Introduction.
There are advantages and ways that a single physician medical practice can start a card payment system. According to the research firm Javelin Strategy and Research; by the year 2017, twenty-three percent of all point of sale or counter sales will be made in cash ( Brooks, 2014). What this means is that over seventy percent of counter sales or point of sale transactions will be made electronically. It is, for this reason, prudent for all forms of business to ensure that they can evolve with the market. If the business is unable to do so, it is likely to lose its edge over its competitors. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, regulates the way businesses or organisations handle credit card information or data.
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If the patient is using a credit card payment is also deducted immediately and would be declined if the patient 's account has no funds. If the physician received a personal check and the patient had insufficient funds in the checking account, the physician would not know this until the check bounced.
Other good advantage is the chances of losing funds due to a robbery are minimized. Since the practice is accepting cash and check, payments visits to the bank are increased. The chances that one can lose the funds in a robbery are for this reason increased. When using a card payment system, the payments are made directly to the physicians’ business account. This reduces chances of the practice losing funds due to a robbery or employee theft. Also, research has shown that the majority of people prefer to use a credit or debit cards instead of cash. The reason for this is that most people find it more convenient to use an electronic payment instead of cash as it is less risky; a physician can receive full payment at once. For example, a patient is unable to make a cash payment for an expensive procedure or prescription; he or she can make payment with their credit card and then make the payments in installments to the credit card company.
What to do?
The Physician should visit the bank that holds his business account. Most banks are acquirers and can, for this reason, set up a merchant account for the physician and provide him with the Point of
Payments - All payments received, received either by mail, electronically or copay are entered into the patients account as a credit.
If you have ever bought something over the internet and used a credit card you may not have thought how secure is my information? Is this vendor someone I can trust with my credit card number? Will they inform me if my information is lost or stolen by them? These questions and many more can be answered by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). The PCI DSS compliance requirements are strictly enforced by the payment card brands to all merchants who transmit, store, or process credit card information. The main goals or objectives of PCI DSS are: build and maintain a secure network that is PCI compliant; protect cardholder data; maintain a vulnerability management program; implement strong access control measures; regularly
Having worked in a medical office for many years and doing medical billing in that office, I have seen first hand the lack of attention and dedication that is placed on the medical billing department. Many times in a busy medical office the job of doing the billing may be placed on someone who has extra time on their hands or has “down time” from their regular duties. If the physician does have an actual billing department with staff dedicated to billing, many times they do not work as
There are 6 key steps for a successful medical billing process which are checking in patients for their appointments. When you are checking patients in you will make sure the patient demographics is updated and correct. The second step would be checking the eligibility and verification for insurances. You will verify patients insurance because a change in a patients insurance could impact benefits and authorization information. The third step would be completing medical coding of diagnosis, procedures and modifiers. When completing this step you will need to make sur you are using the correct diagnosis codes to describe patient’s symptoms and illness, use the accurate CPT and HCPCS codes modifiers to provide additional information about the service and procedure performed. The insurance payer could only make an accurate assessment if they have they correct codes and modifiers. The fourth step would be the charged entry which refers to entering in the charges of the services that were received. The fifth step would be claims submission which means once the claim have been properly completed it should be submitted to the insurance company for payment. The final step in this process would be payment posting which involves posting and deposit
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• Patients may have to pay up front for health care services and then submit a claim or bill for reimbursement.
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