The cost of health insurance in Alabama is so high that more than 50% of all Alabama residents who have health insurance admit that the cost of their premiums is a severe financial burden every month. And with the cost of health care constantly rising, the situation only promises to get worse. Before it does, I hope you will take a moment to consider several simple ways for you to cut the cost of your health insurance.

You can get a better price on your health insurance if you simply pay your monthly premium automatically every month out of your bank account. If your insurance company doesn't have to send you a costly bill every month they will gladly charge you less for your insurance.

Don't participate in dangerous or extreme sports or hobbies. If you insist on putting your health in extra peril you can't expect your health insurance company to reward you by lowering your rate.
You will also get a cheaper price on your health insurance if you don't smoke and if you don't use chew or any other tobacco product.

Get some exercise and cut out most fast foods. Many people would rather die than exercise, but the truth is that simply walking around the block a few times each week will do wonders for your health. If you enjoy exercising in a group why not join a walking group that walks the mall?

If you are really serious about finding the least expensive health care there is, perhaps you need to look into a Health Saving Account, or HSA. This is a special saving plan that is tax free. The catch is that you can only use the money in your tax free account to pay for medical needs.

As part of your HSA account you will be required to purchase a very low-cost super high deductible health insurance policy. This policy will have a deductible of at least $1,200 if you are single and at least $2,400 if you are buying a family package.

Obviously with deductibles this high these policies will not help pay for any of your medical costs in a normal year. The idea behind these policies is that should you suffer a catastrophic illness or accident - the kind of illness or accident that could cost you tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollar - then these policies will spring to life, protecting your life savings and even protecting you from the forced sale of your home.

The best place to find cheap medical insurance in Alabama is online. The secret to finding the very best price online is to look at as many prices as you can. The way to do that is to run your price comparisons on several different comparison sites.

Once you've run your comparisons on at least 3 different sites then you can feel confident that the lowest price you've found will be the lowest price you can get and you will be saving money month after month, year after year.

One of the largest expenses in today's modern society is the cost of health insurance. Over the last hundred years, the population has increased so dramatically that any country would have difficulty providing universal health care, especially with all of the modern advances that we have today and the large sums of money that most medical doctors and hospitals make. Here are a few tips on how to get the cheapest medical health insurance policy available today without racking your brain too much.

Before you go on a long winded tour of the Internet or your local Yellow Pages in order to find out where in the world you're going to get medical health insurance coverage, there are few things that you ought to run by your frontal lobe in order to determine exactly what pathway you wish to take when searching for this inevitable necessity that all adults and children must or should have in our ever-changing society. Health insurance is very important and you won't really understand how important until you are in a situation where you are with out it and end up in the hospital and receive a bill for 50 or even $100,000 that you have to pay out of your own pocket because you did not decide to get any coverage at all.

One of the first things you must consider is how many people are in your family. If you are a single person then your premium each month will be very small in comparison to what it would be for a family of say 10 people. If you are single then you have many other choices available to you that most people do not. However, if you are a family person and you need to have coverage for your many loved ones, then there are a few more considerations that you need to take into account.

Most families are not consistent of one age group but multiple age groups with multiple variations of problems that may occur. For instance, if you have many infants, then you must take into account how many different problems come when raising a child from the years of one to two years of age. If you have children in elementary school, those problems will be different than those of your teen children and so on.

Once you have taking into account how many people you will need to put on your policy, then you need to consider what kind of a policy that you should have. There are many policies that have and exceptional amount of coverage that costs a lot of money. If you do go to the doctor regularly, then this medical health insurance will be very beneficial because you will be saving money in the long run. However, if you do not go to the doctor very frequently and are typically a healthy person and the members of your household are also healthy, then you may be better off with a premium that is lower that offers fewer benefits because you will not need them on a regular basis.

