Practices that automate their payment with chiropractic billing software may see significant time and financial savings.
By saving administrative time and the expense of hiring a bookkeeper for all financial tasks, your office can conserve and allocate resources for other needs.
Some payment systems are integrated with billing in the form of practice management software and can help with payroll, taxes, or other expenses. In other cases, your office may need to separately purchase access to software for some of these tasks.
Benefits of payment software
Administrative expenses are significant for many clinics, so you may already be looking for areas where you can reduce your administrative costs. With the right software and a bit of tech savvy, you can automate more of your payment and billing tasks without creating compliance problems or sacrificing quality.
Software may actually help to protect your office from serious payment errors and help you keep track of payments. With ongoing reporting and alert functions, many systems can notify you when a mistake occurs or an unusual value is entered. These programs can also help you stay on track with essential payments to vendors, tax payments, and employee payroll features. You can readily review your clinic’s financial performance and regularly adjust for changes. Many programs allow you to see incoming and outgoing payments and automate bill paying for essential vendors and fixed expenses.¹
For many clinics, billing software provides an essential function by catching insurance errors and ensuring that each bill is submitted correctly. This also helps to increase billing consistency among different submissions and between software users. Chiropractic billing software can also allow you to create templates for common types of submissions, allowing you to submit bills more efficiently.
Electronic billing can also speed up the payment process so you receive payments faster.Your EHR may already have billing functionality or even a complete practice management system. Consult your EHR vendor if you have questions about your existing software or potential upgrades.¹
Justifying expensive software
In the beginning, billing and payment software may seem like an unwise use of money. It is possible to do the same tasks without software, but these tasks will probably use more of your time or require additional administrative support. Over time, the expense of billing and payment software is usually justified when these administrative costs are considered.¹
While many software systems provide excellent accounting support, remember that no program should be a substitute for financial advice from a professional. If you have specific questions about issues such as filing tax returns, handling a complex payroll problem, or if you are uncertain about any aspect of your clinic’s finances, consult an accounting professional for advice on your specific circumstances.
Choosing payment software
Before you begin shopping for payment software, consider creating a wish list of functions. Decide which features are absolutely necessary for clinic operations and which features you want but can do without. Depending on the software you are already using in your office, you may want to purchase something compatible with your existing systems or obtain software from the same vendor. If you use EHR, ask your vendor what products they recommend.
Preparing a list of questions for vendors will help you as you demo different products. Plan to demo a few different systems to see how they perform under normal conditions in your office. If possible, consider using a trial version of the software in your office if you are interested in the product but are not ready to purchase access yet.
Transition ready
When switching systems, remember that installation, testing, and staff training may temporarily slow productivity in your office. Be sure to plan for lost time during the transition and do invest in properly training anyone in your office who will be using the system.
References
¹Chhoda, Nitin. “10 Ways Billing Software Can Expedite Payments.” Health Fusion Blog. https://www.healthfusion.com/blog/2016/practice-management/10-ways-a-billing-software-can-expedite-payments/. Published: June 2016. Accessed: September 2016.
