December 2012

Dear SMB Client,

Thank you so much for a wonderful year. We feel we have endured (5010), persevered (launching SimplyPodiatry) and succeeded (growing our client base) throughout this eventful year. Luckily, we have the best employees and clients so through all the new changes in Podiatry Medical Billing we had a lot of fun too!

As we close out this year, we want to hear from you. It is invaluable to us as we continue to grow SMB. We are dedicated to helping your practice grow. Evaluations let us know how to best serve you, our valued clients. So please take a moment to fill out the evaluations in this newsletter.

We hope you have a wonderful holiday and we look forward to working with you in 2013!

2012: A Year to Remember!

Cheryl Sands Executive Vice President

Okay, so most of you know that Glen and I are not married - he's my brother-in-law. But we are still a really close family and we just finished celebrating Thanksgiving together. All of us "Sandsies" got together to eat a huge Turkey dinner last week. I will skip all the wonderful things that Glen had to say about me personally (that's a joke) and go right to the main topic of our Thanksgiving meal: You, our valued clients and our great employees!! Let's see, we made a list as we were eating turkey and passing the green bean casserole, let me find it. Here it is - "What we are thankful for at SMB Medical Billing".

Great employees, loyal clients, our new Simply Podiatry Billing/EHR product, a good working relationship with our clearing house, I could go on and on...

1. Employees - we have the BEST! One example is their commitment to a quick and accurate turn-around time when entering claims - We have a 48 hour goal of getting your claims out the door, because we know that it matters. Your cash flow is very important to you, thus it's vital to us as well. (Normally it's faster than 48 hours but it's not polite to brag!)

2. Employees who are flexible -Ever wonder how your claims get filed and there is never a lapse or break for vacations or sick time? Unlike "in house" billers we never stop sending your claims due to vacation or illness - our expert billers are able to cover for each other, as they are trained in billing for all regions and all insurance companies. It's what we like to call our "we never take a break" policy.

3. Clients who have been with us over the years, and for new ones! (We have a record number of new clients this year, so thank you!) Since we have been doing podiatry specific billing for so many years - we know what to do to get the job done! Its nice when that is recognized and rewarded by new doctors signing up with us, as well as retaining our long-standing practices!

4. Client Recommendations - thank you for spreading the word! We were able to sign clients even as the dust was still flying in the middle of the 5010 fiasco of 2012. You told your physician friends that while their money was drying up - SMB was actually getting your claims paid! We really appreciate the many recommendations that you deliver on our behalf.

5. Your office staff - that's right, we are very thankful for the people we work with every day in your office. We consider ourselves partners with your staff and we are honored for the privilege of working with them. Despite the fact we have miles between us - we feel like we have really bonded with them over the years. There are just some great people working for you!

6. Simply Podiatry - we have our own cloud based billing/scheduling/EMR platform. What this means is - we are not at the mercy of someone else to get things ready for the many changes coming in the billing industry. That is one of the reasons we developed our own system - we did not want to rely on others; these requirements are too important, too widespread and they change almost daily. Let us worry about that - we will keep you informed.

7. Our claims clearinghouse; we are considered a large client for them. - Therefore, they like to make sure that we are taken care of - we really appreciate them and the efforts they go to in making sure our clients are handled well and claims are not delayed, problems are solved quickly and upcoming changes on their end are anticipated well in advance.

In closing, we realize at SMB Medical Billing, we have much to be thankful for each day. For the huge part that you play, we are extremely grateful. Thank you for entrusting us with your billing needs. As Chad always says, "We look forward to continually building a service that is worthy of your loyalty." (Yes, we are thankful for him too!)

Happy Holidays from all of us at SMB Medical Billing!

Mary Shelton

Billing Specialist

In continuing our multiple series of giving helpful reminders of our new product, SimplyPodiatry, this newsletter will focus on logging in, finding a claim and checking a patient's balance. We hope you enjoy these useful refreshers.

After a log in and password have been assigned, go to www.smbpodiatrists.com.

Click on Provider Sign-In

Username: type username

Password: type password

Note: After logging in, the user's name is in blue in the upper right corner. To change the password, click on the name. A box opens up to change and save the password.