The next thing to consider is the premium itself. If you're lucky enough to find a company that will give you a medical health insurance policy that is affordable and gives you almost if not full coverage for all of your medical, dental, and even vision care needs, then you should pay a premium that you can afford that will give you these kinds of benefits. However, most companies are not out there to give you the best policy for less and therefore you must pick and choose between what they have to offer and what you can afford. When doing so, always take into account what you think your family will need or if you are an individual than take into account how many times you think you will be going to the doctor and choose your policy accordingly.

The last thing to consider is why you need a policy. If you are relatively healthy all of the time, then you should go ahead and get a policy that is a bottom level policy in price and in benefits. At least then you would have coverage. If you have more people to consider, I would consider getting the middle ground policy which will cost a marginal amount yet cover everyone in the family. If your family is habitually going to the doctor or the dentist, and it is probably your best bet to choose a higher and policy with the most benefits in order to save your family money in the long run as they make those frequent trips to the doctor. It is up to you to make a good decision and you will do so after reading this when choosing your next medical health insurance policy.

With prices in every industry rising throughout the decade, there
is no doubt that insurance rates of all kinds are reaching
frightening heights as well. However, the increased rate of
health insurance doesn't mean you should not agree to have it
anymore.

When it comes to the coverage of checkups, illnesses,
emergencies, or prescriptions, the costs your health insurance
covers saves you lots of money in the end.

As good and as important it is to have health insurance for
yourself and your family, there are always the exceptions. No
matter what plan you have and how much it covers, there may be a
time in your life when you go through treatment or have a medical
condition in which your health insurance policy will not take
care of. Usually these exceptions to your insurance deal with
plastic surgery, however, a different situation may arise.

When you have your insurance plan, whether you took notice of it
in the beginning or not, there are "excluded treatments"
outlined. When seeking a treatment that your insurance company
says they cannot cover, the first thing you should do is read
over your policy.

If what you want or need done is not listed in the "excluded
treatments," you should contact the company your insurance is
with and ask them about their reasoning behind it. Not all of
the time, but in some scenarios, talking to the insurance company
and your physician will help you get consent to go on with your
treatment or surgery.

When things do not work out how you wanted and you do not get
approval for your treatment or surgery, there isn't much you can
do. If you decide to still go on with your treatment you will be
compelled to pay for everything yourself. Not everyone has the
money for expensive treatments or surgeries these days, and if
you do not want to give up the fight, you can continue to appeal
your insurance company's decision.

In order to follow through with an appeal, you must do all the
steps correctly. Most companies are dealing with tons of
consumers, and would rather make an exception for your need
rather than take the time to handle the appealing process.

If all fails, there are only a few options to offer before you
decide to have nothing taken care of, or decide to pay the full
price. When all is said and done and you are out of hope, try
asking your doctor to lower the payment or if you could work out
a plan so you do not have to pay it all at once. If there is no
hope there either, take some time to look up other doctors and
see if you can negotiate a lower price with someone different.

Lastly, this does not apply to all, but you can check to see if
you are able to get free treatment at a public clinic. For some
unfortunate ones, none of these options could work. However, if
you feel you have the time and venture, you should be able to get
what you want or need done at a reasonable price.

Dr. John looked at the computer screen and felt nauseated: only half of the claims that he submitted for payment three months ago were paid. At two AM, Dr. John sat wide awake worried about what went wrong with his billing and about the future of his chiropractic office. Yesterday Pat, his billing assistant, seemed especially upset. Dr. John tried to remember her smile. She knew everything there is to know about billing when she arrived at his office doorstep three years ago. He caught himself thinking that Pat's moods were even less predictable than his wife's.

Was he wise to open an office? Why is he unable to get paid in full for his work? His revenues have not changed in the past two years, yet it looks like he will finish this year lower than last year. That's assuming he doesn't get audited. Though Dr. John couldn't recall any of the audit statistics recited by the speaker at the Association's presentation, he clearly remembered that the trend looked ominous; the likelihood of being audited seemed to match the likelihood of being involved in a car accident. Yet no insurance company covers audit risk...Is it because you always end up paying back when audited?

Dr. John thought again about the striking similarities of the information processing mechanisms between the chiropractic office and the human organism. Both the human body and the chiropractic office are complex information systems, where the flow of information must be uninhibited in order to have them growing at a healthy pace. The office, just like the human body, must perform its vital functions optimally to grow and to avoid risks.

