The current healthcare industry and healthcare organizational dynamics continue to focus on improving patient service and optimal functionality. Kareo Medical Billing software provides healthcare organizations competing in the industry with advanced software features that can provide major advantages over other potential alternatives.
The organization has remained dedicated to providing practice personnel with increased efficiency and effectiveness capacities for their independent practice, as well as patients with experiences that are ultimately more rewarding.
This posting provides an overview of the nature of the service, relevant industrial dynamics, advantages and disadvantages integral in strategic optimizations, as well as implications for the continually improving industry.
Current Industry Trends
The current healthcare industry has developed medical billing services to optimize staff efforts in preparing and monitoring claims for the purposes of achieving the best possible outputs for service companies.
Medical billing services generally use billing personnel who possess skill sets and experiences spanning AHIMA and AAPC and while offering unique services and consultation communications for participants.
This serves to eliminate the demand of addressing billing requirements as clarity of operations, including financial successes, is optimized for stakeholders, investors, managers, personnel, and others.
As technology in hardware and software improve alongside shifting industrial dynamics, the capacity for advanced medical billing software to address organizational needs increases in parallel with the competition.
Competing services have continued to address variables spanning software PMS and usability factors, revenue value manipulation and equation dynamics, and a range of specialties encompassing compatibility demands.
Kareo Medical Billing software requires that users use an integral PMS, while the billing components make use of the same programming in order to scrub entered claims.
Users further have the capacity to observe claim statuses following their submission, in addition to a compiling list of denied or rejected claims which the billing components have recognized and categorized.
Growing lists of claims needing to be addressed in some way may be further observed and used for further analysis in accordance with user specifications, while users have commonly reported that the data visualization and menu elements of the software have successfully catered to human intuition dynamics for an optimal user-friendly operational experience.
Further optional feature elements in this area include entering and coding changes, allowing selection of revenue components while retaining flexibility and compatibility with the range of dynamics present in the current industry.
Kareo Medical Billing software does not have any inherent clearinghouse expenses or unpaid claim follow-up requirements that are common elsewhere in the industry.
The service works by creating all fees for clearinghouses within set monthly rates, while other medical billing services tend to separate and stack these for higher amounts not initially presented to customers, potentially some downside amid competitive pricing dynamics.
Generally, Kareo Medical Billing software will process patient claims through the established Waystar clearinghouse, sometimes networked with TriZetto instead.
Meanwhile, the service includes a following up on the entirety of claims that have remained unpaid on the behalf of the patients, in order to ensure that parties receive their funding in a timely manner.
This is true for both patients and payers as the service works to minimize the average days spent in accounts receivable alongside optimizing relevant variables of managing the cash flows continuing in organizational operations.
Following the receipt of monies owed to parties, the service works to deposit funding directly to the established financial institution account. This thereby involves Kareo Medical Billing serving as an accounts receivable partner entity in a seamless manner.
Primary Features
Primary feature functionality of Kareo Medical Billing has been developed in line with the greatest current industrial operation and patient service dynamics.
While emphasis has been placed on operational efficiency as a first priority, complete optimization of the highest complexity of service mechanics has also been prioritized in software development.
The software has online system operations which merge managerial dynamics for medical practice with all requirements of claims processing.
There is a limited amount of HER components spanning Electronic Medical Assistant, WebChartNow, WebPT, Practice Fusion, Care360, VitalHealth EHR, and MD-IT.
These software components were created for Windows systems, and therefore will not work with standard Mac systems without being set to operate through Windows in parallel with the Mac operating system.
The current security system for the software addresses the span of contemporary information protection, although users have reported some demand for increased consideration of backup-related aspects.
Practice management applications addressed through the software include data dashboard and screenshot analytic components. Presently, these are compilations of shortcuts for the most frequently used features, integrated together within a screen while addressing operations from established function lists alongside indicators of performance.
Meanwhile, patient records are kept within one storage area with access to demographic information for patients, components of established insurance policy, relevant data regarding healthcare service, alert information to be provided to patients, financial transaction data and history, and documentation storage.
The eligibility of insurance has spanned real-time assessments for insurance that is deemed to be inadequate.
Other aspects of practice management optimized in Kareo Medical Billing software span scheduling, appointment reminders, superbills, and tasks.
The scheduling features include aspects of appointment management by calendar viewing features, printing capacities spanning a range of traditional and commonly used forms, schedule customization aspects, and established regulation and policy rules that may be applicable to established scheduling.
Appointment reminder dynamics span email coordination features, which can be customized and optimized for patient communication efficiency and effectiveness.
Superbilling features permit users to ensure that all expenses accrued from visiting patients are narrowed and allocated to any relevant department division and practice application.
These may further be printed from scheduling functions through a specified timeframe. Lastly, the task feature allows users to establish task tracking for themselves or others operating.
Considering service aspects of Kareo Medical Billing features beyond this, charge entry, medical coding, and patient statement service functions are among the most beneficial.
Charge entry allows users to create schedules for fees in order to lower the amount of time invested for recording patient visit financial information.
Medical coding allows users to assess codes versus industrial standard alongside reimbursement regulations for individual patients as specified.
Patient statements allow electronic document creation facilitating online payment in addition to traditional non-digital statements for billing purposes.
Other useful service dynamics span credit card processing, payment posting, and denial claim management functions.
