by Tammy
(Paintsivlle, KY)
I’ve been an experienced biller and coder for a local hospital for over 15 years. I recently lost my job due to downsizing and cut backs. I very interested in opening my own home based billing service in my local area.
I have two clients interested as soon as I can get setup with the software. However, my biggest question is, if the providers use a different software than I bill with how do I transfer their patient records to my software for billing? By the way your story is inspirational to me and gives me hope that there is light at the end of this very dark tunnel.
Response:
I have never tried to convert or transfer patient records from one practice management software to another. I had the same question when taking on a new client.
I noticed many software providers have the ability to export patient records into a neutral database. When I looked into it however I learned that importing these back into your software can be a messy and time consuming, labor intensive process. Some software providers offer the service of converting and importing files from another software but noticed they typically charge a lot to do this.
The advice I received in a similar situation when taking on a new client was to just use my software going forward and enter existing patients as new in my system as we entered each claim. That did require some more work on the front end but it was spread out over time and got easier as we entered patients.
For another client we just ended up using their existing software that was installed on their server at their office. They were responsible for maintaining the software and server, all the file back-up, etc. and we just handled the billing. By doing this we were able to charge a lower fee and maintain continuity by not having the disruption of converting to a new software system.
Hope this answers your question. Sorry to take so long to respond but we’re finally getting caught up on our submissions.
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