In the "human body-chiropractic office" analogy, the CNS is not just the software that facilitates such functions or the office staff that performs these functions using the software, and it's not just the procedures that the office staff follows when performing these functions using the software. The CNS concept unites all three components of information flow management, including procedures, technology, and staff who follow the procedures and use the technology that results in the desired behavior. The CNS is:

* Comprehensive - The CNS covers every aspect of a physician's practice, starting with patient scheduling, registration, documentation, and billing.
* Timely - The CNS responds in real time: collections are updated as they arrive, coding advice is dispatched at the time of SOAP note entry, the patient is questioned about outstanding balance at the time of appointment registration, the compliance with care plan is reviewed at the time of the doctor's appointment, and questions between billing and front office personnel are resolved online.
* Intelligent - The CNS synthesizes new information from available data to make suggestions to the physician about potential audit exposure due to over-coding or about potential applicability of a treatment or a vitamin because another patient with similar history used it and received positive results.
* Self-Improving - The CNS shares practice management and billing knowledge across all the providers on the entire network. Every new chiropractor that joins the network, benefits from all others that already joined before. So the value that the office receives from being a part of the network keeps growing with each additional office. Such an expanding community-driven effect has been documented by amazon.com, yahoo, and flickr and it's called "network effect."
* Accountable - The CNS has built-in "memory" that keeps tabs of every claim and of every action on it so that the entire billing process is tracked: form coding to claim submission, payment posting to follow-up.
* Transparent - The CNS has a built-in continuous measurement process, collecting and communicating information about patients waiting, payments paid, etc.
* Proactive - The CNS generates symptoms and directions automatically and independently of the staff. It discovers underpayments and delays or patients that left the office without billing and alerts the front-office staff about problems.
* Intuitive - The CNS generates simple and easy to understand signals that require simple decisions, such as "correct the ICD-9," or "call the insurance company," or "request patient demographics."
* HIPAA-compliant - The CNS delivers the information on the "need to know" basis only.
* Universal - The CNS provides every participant in the billing process, including patient, provider, payer, and biller, with access to every aspect of the billing process.
* Continuous - The CNS makes process detail available continuously on a 24 x 7 basis.
* Ubiquitous - The CNS provides access to billing process over a secure standard Internet browser that requires no special hardware or software and is available everywhere.
* Scalable - The CNS makes both the big picture and minute detail available for scrutiny universally and continuously. The big picture consists of total cash flow in a given time period, current submitted and failed claims, and billing quality metric. It must contain a comprehensive summary of patient visits and unpaid balances. The minute detail pertains to individual claims making up the big picture, including a complete history from the moment of creating the claim, testing its validity and eligibility, making corrections, performing submissions, reconciling payer messages and explanations of benefits (EOB) with original claims, until payment. Both perspectives must allow for an arbitrary aggregation of claims and drill in detail to enable effective follow-up.

Contrary to popular belief, inexpensive medical and dental insurance is not a thing of the past. You can get it now, if you know where to look and what to get.

Comprehensive Medical Insurance Plans

Comprehensive insurance plans cover your ongoing health care needs and are the most expensive plans. They include:

* Indemnity Plans. These are the traditional insurance plans that cover your doctor visits, hospital fees, and prescription drugs. These plans let you use your own doctor and hospital, and are the most expensive of the comprehensive insurance plans.

* Managed health care plans (HMOs, PPOs, POSs). These plans assign you to a health care group - doctors, hospitals, and specialists - that you use for your health care needs. Some of these plans let you use your own doctor and hospital for an additional fee. They are the least expensive comprehensive insurance plans.

* Medical saving accounts. These plans combine a tax-sheltered savings account with a high-deductible health insurance plan. The savings account is used to pay for minor medical expenses and the insurance pays for more expensive medical expenses.

