http://www.pacificarticles.com en-us http://www.pacificarticles.com N/A rchamria@gmail.com Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:42:13 -0500 20 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2652/1/Subcontracting-Versus-Hiring-Employees/Subcontracting-Versus-Hiring-Employees.html Subcontracting requires the relationship meets specific requirements. Talk to your accountant or lawyer before entering a relationship of subcontracting. joshua_feinberg@pacificarticles.com (Joshua Feinberg) Mon, 09 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2539/1/How-to-Locate-Hire-and-Work-With-an-Article-Writer/How-to-Locate-Hire-and-Work-With-an-Article-Writer.html Finding a writer is one thing, finding someone who writes web content is another. Please read the following article from the master himself to ensure that your article writer is a good one. mathew_keegan@pacificarticles.com (Matthew Keegan) Sat, 30 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2404/1/Public-Private-Partnerships-Partnerships-Begin-at-Home/Public-Private-Partnerships-Partnerships-Begin-at-Home.html Private Public Partnerships are popular as a means of building infrastructure around the world. Governments globally have been afraid of sending budgets into deficit or borrowing to pay for capital works and are seeking partnerships with private equity to fund a growing infrastructure gap.Several different types exist which transfer different levels of risk to the private sector. kevin_dwyer@pacificarticles.com (Kevin Dwyer) Fri, 29 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2233/1/Denial-Management---Four-Stage-Process-to-Improve-Medical-Billing-Performance/Denial-Management---Four-Stage-Process-to-Improve-Medical-Billing-Performance.html Partial denials cause the average medical practice lose as much as 11% of its revenue. Denial management is difficult because of complexity of denial causes, payer variety, and claim volume. Systematic denial management requires measurement, early claim validation, comprehensive monitoring, and custom appeal process tracking. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2232/1/Nine-Criteria-for-Best-Software-as-a-Service-SaaS-of-Chiropractic-Billing-and-Patient-Relationship/Nine-Criteria-for-Best-Software-as-a-Service-SaaS-of-Chiropractic-Billing-and-Patient-Relationship.html Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) pushes the limits of outsourcing and reduces the exorbitant costs of specialized practice management software. SaaS model is available for all aspects of chiropractic clinic management, including scheduling, billing, and SOAP note documentation, which are mission-critical for high quality health care, practice building, and regulatory compliance. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2231/1/How-To-Get-Paid-in-Full-and-On-Time---Top-Five-Measures-of-Chiropractic-Billing-Performance/How-To-Get-Paid-in-Full-and-On-Time---Top-Five-Measures-of-Chiropractic-Billing-Performance.html Effective practice management depends on solid billing performance. Its measurement is an integral part of practice management process and its importance grows in step with growth of patient volume. Traditional billing metrics are limited in scope and focus on claim submission process, ignoring process imperfections on the insurance (payer) side. Modern computer technologies allow both measurement and action to improve revenue cycle efficacy and efficiency. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2230/1/Practice-Made-Perfect---Top-Ten-Criteria-for-Chiropractic-Billing-and-Office-Management-Solutions/Practice-Made-Perfect---Top-Ten-Criteria-for-Chiropractic-Billing-and-Office-Management-Solutions.html Increasing regulatory scrutiny, poor in-house billing performance, and rapid technology progress are key growth drivers in chiropractic information technology. On one hand, thousands of outsourced billing solutions and software vendors ensure continued competitiveness in terms of both service quality and pricing. On the other hand, the lack of standards and uniform metrics among the vendors, combined with their large numbers, frustrates the selection process. Ten effective guidelines streamline outsourced solution selection process and reduce vendor switching costs. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2229/1/Medical-Billing-Dashboard---Nine-Performance-Indicators-for-Transparent-and-Accountable-Outsourcing/Medical-Billing-Dashboard---Nine-Performance-Indicators-for-Transparent-and-Accountable-Outsourcing.html Arcane terminology and complex rules for payer- and time-dependent claim validity and pricing interpretation plague medical billing industry, resulting in massive payments of invalid or ineligible claims and denials of error-free claims. Billing service transparency allows participants of the billing process to expedite error identification and resolution, resulting in reduced over- and under-payments and improved regulatory compliance. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2228/1/Five-Steps-to-Medical-Billing-Lockbox-Selection/Five-Steps-to-Medical-Billing-Lockbox-Selection.html Lockbox services add revenue, lower administrative costs, and expedite revenue cycles. A wide range of issues complicate lockbox implementation including HIPAA compliance, quality assurance, user and system interfaces, and carefull planning. Disciplined lockbox outsourcing to a qualified billing service or a specialized financial institution lightens implementation complexities and expedites deployment. