Many insurance carriers have seen the writing on the wall related to complementary and alternative medicine, and have answered the demands of their beneficiaries — of which approximately 40% are seeking such therapies. That means that several insurers are now paying for acupuncture, chiropractic services, biofeedback, and naturopathy.
Consider also that the Health Information Technology and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), which was signed into law on February 17, 2009 by President Obama, requires that Medicare and Medicaid providers adopt �health information technology� by the year 2019, and offers grants and other financial incentives for doing so. Where the federal government goes, the private insurers are usually either way ahead of the game, or at least not too far behind. That means that those insurance companies that are not already accepting and encouraging electronic claims submissions will be soon, and since many alternative and complementary therapies are already covered, these will be part and parcel of this trend toward electronic billing.
This is a good thing, really, as the use of electronic medical billing programs have several advantages for the single or group practitioner, not the least of which are the severely reduced claims processing times, with one provider reporting that payment of paper claims that had previously taken between fifty and sixty days is now taking only five to ten days with electronic claims submission. When combined with an electronic medical record, medical billing software can also greatly reduce the number of medical errors that are now being reported, which is a definite cost-saver for healthcare benefits carriers.
Ultimately, the insurance industry will benefit from accepting and processing electronic claims. In a letter from Robert A. Sunshine, Acting Director of the Congressional Budget Office, to Charles B. Rangel, Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, dated January 21, 2009, Mr. Sunshine lays out the ways HITECH will benefit several key stakeholders, including private insurers. The excerpt below illustrates how the government believes the soon-to-be-required technology will decrease costs for insurers, which is a major consideration for them to get on board.
�By contrast, CBO expects that state Medicaid programs, plans in the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) program, and private insurance plans would negotiate payment rates with providers that would enable those payers to realize most of the savings from reductions in providers’ operating costs (in addition to realizing the savings from reducing the utilization of some types of services). CBO estimates that the resulting federal savings in Medicaid would total $7.3 billion over the 2011-2019 period.�
The bottom line answer to the question of whether the insurance industry is ready for you to bill them electronically from your alternative practice is — if they are not now, they soon will be. And, that answer should be your cue to get on board as well, and look into the use of electronic medical billing software for your practice.