Specialized Health Insurance Plans

Specialized health insurance plans cover only specific health care needs. They are the least expensive insurance plans. They include:

* Major medical insurance plans. These plans are high deductible health insurance plans that provide coverage for major illnesses such as heart attacks and cancer.

* Hospital and surgery plans. These plans provide coverage for hospital stays and surgical services only. They cover doctor fees, room and board, lab tests, and X-rays.

* Hospital confinement plans. These plans pay a set amount for each day you spend in the hospital.

* Short term plans. These are comprehensive health insurance plans with coverage that lasts for a specified amount of time.

* Accident only plans. These plans pay for doctor visits and hospital fees when you have an accident. They do not cover illnesses or diseases.

Finding cheap medical insurance has become a national mania. It seems that everyone needs to cut the cost of their medical insurance. Fortunately there are several things that almost everyone can do to lower the cost of their traditional medical insurance - and then there is a fairly new, cheap, high risk medical insurance plan that you may want to consider.

First, a few things you can do to lower the cost of your traditional medical insurance.

Don't buy individual medical insurance if you can avoid it. Group medical insurance is much less expensive. If your place of employment doesn't offer group health insurance ask around at any clubs or fraternities or groups or associations that you belong to. Many organizations that have absolutely nothing to do with insurance offer their members a low-cost group health plan. If you don't belong to any clubs that offer their members group health, see if any of your friends or family do. If so - join!

Don't smoke. Don't use chew. How many times have you been told how bad for your health tobacco products are? Now here's where smoking or using chew is going to cost you extra - a lot extra. If you're serious about saving money on your health insurance then you'll have to get serious about quitting tobacco products.

Weight is another factor in how much you are going to pay for your health insurance. Your Body Mass Index (BMI) will help determine how much you pay every month for your insurance. Losing weight is really tough, but if you can drop even a few pounds there is the possibility that you will drop down one rung on the insurance company's BMI scale and if that happens it's just possible that you could save hundreds of dollars each and every year on your health insurance.

Don't participate regularly in extreme or dangerous sports. Also, if you drive a sports car or any other high-performance vehicle you may very well end up paying more for your health insurance.

Upping your co-payment to 50% will also save you money. This is an especially good idea for people who do not see their doctor on a regular basis.

Increasing your deductible will save you money almost instantly. If you can afford a larger deductible you'll save money month after month.

For people who still can't afford health insurance there is one other alternative - sign up for an HSA account. HSA stands for Health Savings Account. This is a tax-free savings account that can only be used to pay for medical related expenses. As part of your HSA you will be required to purchase a low-cost super-high-deductible health insurance policy. This policy will have a deductible of at least $1,100 if you are an individual or $2,200 if you are insuring a family.

Obviously these insurance policies will not pay anything toward your medical bills in a normal year - that's what your tax-free savings account is for. Where these policies shine is if you are suddenly faced with a catastrophic event which results in tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills. Your high-deductible policy will then protect your home and other assets and pay your bills.

You can lean more about HSA accounts from your bank or credit union, any health insurance company and even from your employer.

If you are interested in sticking with more traditional health insurance, but you need to save money on it, then use the information you have learned from this article to help you fill out the forms on at least 3 different websites that permit you to compare the prices of health insurance from different companies head-to-head.

Remember to take the extra time and make your comparisons on 3 sites and also make sure that you answer the questions on all 3 sites the same way. This way you will be comparing the same health policy on every site.

As soon as you have all the results simply compare the prices and choose the lowest price you find. That's all there is to it. You are now an expert at finding cheap high risk medical insurance in your state.

Finding affordable high risk medical insurance is almost as difficult these days as finding a needle in a proverbial haystack. However, whether you are looking for affordable traditional medical insurance or you're thinking about opening a Health Savings Account (HSA), there are steps you can take that will lower your monthly premium.

Paying your premiums automatically from your bank account will save you money.

Not smoking or using chew will save you a lot of money. You know as well as anyone that you can't be serious about wanting to save money on health insurance if you are going to continue smoking or using chew.

