In June, the Chiropractic Office Billing Precision Index (BPI) gained 4.2 points above its May mark - making up all of the lost ground in May and outperforming April. Overall, June BPI reached 17.6 outperforming the national average of 17.7 by 0.1, and 2.1 points away from its best record of 15.5 in March of 2008.

Breaking the pattern established in April and confirmed in May, the June index, replaced two participants, namely, GEICO and Blue Cross Blue Shield South Carolina, with Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan and State Faarm - a veteran and a new index participant, returning at 14.9 and debuting 41.1, in the fifth and ninth place respectively. Both GEICO and Blue Cross Blue Shield South Carolina first gained their participation in May, only to be replaced in June. Medicare South Carolina managed to keep its participation in spite of losing score from 39.2 to 46.1 and dropping from eighth down to tenth position. Note that BCBS Illinois not only maintained its top placement but also improved the score from 4.5 up to 2.4, while Medicare Illinois and Aetna returned to their traditional second and third placed, pushing back down United Healthcare and CIGNA.

Billing Precision Index 17.6 - June 2008

1. Blue Cross Blue Shield Illinois 2.4
2. Medicare Illinois 10.5
3. Aetna 11.8
4. United Healthcare 13.3
5. Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan 14.9
6. CIGNA 15.4
7. Blue Cross Blue Shield New Jersey 20.6
8. Medicare New Jersey 27
9. State Faarm 41.1 (new participant)
10. Medicare South Carolina 46.1

BPI is an important billing performance characteristic because it approximates the proportion of claims that are never paid. BPI = 17.6 means that the average of ten top performing payers, used by the patients of Billing Precision providers, reached 17.6% of Accounts Receivable beyond 120 days.

This welcome improvement comes at the same time as the nation's doctors are fighting to hold off a ten percent fee cut in Medicare payments that was slated to kick in on July 1. The Congress is given extra time to prevent the reduction by simply holding off the processing of the claims for the first ten days of July for July dates of service. If successful, this delay should have low impact on providers' overall monthly cash flow because Medicare claim payments take 14 days (29 days for paper claims) after the date of receipt. Meanwhile, all claims for services delivered on or before June 30, 2008, are processed and paid under normal procedures.

Chiropractic office managers use the rule-based index to benchmark their billing performance and guide its improvement over time. Rule-based benchmarking also allows for the identification of elite payers, those that perform best in comparison to every payer in the country, as shown by the index-driven ranking.



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Professional medical billing services are relevant and exist to ensure that practicing physicians, providing much-needed services, collect the highest reimbursement amount deserved for procedures performed. It's important to understand that hiring a results-oriented medical biller takes patience and time. You see, medical billing is not a profession which a prospective employee can just walk into; this position demands experience, knowledge and a complete understanding of the medical insurance billing industry.

If a physician isn't maximizing his accounts receivables, it is perhaps due to the fact that he is employing under-qualified personnel. This practice will negatively affect the physician's bottom line. If this is the case, consideration should be given to hiring a professional medical billing service; by doing so any such physician would ensure the business side of his or her practice is being handled properly.

Professional medical billing services typically offer a trained staff of individuals who can take care of every billing need for a medical practice.

Insurance companies are somewhat difficult with which to work if you do not know the "ins and outs" of how they function, and claims are often denied for just a minor reason. If a professional medical billing service is submitting claims, they are aware of the typical reasons for insurance claim denial, and therefore, assure that the claims are submitted accurately and promptly each and every time, guaranteeing a prompt return.

When a professional medical billing service is contracted with the practice, it will no longer be a burden on the physician and his staff, and therefore, they will be able to focus solely on patient care.

Professionals will work on the claims and submit them to the insurance company through electronic methods. Electronic submission will assure the claims are received by the insurance company within hours, thus allowing a speedy claim payment.

Professional medical billing services will also make sure that the claims go through the electronic process error and problem-free, consistently monitoring these claims to ensure there are no difficulties. If by chance a problem does arise, it can be corrected immediately and resubmitted. Please also keep in mind that professional medical billing services are known to have success rates of ninety percent or more.

Whether the practice is large or small, a professional medical billing service will assure that payment from the insurance company will be received swiftly; this could be the difference between success and failure. The majority of professional medical billing services will work for any type of practice, no matter the physician's medical specialty.

In summary, a physician owes it to himself to seriously consider a professional medical billing service and what this important decision could mean to his practice's health and well-being. I wish you the best for your practice's success.



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When a doctor owns a medical practice it does not necessarily mean that they have a great deal of money. It is possible for a doctor who owns his own practice to be very wealthy, but on the other hand if the business end of the practice is not handled properly he may not. A physician does not necessarily have the skills required to handle the money part of his medical business. He can be the best doctor but it requires a different set of skills to handle business.

A doctor should understand this and hire the services of a medical billing company to handle the parts of his business that he cannot take care of.

A medical billing company will have a staff that is trained to handle every aspect of a medical practice's business. They are equipped to deal with the insurance end of the billing and the medical coding end.

Working with an insurance company can prove to be very hard. They tend to deny claims for the flimsiest of reasons and often use reasons that are borderline silly.

When a medical practice handles their own insurance claims will find that the insurance companies tend to deny claims a good deal of the time. When a practice makes use of a medical billing company this does not happen nearly as often.

For a busy medical practice that sees a lot of patients there will be a lot of insurance claims to fill out. Usually one person is required to fill out each and every one of those forms. They will need to write out each form individually and send them to the insurance company. If there is one mistake on the form then the claim will be denied by the insurance company. They will generally send the form back and require it to be filled out again.

This creates an overwhelming amount of work for the person that must fill out these forms.

Even if the forms are filled out correctly it can still be weeks or months before the insurance company will send the check. For a small practice this can be devastating. This is especially true if there are denied claims in the same period of time.

When a practice hires this service, all of this work is eliminated. The difficulties that are caused by the insurance company can be avoided when a medical billing company is used. Professionals working for this type of company are trained to handle the claims forms and will get them to the insurance company using electronic means. This means that the claims will not have to be filled out manually and sent in through the mail.

The professional at this company will also monitor the claim and make sure that it goes through the process without delays. They are constantly on top of each claim that they send in and will correct any problem that occurs. The success rates are higher than ninety percent.

When a claim is sent to the insurance company by electronic means it will be accepted immediately or denied immediately. The practice will receive their check in a matter of days instead of months.

This helps the smaller practice receive their money faster and will be a benefit to the budget of the small practice. The cost of this type of service is far lower than the cost to the practice that delayed and denied claims are.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_Geisheker