Comments on: Office Ally http://npbusiness.org/2007/05/06/office-ally/ Resources for NPs in Business Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:49:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Carla Anderson http://npbusiness.org/2007/05/06/office-ally/#comment-686 Carla Anderson Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:27:43 +0000 http://npbusiness.org/2007/05/06/office-ally/#comment-686 Changes have been made. I had serious issues with the outsourced biller. I now have a new biller and we are using Office Ally. Barbara has helped to answer some of my questions. They are more thorough than most clearing houses with the icd 9 codes, and they need to be 4 or 5 digit codes to be accepted. I saw they do have a code helper on their website, to let you know what they accept...and it helps because the EMR I use Amazing Charts has a very limited ICD 9 list... One problem is that Providence insurance which in my area is about 30% of my patients, does not and will not use office Ally, so we will either bill them by paper, or use a second clearing house. We are billing them by paper now just to see how long it takes.. As I said, with my other biller, I am just now getting checks from December, in March, so I think she had put me on the back burner.... she had 7 providers she was doing work for! I think Office Ally will have a much faster turn around, and the new biller has only me, and then a prosthetic company for which she is all caught up with... Thanks to Barbara for all her help. Carla Changes have been made. I had serious issues with the outsourced biller. I now have a new biller and we are using Office Ally. Barbara has helped to answer some of my questions. They are more thorough than most clearing houses with the icd 9 codes, and they need to be 4 or 5 digit codes to be accepted. I saw they do have a code helper on their website, to let you know what they accept…and it helps because the EMR I use Amazing Charts has a very limited ICD 9 list… One problem is that Providence insurance which in my area is about 30% of my patients, does not and will not use office Ally, so we will either bill them by paper, or use a second clearing house. We are billing them by paper now just to see how long it takes.. As I said, with my other biller, I am just now getting checks from December, in March, so I think she had put me on the back burner…. she had 7 providers she was doing work for! I think Office Ally will have a much faster turn around, and the new biller has only me, and then a prosthetic company for which she is all caught up with… Thanks to Barbara for all her help. Carla

]]> By: Carla Anderson http://npbusiness.org/2007/05/06/office-ally/#comment-541 Carla Anderson Tue, 08 Jan 2008 06:30:39 +0000 http://npbusiness.org/2007/05/06/office-ally/#comment-541 Hi Barbara, Thank you. That helps. I am still working with my biller. She works out of her home, and she is phasing out a large dysfunctional clinic, so she now has much more time for me. She is all set up electronically, and she goes through a clearing house. She does not know much about coding, and she also is not inside the office so she does not go over my charts. She only gets my cms 1500 forms and superbills off Amazing charts. So I am getting paid. The main issue has been some coding errors, and also some insurance companies did not have me either contracted, or they had snafus with listing me as a PCP.. there are some delays. For example I have received about 50% of what I have sent out, and 50% is still pending, and it is about 45 days. The other issue is when patients have not paid their deductible, it is a shock to get the eob in the mail with no check, and now I have to play bad guy with the patient. So I think we are going to start verifying what the patient owes each time they come in, on the day of their visit. No more surprises. For now I will stick with my biller, as I feel I have enough to do, but when I get to where I want to do the billing in the office, then I may look more at Office Ally. Thanks, Carla Hi Barbara,

Thank you. That helps. I am still working with my biller. She works out of her home, and she is phasing out a large dysfunctional clinic, so she now has much more time for me. She is all set up electronically, and she goes through a clearing house. She does not know much about coding, and she also is not inside the office so she does not go over my charts. She only gets my cms 1500 forms and superbills off Amazing charts.

So I am getting paid. The main issue has been some coding errors, and also some insurance companies did not have me either contracted, or they had snafus with listing me as a PCP.. there are some delays. For example I have received about 50% of what I have sent out, and 50% is still pending, and it is about 45 days. The other issue is when patients have not paid their deductible, it is a shock to get the eob in the mail with no check, and now I have to play bad guy with the patient. So I think we are going to start verifying what the patient owes each time they come in, on the day of their visit. No more surprises. For now I will stick with my biller, as I feel I have enough to do, but when I get to where I want to do the billing in the office, then I may look more at Office Ally.
Thanks, Carla

]]> By: bcp http://npbusiness.org/2007/05/06/office-ally/#comment-536 bcp Mon, 07 Jan 2008 00:38:38 +0000 http://npbusiness.org/2007/05/06/office-ally/#comment-536 Office Ally --> http://www.OfficeAlly.com Office Ally –> http://www.OfficeAlly.com