Unfortunately the same thing applies to being overweight. Insurance companies use your Body Mass Index (BMI) to help determine how much to charge you every month for your insurance. The higher your BMI the more you're going to pay. Losing even a little weight can make a difference in how much you pay every month. Remember, every pound counts!

If you regularly participate in an extreme sport or if you have a dangerous hobby you can count on paying more for your health insurance. Similarly, if you drive a fast sports car or a muscle car you may find yourself paying more for your health insurance.

If you are willing to increase your co-payment to 50% you can save money on your premium every month. Depending on how often you see your doctor in a normal year this could turn out to be a big savings.

On a similar note, increasing your deductible will also decrease your monthly premium.

Increasing your deductible to the max is what the most affordable - but potentially most high risk - medical insurance is all about. It's called a Health Savings Account, or HSA.

An HSA is a tax-free savings account with the special feature that you can only use it to pay medical expenses. Attached to the account is a low-cost super-high-deductible health insurance policy. The policy will have a deductible for an individual of around $1,100 and a deductible of approximately $2,200 for a family.

These affordable policies are not designed to pay for your routine medical needs during the year (you pay for those out of your tax-free savings account). What these policies are is a safety-net in the event that you suffer a catastrophic medical event or accident that creates humongous medical bills.

You can get more information about HSAs through your local bank or credit union, insurance companies and even from your employer.

For those who are interested in simply finding the best rate for a traditional medical insurance policy, your best bet - by far - is to look online. You will find no end to the number of websites that are designed to let you compare prices for health insurance from several different insurance companies. The only thing you need to be aware of is that no one site compares all insurance companies.

Therefore, if you are deadly serious about finding the very lowest price for your health insurance then you must take the extra time to fill out the form on a minimum of 3 different price comparison sites.

But that's all you really need to do. Just use the information you learned in this article and fill out the form on 3 different price comparison websites. Make certain that you answer the questions the same way on all three forms so you are comparing the same policy - then simply pick the very best price you find.

I don't know one person who wouldn't like to find cheap medical insurance companies, but it seems that inexpensive medical insurance is a thing of the past.

Even though it is getting harder and harder to find cheap medical insurance there are things that you can do that will help to keep the cost of your medical insurance as low as possible. One thing you can do is to buy your medical insurance online. This will almost always save you money - but before you start trying to find the lowest-priced medical insurance online there are a few things that you should keep in mind if you really want to get your medical insurance at the lowest price possible.

Start with a healthy lifestyle. This means cutting way back on fast food and junk food. It's not as hard as you think if you set your mind to it. Cut out all fried foods.

Get some exercise. Walk around the block a few times each week. Bicycle to school with your kids in the morning rather than walk or put them on a bus. Join a group that walks around the mall every morning. Do something. Get up off the couch and move your body.

Don't smoke. You know as well as anyone that you're not going to find cheap medical insurance if you smoke.

Weight is another issue. All insurance companies base your monthly health insurance premium in part on your Body Mass Index - also known as your BMI. No matter how many times you've tried to lose weight in the past you've got to shed a few pounds if you really want to get the lowest price for your health insurance. Remember, even a few pounds could change your BMI enough to qualify you for a lower rate - so every single pound counts!

Don't participate in extreme sports and give up dangerous hobbies. If you drive a fast and flashy sports car you won't be offered the lowest possible price on your health insurance.

Increasing your co-payment to 50% can save you a lot of money every month on your health premium. If you don't see your doctor very often each year then this can be a good choice.

Your deductible makes a huge difference in how much you pay for your medical insurance. The higher your deductible the lower your monthly health insurance premium will be. Caution needs to be exercised, however, as you must be careful not to promise to pay more than you can actually afford.

Even with these concessions the cost of health insurance can still be too much. Another idea is to start a Heath Saving Account, or an HSA. An HSA is a special tax-free savings account that you can only use to pay your medical expenses from.

As part of your HSA you will be required to purchase very low-cost super-high-deductible health insurance. This insurance will have a deductible of at least $1,200 if you are single and double that if you are buying a family policy. This insurance won't pay for your day-to-day medical expenses. Instead, it is designed to save your home or other assets if you should suffer a catastrophic incident that creates massive medical bills.