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2227/1/Top-Five-Keys-to-Solving-Physician-Interface-Dilemma-in-Medical-Billing-and-EMR-Systems/Top-Five-Keys-to-Solving-Physician-Interface-Dilemma-in-Medical-Billing-and-EMR-Systems.html Integrated billing and EMR systems consolidate patient's personal, administrative, and health care information. An immediate data aggregation at the point of care elevates its benefit from plain recording of patient encounter to useful decision support system, but it is only possible with timely input of compliant medical notes. Powerful Vericle-like technologies facilitate combined transcription with rapidly customizable point-and-click templates, optimizing physician's interface to EMR, providing added degree of regulatory compliance, and reducing post-payment audit risk. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2226/1/Seven-Steps-to-Define-Financial-Care-Plan-for-Chiropractic-Patient-Relationship-Management/Seven-Steps-to-Define-Financial-Care-Plan-for-Chiropractic-Patient-Relationship-Management.html Financial care plan is an important component of practice building strategy as it helps the patient to afford the care while establishing a guaranteed cash flow to the provider. But tracking multiple patient care plans becomes difficult upon reaching large numbers of patient visits, impeding continued development of the clinic. Outsourced billing services leveraging integrated technology helps chiropractic clinic overcome care plan management complexity and building successful large-volume practice. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2225/1/Seventeen-Red-Flags-for-Chiropractic-Billing-Audit/Seventeen-Red-Flags-for-Chiropractic-Billing-Audit.html Dr. Ben Lerner, founder of Teach The World About Chiropractic and author of "One Minute Wellness," discovered a convenient way to educate thousands of chiropractors about coding compliance and audit risk reduction. "Compliance maintenance requires special skills and military discipline," says Dr. Lerner. "Webinars are ideal for audit risk management instruction because they deliver urgently needed education but require minimal investment in terms of time and cost." yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2224/1/Medical-Billing-Products-in-Press-June---July-2006/Medical-Billing-Products-in-Press-June---July-2006.html Medical Billing technology has witnessed continued expansion during the first two months of this summer, as evidenced by press releases about some ninety products accumulated in BillingWiki. A practice manager may find it difficult to select the best product from such a large product variety. This article roughly tabulates some eighty-five press releases about medical billing technology products and/or vendors across two-dozen service categories. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2223/1/Medical-Billing-Knowledge-Management-with-Communal-Documentation-and-Adaptive-Search/Medical-Billing-Knowledge-Management-with-Communal-Documentation-and-Adaptive-Search.html Google became a standard reference tool for almost every group of age and interest. But Google frustrates doctors looking for better understanding of medical billing complexities and modern straight through billing technologies. This article briefly explores the contradictory forces of the most popular search algorithm on the planet and outlines specialized, collaborative, and self-learning technologies to solve its limitations in the context of medical billing and compliance. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2222/1/Medical-Billing-OLAP-for-Lost-Revenue-Discovery/Medical-Billing-OLAP-for-Lost-Revenue-Discovery.html Average medical practice may lose as much as 11% of its revenue due to underpayments. But underpayment recovery potential averages only 5% of revenue and involves costly appeal process. To avoid unrecoverable losses, some providers discontinue servicing patients insured by the worst performing payers. Unfortunately, such a drastic loss reduction measure may boomerang and increase losses depending on complexity of referral relationships. This article outlines limitations of traditional database queries used to identify payer candidates for contract termination and demonstrates alternative decision choices with superior performance in terms of revenue and risk management, facilitated with On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) technology. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2221/1/Medical-Billing-Process-Problem-Tracking/Medical-Billing-Process-Problem-Tracking.html Processes involving large volumes of complex billing transactions require effective mechanisms for problem assignment and tracking. Without such mechanisms, billing personnel cannot be held accountable for problem resolution, resulting in loss of revenue and increased compliance risk. While medical billing industry has developed specialized systems and processes for resolution of content problems, little attention has been paid to billing process problem resolution methodology. This article outlines a process and a technology for integrated billing process problem resolution methodology. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2220/1/Straight-Through-Billing-Methodology-for-Medical-Practice/Straight-Through-Billing-Methodology-for-Medical-Practice.html Medical billing complexity and massive volumes of daily claims submitted to payers render manual claims processes incapable of protecting both the provider and the payer from underpayments, overpayments, and billing compliance violations. Straight Through Billing addresses complexity and volume processing problems by automating the majority of the claim flow and focusing the billing follow-up specialists to exceptions only. Straight Through Billing methodology implements billing service transparency and focuses management on strategic process improvement opportunities. