provider, we follow Medicare guidelines for coding & billing ALL patients, regardless of what their insurance is (or is not). We take all forms of payment. Most patients in our area use a credit card, cash or check. But we also offer online bill pay. We had a paypal account, but I have issues with paypal from something unrelated to the office, so I don't promote that any more. Phone visits are charged when steve feels that the patient really should have been seen in the office. Again, we follow the CPT guidelines on this one. When explaining our charges, we tell people who ask that because we are a Medicare provider, we are required to code and charge the same for everyone, regardless of insurance type or lack of insurance. When you " blame " it on the government, everyone sort of just understands. We are to the point of no advertising. Word of mouth gets you more patients than anything else, IMO. No low income except for a handful of Medicaid patients that we were seeing before we dropped Medicaid. No supplements. E-MDS. If I were starting fresh, I would contact the local REC for assistance, or at least as a starting place. But we are very happy with e-MDs. No financial interest - just very happy customers. And our REC is great, even though we haven't needed to use them. I think if you look in the archives, you will find discussions on all of these topics and more. On Jul 25, 2011, at 11:18 PM, " Tammy McGarvey " > wrote: For those of you who are not accepting insurance but instead providing the patient with a super bill / encounter form with CPT & ICD-9 codes, how do you determine your rate? Is it based on length of the visit, complexity of the visit? What are the going rates these days? How do you handle payment (Cash, check, credit card….anyone use Paypal or ProPay)? Do any of you do phone visits? What kind of visit qualifies for a phone visit and when do you feel you need to see the patient? How do you explain your rates to the patient who is not used to seeing the “real” cost of health care? Or don’t you explain it? Do you offer anything for low-income families? Sliding scale? Payment plan? Or only fee for service at the time of the visit? How do you advertise? Do you post your rates or wait until a patient calls for more info? Do you offer supplements? Do you charge full retail price or do you provide a discount or do you only charge what you paid? What software do you use for billing? Any recommendations for those who do not bill ins. Companies? Any feedback would be very much appreciated. -Tammy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.