Now you have some idea of how to fill out the form on the online websites that let you compare prices for health insurance from a variety of companies, so it is time for you to get online and find the cheapest medical insurance company available in your state.

Just be sure that you take the time to fill out the form on a minimum of 3 different sites rather than relying on the results from just one website. In this way you will see the prices from a wider range of insurance companies.

Also be sure that you answer the questions in exactly the same way on all 3 of the sites you use. That way you will be comparing the same policy all across the board and you will be more likely to find the lowest priced insurance.

Now simply choose the best price you have found and you're done! You've now found the cheapest health insurance that you can possibly get in your state.

It's hard to imagine anyone who would not be interested in finding cheap medical insurance. Unfortunately it is getting harder and harder to find medical insurance that is affordable. In fact, fully 16% of all Americans today cannot afford any health care at all.

Obviously group health care is going to be less expensive than individual health care. If your place of employment doesn't have group health insurance then try asking around at any organizations, groups or associations that you belong to. Many are now offering their members low-cost group health.
Increasing your co-payment can lower the amount you pay every month. Obviously this is not as good of an option for people who see their doctor on a regular basis, but if you can afford to increase your co-pay to 50% then you will save money month after month.

Increasing your deductible will also reduce your monthly premium. Again, you have to weigh the cost and the benefits to know if paying more for your own health care each year before your insurance kicks in makes economic sense for you.

Don't smoke. You know as well as anyone that you are not going to get the best rate on your health insurance if you smoke or if you use chew or any other tobacco product. If you're serious about saving money on your health insurance then you're going to have to get serious about quitting the use of all tobacco products.

Your weight is also an issue when it comes to how much you pay for your health insurance. Part of your monthly premium is based on your Body Mass Index, or BMI. If you can shed even a few pounds then it is possible that you could slip down a rung on the insurance company's BMI chart. If that happens you could save quite a bit each and every year on your health insurance. It's certainly worth a try.

Getting exercise and eating better can also reduce how much you pay for your health insurance and how much you pay for your medical costs overall. Cut way back on the fast foods - and stop eating fried foods at all.

Exercise doesn't mean buying some fancy and expensive machine. Just walk. Or ride a bike to do your errands a few times each week. Did you know that there are groups you can join who walk the malls in the mornings? Exercise can be fun.

If all else fails how about setting up a Health Savings Account, or HSA? An HSA is a tax-free savings account that you can only use to pay for your medical needs. As part of your account you will purchase a low-cost super-high-deductible health insurance policy.

This policy will have a deductible of at least $1,200 for an individual or $2,200 for a family. These policies pay nothing toward your health costs in a normal year - you pay for all of your own health needs out of your tax-free savings account.

What these low-cost super-high-deductible policies do is they protect your home and other valuable assets in the event that you suffer a catastrophic illness or accident which results in medical bills in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Talk with your banker, or your employer or an insurance agent for details on how you can set up an HSA account.

If you purchase a tradition health policy you will save money if you purchase it online. You will find no end to the number of websites that will let you compare the prices of health insurance policies from one company to another. The trick is to not rely on the results from just one website as each website only compares prices from a small number of companies.

Instead, make price comparisons on at least 3 different websites. In this way you will see the prices from a lot more companies and you will have a better chance of finding the rock-bottom price for your health insurance needs.

The use of private medical insurance has risen dramatically over the last 30 years as the only way to pay for the rising costs of healthcare in hospitals, clinics and private practices. As you probably know all to well, the cost of healthcare and health insurance premiums continue to increase at levels substantially above the general rate of inflation. So as the cost of medical treatment continues to rise, finding cheap medical insurance is becoming increasingly difficult.

Some individuals are fortunate enough to have their health insurance arranged through their employer who contributes a large percentage of the cost himself. Although the rising cost of medical insurance is one reason that employers are finding it an increasingly difficult benefit to give their workers. Unfortunately though, for a growing minority of workers with high health care costs, health insurance is the main attraction, rather than the job or the overall pay. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a health plan provided by their employer and finding cheap health insurance is the only realistic option.

