1. Determine if the company is structured Primarily for Pediatric practice billing. There are a number of
EHR companies that are in Pediatrics that started as software for electronic health records and then
developed a practice management system then offered billing. The order of development of systems and
processes is important for developing holistic systems and processes. Optimizing collection rates to above
99% consistency is important. Unfortunately there are many consultants whom have good knowledge of
meaningful use with absolutely no knowledge of Pediatric practice management. Solid practice
management and financial management are critical to each pediatric practice.
2. Evaluate if Their ENTIRE business is based on optimizing Pediatric offices in both medical billing and
Electronic Health Records. There are a number of companies that market themselves as a specialty
medical billing company in pediatrics while they are really a general medical billing company with a
marketing campaign focused in pediatrics. Their software processes and usually medical billets have
general medical billing training. This lack of ‘organizational focus’ can mean thousands of dollars in missed
revenue per month for your pediatric practice.
3. Does the pediatric medical billing company reduce burden on the providers and the practice? System
design can decrease burden and increase accessibility. A good pediatric decal billing service will provide a
monthly report that monitors the top benchmarks needed to manage a Pediatric practice. Some of these
benchmarks include collection rate account Receivable days versus national standards such as benchmarks
provided by the Medical Group Management Association. Just as today’s technology allows you to access a
book you purchased on Amazon or a song on iTunes in multiple locations and multiple devices, so should
the software provided by your Pediatric Medical billing service. The is NO NEED for the practice to have to
purchase, maintain, back-up, maintain server firewalls, stay on top of the latest firewall and virus
technology, and update servers. This is an old dated model that provides an extra burden on the Pediatric
practice.
4. Ask about training of their billing staff. Does the billing company train in Pediatrics? The billing and
coding rules in pediatrics change each year. It is difficult for a biller whom is provided general billing
training stay up to date in pediatrics. This lack of pediatric billing training can cost your practice thousands
of dollars.
5. Do they have Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) designed and developed solely for Pediatric
practice billing? The revenue cycle contains the co-pay, the insurance responsibility as well as the patient
liability. Although the revenue cycle is similar in medical practice management, there is great variation on
how to optimize the revenue cycle by specialty. For instance, understanding all the rules in vaccine
administration codes is not a benefit to billers for surgeons but is critical in Pediatrics.
Choosing the ‘right’ Pediatric medical company should Increase revenue, decrease administration burden
and reduce stress to the practice.
