It's a medical biller's worst nightmare. He or she is in the process of doing medical billing for their largest carrier and suddenly their software stops functioning as it should. Maybe you're posting batch payments and you get an error message. Of you're electronically transmitting a claim file and you get a message "no response from host". The number of problems that can go wrong with your medical billing procedures are countless. So what do you do when something goes south on you?
Your first choice is to try to fix the problem yourself. Since most software packages come with decent manuals, you might actually be able to troubleshoot most problems. But what happens if you run into something that you just can't figure out no matter what you try? Well, fortunately, most software packages for medical billing also come with live support. How good this support is depends on the company and they're all different. But there are some things that they all have in common. It's a standard support system that you're going to have to get used to dealing with.
It starts with a toll free number, in most cases. Some don't have this and it's really a pain to have to pay for the call. But this is rare. Once you reach the number, you will be greeted by one of those automated answering services. You'll be asked a ton of questions in order to get you to the support specialist that can best help you with your problem. Just so you know, their are no front line specialists. All these people handle the same problems. The reason they make you go through this is so they can log the call into a database and keep track of the different types of problems.
Once you finally reach the front line support tech, he or she will ask you what the problem is. This is how you really know that you're not directed to anyone special or they'd already have this information. In most cases, this front line support tech will be able to solve your medical billing issue, especially if it's procedure related. But in most cases where the problem is a software error, this person is about as useful as oxygen to a dead man. The reason is because most front line support techs only know the basic operation of the software. Once they're confronted with a serious problem, they're lost. So what happens then?
The front line support tech will put you on hold and transfer you to a level two tech. This is a person who is more familiar with the problems that occur with your software. They'll usually have a manual of common error messages for each module in the system and more often than not, they'll be able to fix the problem.
Should the problem turn out to be a software programming problem, a ticket will be written up for the programmers and you'll be contacted when the fix is completed. This can take anywhere from a day or two to several months, depending on how serious the problem is.
Medical billing software support can be a pleasant experience or a total nightmare depending on the problem you're having. It's just the nature of the beast and something medical billers need to learn to deal with.