While many people today are still able to obtain some type of health insurance through their place of employment or privately, many others, the low paid, self-employed and the unemployed simply don't know where to find good quality coverage at a fair price. Whilst a little research is required to make sensible comparisons, carrying out searches for low cost health insurance schemes on the internet has proved very helpful for many as you are able to compare benefits of a large number of providers using online comparison tables. But choosing the right health insurance is something that cannot be rushed if you have a family.

The good news is that people are learning that they have to be more selective and look carefully at every aspect of their potential health insurance plans to obtain the best possible premiums. Many national and local organizations of self-employed workers are now banding together to form cooperatives and combine their buying power to get affordable health insurance premiums through group policies. If you have a chance at a group health insurance, whether through a job or an association you're a member of, it will usually be much more affordable than buying individual health insurance on your own.

Be careful to read the health insurance policy well and especially the areas that are not covered by the healthcare plan. One thing to check with the health insurance is the definition of an emergency and whether this can be treated by primary care doctor. So it is clear that there are many things to check before you make a decision on what health insurance provider you intend to use. There is little disagreement that the growing number of people without health insurance is going to cause problems in the future. Worth considering is the statistic that shows that the fatality rate a person who does not have health insurance is twenty five percent higher than that of a person who has a health care plan.

Medical billing tips and tricks that will help anybody new to the field find a starting point with outstanding patient balances. I have been asked many times by people who were essentially 'thrown' into the billing position at their office, 'Where do I start?'

Some of the portion of outstanding A/R is what patients owe you. You want to be sure that patient statements are sent on at least a monthly basis. If you can get patient statements out twice a month, that would be even better. You want to discuss with your physician(s) or office manager what kind of policies are in place or what kind of policies need to be put into place. Things to ask while discussing policies are: How many statements will be allowed to go to a patient before additional action will be considered? How many letters will go out beyond sending statements, if any, before additional action will be considered? Will patient payment plans be accepted and if so, what is the minimum you will accept? At what point and time is an account considered for collections with an outside agency?

Once you have some general policies and procedures in place it will be easier for you to go through accounts to decide what action should be taken next. You will also want to be sure to review your state policy for collecting on accounts so you are aware of any laws that you must follow. If there is already an outside collection agency in place they are usually willing to help you know what needs to be done to abide by any state laws as they are required to follow those laws also. The best policy when collecting patient balances is to be as strict as possible in collecting co-payments up front at the time of service. If a patient is aware of a high coinsurance or deductible amounts, ask for a $50.00 to $100.00 deposit at the time of the service. Then any residual balance left after the insurance has paid you, won't seem quite as overwhelming to the patient on their next statement.

You need to be sure you have your policies posted in plain view for patients to see when they walk in and/or are being checked in. You also want to have them sign an acknowledgement that they have read and understand your office collections policies. It can be a form easily submitted into what they will already have to fill out and sign.

Please make sure that you are dividing your time appropriately when it comes to collecting on outstanding A/R. You do not want to let yourself get behind on posting and submitting current charges. I have found it easier for me to keep track of my time if I give myself a schedule. I will give myself a specified amount of time per day to work on old accounts and the rest of the day to work on current accounts, or you can allot specific days to work on one kind of account or the other.

It's definitely a juggling act when trying to come into a medical practice that is new to you. Just remember to set some goals to achieve and work on those goals to have the ability to cross things off your 'list' so you feel like you are continually accomplishing something. Don't let yourself become discouraged easily, just remember tomorrow is a new day. Good luck out there!

Medical billing tips and tricks that will help anybody new to the field find a starting point with insurance companies. I have been asked many times by people who were essentially 'thrown' into the billing position at their office, 'Where do I start?' You need to first decide what has and has not been done.

If you are coming into a brand new practice and there has not ever been any kind of charges submitted at all, that would be your first place to start. If there are no charges being entered to be submitted either to the patient or the insurance for collection, there is no money coming in the door to keep the practice going. You want to start first by getting all the back log of demographics and charges posted ASAP. Once charges are in and submitted you at least have a starting point to go from.