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2219/1/Medical-Billing-Transparency/Medical-Billing-Transparency.html Medical billing industry has volumes of arcane terminology and payer- and time-dependent claim validity and pricing interpretation rules, facilitating massive payments of invalid or ineligible claims and denials of error-free claims. Billing service transparency allows participants of the billing process to expedite error identification and resolution, resulting in reduced over-and under-payments and improved regulatory compliance. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2218/1/Medical-Billing-Service-Selection-Process/Medical-Billing-Service-Selection-Process.html Over four thousand vendors of medical billing services offer solutions to medical practices nationwide in response to poor in-house billing performance and increasing regulatory scrutiny of billing processes. On one hand, such a large number of outsourced billing solutions ensure continued competitiveness in terms of both service quality and pricing. On the other hand, the lack of uniform service standards and metrics among the vendors, combined with their large numbers, makes the process of vendor selection difficult and error-prone. While the availability of a large vendor selection allows finding an alternative to unsatisfactory service, billing vendor-switching costs remain high, motivating extra effort and focus during the stage of vendor selection. This article outlines basic thirteen-step guidelines for an effective and efficient medical billing vendor selection process. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2217/1/Medical-Billing-Performance-Metrics/Medical-Billing-Performance-Metrics.html Billing performance measurement is an integral part of medical practice billing process and a prerequisite to effective practice management. Systematic measurement becomes mission-critical with growth of billing complexity or outsourcing of the billing function. Traditional billing metrics are limited in scope and focus on claim submission process, ignoring process imperfections on the insurance (payer) side. Modern computer technologies allow both productive measurement and effective action by the disciplined billing office to improve claim submission and payment processes. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2216/1/Medical-Billing-Workflow-Management/Medical-Billing-Workflow-Management.html The reduction of accounts receivable is key responsibility of billing function in a medical practice. This article compares traditional (distributed) billing function with centralized workflow management. It shows that centralized workflow management yields significant advantages over the distributed approach in terms of the ability to manage accounts receivable. However, it also requires significant investment in process, technology, and personnel training. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2215/1/Medical-Billing-Compliance-in-Chiropractic-Office/Medical-Billing-Compliance-in-Chiropractic-Office.html According to BillingWiki, thirteen articles and news items were published on the topic of medical billing fraud, during May of 2006. An environment of high volume of patient encounters creates thousands of possibilities to deviate from normal distribution of services and trigger an audit. Real time analysis requires powerful technology infrastructure and competent legal coverage. Such infrastructure must handle all compliance aspects together, which necessitates modern Vericle-type integrative approach, combining billing, monitoring, and medical record management components in a single and comprehensive system. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2214/1/Medical-Practice-Technology---Client-Server-Versus-Application-Service-Provider-ASP/Medical-Practice-Technology---Client-Server-Versus-Application-Service-Provider-ASP.html Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and digital billing systems offer substantial clinical care, financial, practice workflow, and compliance benefits to doctors, insurance companies, and patients. But half of medical practices that purchase EMR software fail to successfully implement it. Upon briefly reviewing key factors defining each technology, we compare them along two criteria, namely implementation success likelihood and costs. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2213/1/Medical-Billing-Outsourcing-Dilemma/Medical-Billing-Outsourcing-Dilemma.html Can an outsourced medical billing service improve or expedite payments and reduce costs? This article revisits key arguments for and against billing outsourcing in light of increasing complexity and regulatory scrutiny of billing processes. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2212/1/Three-Steps-to-Better-Medical-Billing-Price-Performance-Using-Relative-Value-Calculus/Three-Steps-to-Better-Medical-Billing-Price-Performance-Using-Relative-Value-Calculus.html Excess focus on reducing costs of individual billing process components while ignoring total billing quality exposes medical practice to significant financial downside. Quantification of billing quality and its inclusion into price-performance equation of billing service yields more comprehensive financial picture and better decisions about billing service selection and its management. Such computation of relative value of billing quality also results in substantially higher remittance and better regulatory compliance. Its efficacy depnds on billing performance guarantees and transparency. