Confessions of a Pediatric Management Consultant... Where fame and fortune await those who help keep pediatric practices alive and independent!

E-Bills and Eligibility

Written by Chip Hart | Feb 6, 2008 8:00:14 PM

Igor has been very busy lately, and he decided to look into how much our clients benefit from using two of Partner's features: the ability to send "electronic bills" and automatically check eligibility.
For the sake of definition, "electronic bills" are when customers hit a button and all of their bills go shooting out across the Internet and are printed, stuffed, folded, and postage-d professionally. "Automatically check eligibility" means that Partner looks at the day's schedule and checks the eligibility of the patients, well, automatically, providing a report for the front office each morning. Essential stuff.
We were surprised by the results. Not that there is a difference or even that "E-bills" and "Eligibility" benefit pediatric practices. We were surprised by how much of a difference there is. Check it out:

Average A/R By Client Type
Personal A/R Days
Insurance A/R Days
Total A/R Days
Total
Difference
Using EBills
7.45
23.65
31.10
NOT Using EBills
8.62
29.02
37.64
21%
Using Eligibility
7.96
25.05
33.01
 
NOT Using Eligibility
7.99
30.06
38.05
15% 
Using Both
7.27
23.06
30.33
 
Using Neither
7.53
31.80
39.33
30% 

Yup - our practices using EBills have an A/R that is 21% lower than those who don't.  Eligibility lowers it another 15%.  Combined, it's 30%.  Amazing.  [And, yes, PCC customers average about 34 days of A/R.  Not bad, eh?]
So, regardless of your PM system, it might be time to consider Ebills and automatically eligibility...though I suspect the type of folks who read my blog already know this.
More later - and I hope to hear from Dr. Marcus, who will give me another perspective on the CCHIT process.