If you have come into an existing practice that has an excessive outstanding A/R (Accounts Receivable) then your priorities will be different. You will need to get a report that shows all outstanding charges and who they are owed from. If you have the ability to get a summary report that will just show you how much is owed per insurance vs. each patient, you will have a better idea on where to start. When you pull a summary report and can see that one insurance company has $50,000 worth of outstanding claims, then another insurance company with $40,000 worth of outstanding claims, you would be better to start working the insurance company with the higher outstanding balances.

As you work through one insurance company you will want to go on to the next insurance company with the next highest outstanding balance. Doing this will at least get you an idea of where your claims are at and why they have not been paid. As you are calling insurances there are some standard questions to start with. The first question to ask is if your outstanding claim(s) are on file. If the insurance company states they do not have your claim on file, you want to first verify you have the correct claim submission address and you want to be sure that you have the correct subscriber ID and group number on file for your patient.

If all of this information is correct then you can just simply resubmit the claim to the insurance company. If they state they are pending the claim for additional information, then you want to see from whom they are requesting the information. Does the information need to come from the patient or does it need to come from your office? If you are told they are pending information from the patient, then you can either call or write the patient to let them know they need to contact their insurance company ASAP.

You can also move the balance to the patient's responsibility because sometimes getting a bill they know their insurance should pay for will help get them to do what needs to be done. If the information being requested needs to come from your office then you will want to verify what exactly they need and if any other identification needs to be with the information (such as a claim number) when you send it in. If they will accept faxes of the information needed, that seems to get things there a bit quicker to get your claim(s) taken care of even faster. You will see that most outstanding claims will fall into the above subjects and if they do not, a lot of the time the representative you are talking to on the phone can help to direct you as to what needs to happen to get the claim resolved. If you don't know what they are talking about or want more details, don't be afraid to ask.

Remember to make detailed notes when calling insurance companies. Make a note of the date called, who you spoke with, and what you were told. There will be more than once you will want to refer back to your note, whether it be to help fight the insurance company at a later date or to show proof to your physician(s) that you are following up on outstanding accounts.
Unfortunately the follow up with insurance companies is a battle that is never fully won. As soon as you get a set of charges called on, there will be another set of charges that it is now time to follow up on. Don't get discouraged easily as it is just a part of what continually needs to be done to keep up on everything.

Looking for low income medical insurance? You're not alone. More than 46 million Americans are uninsured and face a financial catastrophe if they experience a major illness. Here's where to get low income medical insurance so you can make sure you and your family are protected.

Government-Funded Health Care Programs

State and Federal governments have a number of health care programs created for low income individuals and families. These include:

*Medicaid - A federal program that provides comprehensive health insurance to low income individuals and families.

* High risk pools - Offered in more than 30 states, these programs provide health care for people who have been denied private health insurance or are paying excessively high premiums for health insurance.

* S-CHIP - A state and federal program that provides health insurance to children whose families don't qualify for Medicaid.

For more information about Medicaid, visit The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at: cms.hhs.gov. For more information on state-sponsored medical insurance programs programs, visit your state's department of insurance website.

Private Health Care Plans

Private low-income medical plans include the following;

* Managed health care plans, which cover your doctor bills, hospital fees, and prescription drugs. These plans assign you to a group of doctors and hospitals. They're the least expensive comprehensive health care plans.

* Fee-for-service plans, which also cover your doctor bills, hospital fees, and prescription drugs. With these plans you can choose your own doctor, but they're much more expensive than managed health care plans.

*Catastrophic health insurance, which covers your hospital and doctor bills for catastrophic illnesses only - cancer, heart attacks, and other serious illnesses.

* Short-term major medical insurance, which provides the same coverage as major medical insurance, but for a limited period of time.

*Dental and vision insurance, which pays for dental fees and vision care costs.

* Specialized health insurance programs, which restrict your coverage to certain types of illnesses, accidents, or amounts of coverages.