“Here’s a dirty little secret about healthcare: Money is a really big deal. Practices need to be reimbursed, the lights need to be kept on, and even doctors need to get paid.” The ERA/EFT combination also allows you to get paid sooner. When carriers process payments the paper and its electronic counter-parts are produced at the same time. Where the paper is now sorted, stuffed, stamped and assigned to the postal service for delivery, the electronic transmissions travel to you at the speed of light. This can amount to a difference of several days.
Which carriers are performing this magic? Almost all of them. HIPAA mandates that insurance companies support a group of electronic transactions and the ERA is one of these. All you need is the appropriate software in your office to accept the transmissions and post the payments to your accounts.
The company I work for has provided this capability to our clients for almost five years and has connected many of our customers to almost all of their major carriers. An important piece is about to be added with Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield. Regence is a major Blue in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Utah. Testing is underway to connect their ERA’s with our practice software. Once complete, this carrier will be added to our ERA offering at no additional charge.
Whether you use our software or another product you should be taking advantage of how automated ERA processing can save your staff time, collect insurance payments more quickly and reduce posting errors.
ERA’s are a right click no matter what you call them.
Since this blog was originally posted in January 2013, a number of additional ERA carriers have been added, most notably Regence Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Delta Dental of Washington.
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