Medical billing is complicated enough without having to know every inch of your billing software by heart. Because of all the complexities involved, medical billing software manuals are not only critical but they're also enormous. As a matter of fact, most medical billing software manuals are shipped in parts. So you have a decent chance of finding what it is you're looking for, we're going to give you a general breakdown of how a DME software manual is put together.
The first section of the manual is usually where you will find your installation instructions. These will contain step-by-step procedures for installing the software on each type of network, with subheadings for each network. Usually, the table of contents will include the networks covered so you don't have to go hunting for yours.
In this section, you will also find installation instructions for any add ons such as retail sales and barcoding. This is in case your company purchased these extra utilities. If they didn't, then this section won't apply. It's more cost efficient to include the add ons installation instruction in the standard manual than to send out a separate one only for customers who have add ons.
In your next manual, you'll find your instructions for setting up your databases. This is where you will find out how to enter data for doctor files, inventory files, patient files and so on. This section of the manual will usually have diagrams of each data entry screen so the user will know where each field is. Also, a complete description of each field will be included as well. For fields that tie in to medical forms, the manual will also tell the user which forms the field goes to as well as where on the form, such as line number.
The next set of manuals will usually focus on how to do billing, whether it be through printing out HFCA forms or sending claims electronically. Some software manuals have these sections separated. In addition to that, most software companies provide a separate manual plus record specifications for each carrier that is being billed, such as Medicare and Medicaid. In many cases, where a company has a large customer base and bills many different carriers, they may have as many as five or six different medical billing manuals or more.
And if all that isn't enough, there is usually a whole manual dedicated to troubleshooting the system in case there are problems. The reason a software company will go through all that trouble is to cut down on the number of support calls that they get, as each call takes up man hours, which is a lot more expensive than printing out a manual.
When all is said and done, a medical billing company can literally have a bookcase filled for just one piece of software. If a company does DME billing and then has another software for dental billing, that could mean another whole bookcase full of manuals. Because there are so many, usually there is a small manual that has the master table of contents so a person knows what manual to look in for what piece of information. Yes, medical billing software companies sure do kill a lot of trees.
And to top all this off, most companies have online versions of these manuals in case the hard copies get damaged or stolen. They've got all the bases covered so that the medical billing company can spend more time concentrating on actually billing and less time looking for things.