Credit card processing features allow users to use digital payment methods, online payment systems and to manage auto-payment functions alongside relevant patient communications regarding payments to their online or traditional account.
Payment posting allows automatic postings of insurance checks, receipt printing, and ERAs. Denial management facilitates the identification of insurance denials in addition to relevant solution development.
The administration also features useful in the primary features of Kareo Medical Billing span collections management, fee schedules and contracts, electronic claims, and electronic remittance advice.
Collections management features span assistance optimization in following up on unpaid receivables. Fee schedules and contracts features allow users to create schedules of practice fees and upload insurance contracts while locating underpayment data.
Electronic claims allow submission to over 2,500 government organizations and insurance organizations while processing claim status report data. Electronic remittance advice facilitates automatic posting alongside processing payments.
Pricing
Pricing in Kareo Medical Billing service has been recognized as fairly competitive in basic nature. While most revenue management services charge a portion of monthly expenses versus flat service fees, the organization opted to engage in this trend.
Users are thereby required to pay in the 4-7% range, considering variables spanning specific specialty relevant to the service, the volume of claims, and the size of the practice.
Regardless of how much is paid, patients receive complete access to the established PMS platform of the software.
Signing up with Kareo Medical Billing service requires a one-year agreement, standard in the current industry for cycle management, as well as a $1,000 minimum for monthly obligation, regarded as competitive considering average payments above-average collection percentage.
Contracts with Kareo Medical Billing are highly transparent. Monthly subscription fees are presently at $69 per provider for the most basic present service.
This thereby does not encompass many of the service aspects that are potentially offered by the service, spanning electronic claims.
These are available at individual fees per electronic claim, and the service options beyond this span three additional tiers of service currently priced at $149, $199, and $299 monthly.
Other Claim Management and Service Dynamics
Other claim management dynamics significant to Kareo Medical Billing include claim scrubbing. The service’s integral regulations scrubs all claims for errors prior to payer submission.
This facilitates the minimization of the potential for denial or rejection. The organization further uses its software core based on general network experiences, facilitating upgrading and optimization alongside mistake minimization.
When errors become evident in processing, Kareo flags them for staff review. Billers can then revise the claims as deemed fitting and then submit them to improve the potential that payers will initially accept them without dispute.
Denied-claim management is a similar important dynamic of the software service. The hosting website continues to encourage users to optimize initial acceptance rates to upwards of 95%, although strategies and relevant processes are continually optimized with maximum denial capacities or trends in mind.
Strategically targeting this, the service has been using an Organized Worksheet system to automatically allocate denied claims to the currently most qualified billing team.
The service works to address all denied claims prior to unfulfilled claims. Following claim resubmission, the service works to continue seeking payment.
Other service dynamics significant to Kareo Medical Billing include service and setup fee tier details. While the first three tiers of service do not have integral phone support, and only email and instant messaging support, this can be a downside to considering clientele.
While the company advertises its service as devoid of setup fees, some have argued this is not technically true, encompassing a competitive $1,500 fee demand for standing data importation into the MedLedger system.
Beyond this, electronic statements cost $.25 per statement while patient payment services cost $29.99 per month regardless of level, regarded as competitive for the current market.
Kareo Medical Billing: Potential Comparative Disadvantages
Comparing the service to others, it has been regarded as competitive with mixed feelings from users regarding superiority over other leaders in the industry.
One common complaint resulting in preference for alternatives has been technical support speed in EMR application interface quality.
The majority of customers receiving only chat and email support by nature of features has been concurrent with reports of response times commonly spanning into day and multiple day periods.
Return phone calls from premium payers have also been regarded as comparatively slow versus leading industry alternatives. The efficiency of fully encompassing primary features remains regarded as a leading choice for choosing service packages over competitors’.
Overall, the service has been considered to be lacking major drawbacks or disadvantages. Past customer complaints have been incorporated into the standing Better Business Bureau (BBB) rating, with most of these spanning EMR mechanics, and without affecting the rating greatly.
As a medical billing service, the BBB rating supports online customer averages and expert assertions regarding comparative competitive quality.
One final issue of common concern to potential customers of the current marketplace has been that the service is fundamentally inferior in terms of compatibility with large practices.
The software has commonly been referred to as most fitting for small and potentially medium businesses, without comparable applicability to revenue cycle dynamics present within larger practices.
This has led to some greater complaints from larger organizations that have previously selected Kareo Medical Billing service as the most fitting choice for them.
Considering all complaints, even for larger practices, this remains debatable, while suitability for medium and small businesses has been less challenged.
Implications for Continuing Industry
Kareo Medical Billing has been most strongly recommended for practices with a small or low volume of patients, practices which require highly user-friendly software databases with outsourced billing functions, and practices demanding medical billing service encompassing medical coding features.
While practices larger in size and that have a demand for extensive reporting dynamics have been more frequently recommended to choose an alternative, there is the immediate implication of demand for service improvements in at least this area.
Market dynamics imply that the demand for optimizations will continue to involve increased dynamics as the capacity for the software to address demands is maintained or improved among competitors.
Implications for industry and product development beyond this can be further considered in relation to the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the software.
Naturally, competitors in the industry able to better address outsourced processing, medical coding, and user-friendliness with equal or better pricing have the potential to take from Kareo Medical Billing’s current market share.
Failure to adapt as described will also facilitate this, potentially in the near-term, although and near-term or long-run updates or extensions of operational features have the capacity to further increase the organization’s present market standing.