Physical Therapy Billing Coding Facts

There are many programs that can help you with physical therapy billing coding. Physical therapy coding is not a difficult task to perform, but there is a lot of data to compute and sometimes having a program to do it for you can help to eliminate human error. Submitting your claims and reducing the chances of human error is the best way to make sure you get your payments on time.

An appropriate physical therapy billing coding program should be able to work with any scheduling system. Many programs that handle the billing also have a scheduling component built in. Your billing software is even better if you can incorporate marketing components into it as well. This will keep your physical therapy billing coding procedures streamlined and balanced, minimizing payment denials. You should also make sure your software can be used for licensed health care professionals. This is due to the fact Medicare or private insurance providers must fill out the CMS 1500 form and abide by several regulations.

Electronic medical records tend to be more expensive than stand alone billing systems. Electronic medical records tend to cost several thousands dollars each year for most physical therapy clinics. This is largely due to the fact that electronic medical records run and are hosted on expensive servers. These servers need system administrators to supervise them. Stand alone systems will cost you a lot less and they can be run by a simple desktop computer. Billing systems provide the structure of a business without them a practice will not last since the practice will need the billing systems to properly process payments.

physical therapy billing coding

A web based program should be compatible with any of the newest operating systems like Windows WinXP, Vista or Windows 7 as well as Server2003 and Server2008. Quicken users will notice many similarities in program usage, the difference comes in that these programs should have functions for patient billing and claim management. A good quality physical therapy coding program can run on a high end computer. A Pentium III computer or laptop should be able to run most stand alone systems as long as they have a 32 or 64 bit Processor and about 1 GB of memory.

Many physical therapy billing coding programs run via a clearinghouse. A clearinghouse makes the transmitting of physical therapy coding information easier through electronic means. This allows a practice to stay updated with the requirements and procedures that are mandated by various insurance payers. A clearinghouse will also give a practice a simplified location to manage the different claims they might have in relation to their physical therapy coding. A good program will offer a control panel online for you to monitor and control all of the functions necessary for physical therapy billing coding.

A well done stand alone service will offer software upgrades on a regular (sometimes annual) basis. These upgrades could cost a few hundred dollars a year, depending on your service provider. When looking for a physical therapy billing coding provider, always make sure that your initial payment includes  technical support as well as billing support.