]]> By: bcp http://npbusiness.org/2007/05/06/office-ally/#comment-535 bcp Mon, 07 Jan 2008 00:37:57 +0000 http://npbusiness.org/2007/05/06/office-ally/#comment-535 Carla, The best way to learn about Office Ally is to try them out. Because they are web based, you can access your data anywhere you are. When I started using them, I had a billing company that was not doing their job. We were at week 6 since the billing started and had seen just a few hundred dollars return. It turned out they were not sending out the bills through their clearing house. I went onto Office Ally, and followed the directions and sent out a few bills. When I saw the payments about 10 days later, I started submitting everything I had. I did most of it for the first several months. You will need to get set up for electronic billing with each insurer. Office Ally will also have to set up a few from their end before you can start, but it's pretty straight forward. Since you are using the same EMR that I am, you've already done your coding by the time you have a superbill. So inputting the information is not at all time consuming, once you are set up and the patient is in the system. The most time consuming part of billing is dealing with the EOB's when they come back. Office Ally has a free PM - PracticeMate. That will help, but you may still have to track everything, rebill when necessary (Medicare and Medicaid - especially for cross overs is horrible to deal with). Right now, our receptionist who is also a coder and had done billing in the past, does the inputting to OA. I can give different people different levels of access to OA. We have been using Quick books to send out bills, but will be switching over to OA/PM this year. I hope that helps. Barbara Carla,

The best way to learn about Office Ally is to try them out. Because they are web based, you can access your data anywhere you are.

When I started using them, I had a billing company that was not doing their job. We were at week 6 since the billing started and had seen just a few hundred dollars return. It turned out they were not sending out the bills through their clearing house.

I went onto Office Ally, and followed the directions and sent out a few bills. When I saw the payments about 10 days later, I started submitting everything I had. I did most of it for the first several months.

You will need to get set up for electronic billing with each insurer. Office Ally will also have to set up a few from their end before you can start, but it’s pretty straight forward.

Since you are using the same EMR that I am, you’ve already done your coding by the time you have a superbill. So inputting the information is not at all time consuming, once you are set up and the patient is in the system.

The most time consuming part of billing is dealing with the EOB’s when they come back. Office Ally has a free PM - PracticeMate. That will help, but you may still have to track everything, rebill when necessary (Medicare and Medicaid - especially for cross overs is horrible to deal with).

Right now, our receptionist who is also a coder and had done billing in the past, does the inputting to OA. I can give different people different levels of access to OA.

We have been using Quick books to send out bills, but will be switching over to OA/PM this year.

I hope that helps.

Barbara

]]> By: Carla Anderson http://npbusiness.org/2007/05/06/office-ally/#comment-530 Carla Anderson Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:32:08 +0000 http://npbusiness.org/2007/05/06/office-ally/#comment-530 Hi Barbara, I would like to learn more about Office Ally, and do you do your billing or does your medical assistant? Currently I have a biller who is in her own home. She uses Medisoft, but I am not privy to seeing what she has sent in real time.. or even a "read only " copy, she should be able to send it to me. I find I have 30 to 45 day waits, and still am paid only 40% for what has been sent out for Nov and December.. I feel that is too slow. I also feel that the insurers dont get to know me, as I print out the superbills, scan them into a billing file on the date they are mailed (time consuming, so I can keep track of what checks I have not received, and also if the superbills get lost in the mail, I can re send), and I pay postage and send the superbills, eobs and copies of received checks to my biller. She sends electronically my claims through a clearing house, to the insurers. She charges 7% of what comes in monthly.. plus fees for printed statements, and as I said I pay for postage which is about 20.00 a month to hard mail all those superbills to her. Once I double my volume, my postage will double too. I am getting a second computer in a week, and want to put Amazing Charts on it, and have some way of viewing my billing. Can you tell me more about what you do? Thanks, Carla Hi Barbara,

I would like to learn more about Office Ally, and do you do your billing or does your medical assistant? Currently I have a biller who is in her own home. She uses Medisoft, but I am not privy to seeing what she has sent in real time.. or even a “read only ” copy, she should be able to send it to me. I find I have 30 to 45 day waits, and still am paid only 40% for what has been sent out for Nov and December.. I feel that is too slow. I also feel that the insurers dont get to know me, as I print out the superbills, scan them into a billing file on the date they are mailed (time consuming, so I can keep track of what checks I have not received, and also if the superbills get lost in the mail, I can re send), and I pay postage and send the superbills, eobs and copies of received checks to my biller. She sends electronically my claims through a clearing house, to the insurers. She charges 7% of what comes in monthly.. plus fees for printed statements, and as I said I pay for postage which is about 20.00 a month to hard mail all those superbills to her. Once I double my volume, my postage will double too. I am getting a second computer in a week, and want to put Amazing Charts on it, and have some way of viewing my billing. Can you tell me more about what you do? Thanks, Carla

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