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2211/1/Medical-Billing-Knowledge-Sharing-for-Improved-Compliance-Performance-and-Coding/Medical-Billing-Knowledge-Sharing-for-Improved-Compliance-Performance-and-Coding.html A new industry of high-technology medical billing has mushroomed under the auspices of its promise to streamline the collections process and leave doctors with more time to care for their patients. Though many high-quality services and systems exist, an overwhelming variety of options and attractive (yet unsubstantiated) performance claims from some providers have charmed busy doctors into making poor strategic decisions for their practices. Collaborative billing knowledge base improves medical practice profitability and compliance. yuval_lirov@pacificarticles.com (Yuval Lirov) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2210/1/Small-Business-Growth-With-Less-Risk/Small-Business-Growth-With-Less-Risk.html Instead of diving in head first by hiring an employee, small business owners can "test drive" their ideas by hiring a virtual assistant. dana_wallert@pacificarticles.com (Dana Wallert) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2209/1/Welcome-Back-to-Your-Life--Outsourcing-and-the-Entrepreneur/Welcome-Back-to-Your-Life--Outsourcing-and-the-Entrepreneur.html For entrepreneurs, balancing their personal and business lives can be a difficult juggling act. Learning to let go and delegate some of their responsibilities can be a much needed relief. dana_wallert@pacificarticles.com (Dana Wallert) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2208/1/Virtual-Assistants-Actual-Savings/Virtual-Assistants-Actual-Savings.html One of the major reasons to consider hiring a virtual assistant is the cost factor. Virtual employees equal big savings to small businesses. dana_wallert@pacificarticles.com (Dana Wallert) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2207/1/Outsource-Your-Hiring-Process/Outsource-Your-Hiring-Process.html More small businesses and hiring managers are choosing to outsource some or all of their hiring process. Hiring a "virtual hiring manager" allows them to focus on their ongoing responsibilities and have piece of mind that an experienced person is going to direct to them the most qualified individuals for their open positions. dana_wallert@pacificarticles.com (Dana Wallert) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/2206/1/Outsourcing-Without-Upsetting-Lou-Dobbs/Outsourcing-Without-Upsetting-Lou-Dobbs.html All the talk of exporting American jobs has made the word outsourcing quite taboo. How does this affect those of us in America whose business is b2b outsourcing within the borders? dana_wallert@pacificarticles.com (Dana Wallert) Wed, 27 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/390/1/Three-Reasons-Why-a-Company-Might-Choose-to-Outsource/Three-Reasons-Why-a-Company-Might-Choose-to-Outsource.html A normal reason why a company might choice to outsource activities or business processes is to do with focus. This is about the "idea" that outsourcing of supportive activities would streamline the organization and make it more competitive. That competition and focus are highly correlated can be demonstrated by... HansBool@pacificarticles.com (Hans Bool) Mon, 19 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/389/1/Outsourcing-And-Reducing-Transaction-Costs/Outsourcing-And-Reducing-Transaction-Costs.html Nobel Prize winner in economics, Ronald Coase, brought the transaction cost theory to the world, which postulates (amongst other things) that organizations exist because of market inefficiencies. According to this theory, a market is also (part of) an organization. If there is no (external) market you can organize that specific market activity within the organization and save transaction costs. Why is this relevant for outsourcing? HansBool@pacificarticles.com (Hans Bool) Mon, 19 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/388/1/Outsourcing-And-Reducing-Transaction-Costs-End/Outsourcing-And-Reducing-Transaction-Costs-End.html ... Ronald Coase brought the transaction cost theory to the world...the (market) inefficiencies could be eliminated by organizing transactions within the same organization... So what you need to do is: HansBool@pacificarticles.com (Hans Bool) Mon, 19 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/387/1/The-Knowledge-Broker--How-to-Speed-up-ERP-Selections/The-Knowledge-Broker--How-to-Speed-up-ERP-Selections.html An ERP (or any other system) selection demands many dedicated resources during an long period. You can save both time and money if you request a knowledge broker. HansBool@pacificarticles.com (Hans Bool) Mon, 19 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/386/1/Outsourcing-And-What-You-Can-Learn-From-Previous-Insourcing-Experiences/Outsourcing-And-What-You-Can-Learn-From-Previous-Insourcing-Experiences.html We normally have little outsource experience, yet enough insource experience you could learn from. HansBool@pacificarticles.com (Hans Bool) Mon, 19 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.pacificarticles.com/articles/385/1/Outsourcing---Watch-Your-budget/Outsourcing---Watch-Your-budget.html The succes of Outsourcing will depend on a credible productivity shift; Activities that remain after the outsourcing, should be more productive than before. This can only be the case when you have a balanced strategy. HansBool@pacificarticles.com (Hans Bool) Mon, 19 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0500