The Value in Posting Electronic Payments at Your Medical Practice

Many practices have been utilizing electronic posting for some time. Surprisingly, there are several that have not initiated the process for one reason or another, whether it is the practice not taking the time to research and implement the process since they do not understand the value in the , or software restraints. If you have not implemented the process here are a few reasons to reconsider. Electronic posting does the following:

• Drastically decreases time needed for posting. Depending on the size of the remittance advice it can take a payment poster as long as a day to post a larger remit. Electronically posting can allow you to post a 50-page remittance in as little as a half hour depending on the transactions.

• Reason Codes are attached to the transaction. When Reason Codes are applied, this attaches a definition such as “applied due to deductible” or “denied due to preexisting condition” to the transaction. Many times this definition can be viewed on the transaction screen of the medical software. Medical Software programs will usually allow you to run reports by reason code.

• Alleviates human error. There is risk of transposing numbers or missing transactions. Since the transactions are streamlining from the remittance advice directly into the medical software, each transaction does not have to be manually keyed into the system.

• Attaches a copy of the Explanation of Benefits (EOB). This allows the account follow up person to easily locate the remittance to work remaining open balances or review the denial.

• Automates as much or as little as you would like- many systems will allow you to decide how much you want to electronically post.  So if you would like to review all zero-dollar payments you can set the systems up to only post the transactions that have a payment associated with them. This will allow you to approve or not approve the transaction before applying it to your system.

Regardless of the reason, it is something that should no longer be left on the back burner. The amount of time and headaches it can save in trying to get all of the payments posted and balanced is well worth the hassle of implementing the process. If you have not started the process because you just do not know where to start, here are a couple of places to start:

1. Software vendor: Research the set-up process. Many times it is as simple as setting up a five-digit payer ID in the transaction ID field and learning the few steps to upload them into the software.

2. Clearinghouse: Have your clearinghouse run a claims analysis. This will allow you to see which payers you can receive electronic remittances and post electronically.

Either way, once implemented it will be a process you will not regret. The amount of time and energy it saves is by far worth the set up process.