This document is intended to help you determine whether BestNotes’ billing and claims capabilities are a fit for your company’s claims needs and billing workflows. You can begin with the following checklist. If any of the following statements remain unchecked, BestNotes may not be the best solution and will require further discussion with our support team.
BestNotes electronic claims checklist
☐ I don’t mind creating my expected volume of institutional claims one patient at a time.
☐ I don’t need to auto-reconcile back to the BestNotes client ledgers.
☐ I understand that the BestNotes billing partners that facilitate AR/client statements are EZClaim and Office Ally.
☐ If I want to use Office Ally, I understand that they do not support mixed (HCFA/UB04) claims through BestNotes.
☐ My payers don’t require different codes or credentials for the same service.
☐ I don’t regularly make edits to services prior to generating claims.
☐ I don’t have complicated rendering/supervising provider requirements (BestNotes does allow for sending both, and can substitute supervising for rendering in limited ways).
☐ I understand that all edits on sent claims and/or special payer adjustment rules must happen within my billing service vendor solution, e.g. EZClaim, and not within BestNotes.
☐ To back-bill services, I understand that I must have my BestNotes fully setup with all needed billing features before adding those services to BestNotes.
It is important to understand that BestNotes staff are not billing specialists and cannot perform any billing setup without guidance from your billing staff. No custom development for billing and claims management can be accommodated at this time for our current product. However, we intend to build full billing functionality into our in-development product code-named BestNotes Fresh.
BestNotes service tracking
One of BestNotes’ major strengths is documenting services rendered. Clinical service codes can be registered in a client’s ledger in a variety of ways, both automatically and manually. All BestNotes claims are driven by these client ledger entries.
Each ledger entry is linked to a date of service, rendering provider, and facility (billing provider or service facility). In order for claims to be generated, additional items such as diagnosis, rendering provider details, and payer and plan information must be configured in advance. This information can then be pulled together to generate standard 837 electronic claims as EDI files. These files are then sent via secure FTP to one of our three billing service partners: EZClaim, ClaimMD or Office Ally. If you are currently working with a third-party billing service that supports secure FTP, let us know, and we can investigate a connection.
Claims in BestNotes
BestNotes provides several mechanisms for creating claims from services. Customers who bill professional (HCFA/837p) claims may preview all unbilled services across all clients through the "Preliminary Claims Queue" (PCQ). The PCQ will alert to common claim-related issues and allows for minor service edits. All claims generated from this view are sent with one service per claim.
Another mechanism for working with claims is the BestNotes "Claims Manager." From the "Claims Manager" you can review sent claims and edit already created, but unsent claims. You can also create new claims against patient services one patient at a time. This is also the only mechanism able to create institutional claims (UB04/837i). Institutional claims cannot be generated in bulk.
The heavy lifting of managing existing claims including edits, printing, and status checks are done through our billing service partners. BestNotes does provide service line tracking or statement of services through a register/ledger report filterable by date.
Getting started
If after a review of this document you feel that BestNotes’ current billing functionality is a potential fit, contact one of our service partners below. Once you’ve decided on a vendor or if you have any further questions, contact us at (866) 543-6646. If you’ve decided to work with Office Ally, or ClaimMD, have your SFTP credentials available for the phone call with BestNotes.
BestNotes electronic claims vendors
Contact the billing software company directly to see a demo.
- EZClaim:
- Accounts receivable and patient statements.
- Eligibility checking.
- Attach documents to claims.
- Additional per claim fee may apply, be sure to discuss specific clearinghouse and claim needs during the demo.
- Credit card processing.
- ClaimMD:
- Does NOT have A/R functionality.
- Eligibility Checking
- Attach documents to claims.
- Great option if staying with a 3rd party accounting software.
- Be sure to discuss specific clearinghouse and claim needs during the demo.
- Office Ally:
- A/R and patient statements.
- Eligibility checking.
- Attach documents to claims.
- Credit card processing.
- Lowest cost option.
- Great option for small companies that use a 3rd party accounting software
- Supports either UB04 claims, OR HCFA claims from BestNotes (you have to choose one or the other).
- Because we are very fixed in how we send claim data, Office Ally works in those cases where your billing is streamlined and very simple. If your claims cycle will require little to no edits prior to sending to a payer, this option is available.
We are an EHR that can send claims (HCFA/837p) via secure FTP. The above vendors are the only verified vendors, but we are open to testing a connection with your existing billing vendor. To inquire about this option submit a ticket to BestNotes Support or call (866) 543-6646.