Dashboard: This is the screen the user will be on after the log in. All claims are accounted for on the Dashboard. If the Scheduler is used, the upcoming appointments show on the lower left. The Billing Metrics on the lower right shows the claim status of all claims. For a complete list of bill statuses, see Bill Status Description. On the upper left, in blue, under the practice name, there are pages you can navigate to. Click on the blue options to navigate to different screens.

Finding Claims and Patient Balances

Advanced Bill Search: To find a claim or a patient balance, start typing a patient name in the Patient Search - Patient: box.The user can search by first name, last name, account number, and other types of information.Tip:Type in just the first three letters of the first and last name with a space in between.The search will bring up any matching names.When the name comes up in the search, click on the name.It then changes to a black name in all caps (LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME).Once this happens, click on Search (located on the right in the middle of the screen).The Results box brings up all claims for that patient.

Find a Claim: Two pieces of important information about a claim are the Bill Status and the Balance. The Bill Status column is what tells whether the claim is completed or still pending payment. The Balance column tells the current balance of the claim. To go into the billing screen for a claim, double click on any line of the claim from the Results box. The claim details are on this billing screen.

Check Patient Balance: If a patient owes a balance, the claim status will either be Ready Bill Patient, Pending Patient Payment, or Patient Aging Hold. After pulling up a patient's claims, check the balance of the patient's account by going into one of the patient's claims. Once you go into the billing screen of the claim, look at "Total Patient Account Balance: $19.84". If the number is in parentheses ($19.84) this is a patient credit. This balance will take into consideration any credits or balances due and give a total due for the patient.

Note: If a patient's claims are on Patient Aging Hold, the balance due will look like it is zero. The actual balance due comes up on a pop-up note. We are holding the statements out until the doctor/office decides on the action needed.

In closing, we hope you have a wonderful holiday and happy new year.

Sincerely,

SMB Medical Billing

4podiatrists.com

In This Issue

2012: A Year to Remember!

This is Important

SimplyPodiatry Abbreviations

Evaluation Links

Personal Biller

Customer Satisfaction

Training

Sales

This is Important- Help us Help you!

Chad Bixler

Business Development

SMB's evaluations are our implementation of Net Promoter System (NPS). NPS is a way of doing business. It requires every level of our organization being rigorously and consistently focused on the quality of customer and employee relationships. Installing a NPS required a strategic commitment by our leadership, because it defines cultural values and core economics that affect every part of our business system.

Net Promoter System is a short two or three questions evaluation. The questions are special questions that have been exhaustively tested. The answers to questions in the evaluation have proven to be accurate indications of how an organization is performing and the quality of its relationship with its clients.

Our evaluations are contained in every newsletter. The four areas that SMB tracks are: Personal Biller; Customer Satisfaction; Sales; and Training.

The reason this is important to your practice is that the link between customer loyalty and true, sustainable, organic growth is well established, and provides our organizations (SMB and your practice) with powerful, measurable financial incentives. But unlike financial accounting rules that tempt businesses to chase short-term profits at the expense of customer loyalty, a Net Promoter System requires-and inspires-our organizations to do right by its customers and employees.

It is the business equivalent of the Golden Rule: treat others as you yourself would want to be treated.

Thus, by participating in the evaluations often, you help your practice to obtain true, sustainable, organic growth.

I would like to thank everyone for a great year. I enjoyed working with everyone and I look forward to working with everyone for years to come. Have a fun and safe holiday season.

SimplyPodiatry

Abbreviations

IP - Insurance Payment

SIP - Secondary Insurance Payment

TIP - Tertiary Insurance Payment

PIP - Partial Insurance Payment

One line of the claim denied, and claim is waiting for full payment.
Medicare forwarded the claim to secondary insurance but we do not have the secondary insurance listed, so posting PIP keeps from billing the patient too soon.

PSIP - Partial Secondary Insurance Payment

PTIP - Partial Tertiary Insurance Payment

COPAY - Payment made by the patient at the time of the service

PP - Patient Payment

WOINS - Write off insurance - this is the amount written off per guidelines according to the allowed amount by insurance for the procedure

DRWO - Doctor Write Off - Doctor or office has instructed biller to write off

BALFWD - The patient has a balance due in the old system that was brought over to the new system

TIME - Claim was submitted after timely filing limit

DUP - The claim is a duplicate of another claim

TRANS - Patient has been sent to collections. This code transfers the balance due to collections and makes the balance due zero in our system.

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