Wendy Mazdon (of AMA South Australia) wrote:
Dear Dr Frank
Re: Faster Medicare Rebates
*On-line claiming*
Medicare on-line aims to process patient claims within 3-4 days.
Most practice software is now compatible with Medicare On-line. Why
not take advantage of the $750 incentive payment that is available?
Dear Wendy,
We already have, about a year ago. Is there another $750 available to us?
*Electronic claiming – /New & Improved Claiming System!!/*
AMA has been working closely with the Federal Government on
electronic claiming of Medicare rebates over the past three years.
I am a member of the AMA but don't recall any reports to members about
the progress of this work. Have I missed them?
Electronic Medicare claiming is a fast, easy and convenient new
claiming channel which will be available in the second half of this
year. It allows you and your patients to lodge Medicare claims using
the existing EFTPOS terminals already in most surgeries.
When a patient’s card is swiped through a standard EFTPOS terminal,
Gym membership card? Local library card? Membership card of the
Communist Party?
firstly Medicare will confirm that the patient exists
It will somehow confirm that the patient is actually still alive?
and confirm and apply any concession status that patient may be
entitled to. Secondly the bank will credit the doctor’s account on
the next working day.
Is there any important technical reason why the bank will not credit the
doctor's account in the next minute?
Currently this payment takes up to three weeks.
Only for political reasons, not technical reasons. Medicare benefits
could be paid immediately under the current system of Medicare Online
Claiming. The reason that they are not is only because of previous
political decisions first by Labour governments and continued by their
Liberal successors to discourage private billing and encourage bulk billing.
Getting Medicare benefits paid more quickly to doctors is a political
achievement, not a technical one, and the AMA should misrepresent it as
if it were a technical achievement.
If there is a gap, the patient can pay the gap directly at reception.
Will this require the patient's gym, library or Communist card to be
swiped a second time? If so, why?
If the patient pays the total account directly to the doctor, the
bank will transfer the correct rebate to the patient’s bank account
immediately, so the patient will not be out of pocket.
Except for the gap.
This course provides a valuable overview of the new system and will
assist practice managers in developing more efficient accounts
processes.
The existing Medicare Online Claiming system that we have been using for
the last year is now pretty efficient. One good thing that it does is
to tell us immediately that the patient's claim either has been accepted
or that the Medicare records contain something that causes the claim to
be rejected, for example claiming for a service during the after care
period after an operation, or the patient's details that we are sending
don't match those held by Medicare. This immediate notification allows
our staff to sort out the problem while the patient is still at the
reception counter.
How will the new system provide this useful function? How will it
provide the OPV (Online Patient Verification) function that lets us
check before we try to bill the patient whether our details for the
patient match those held by Medicare? In my practice we now do the OPV
check before accepting a new patient, partly in order to detect drug
seekers and other people using false, stolen or expired Medicare cards
or giving us false information and claiming that they have misplaced
their Medicare card. How will the new system provide an Item
Eligibility Function that is needed to enable us to check, before
providing complex services such as GP Management Plans, care plans or
Mental Health Plans that the patient is in fact eligible to receive a
Medicare benefit for that service - that is, he or she has not had that
service provided by another practice within the allowed interval?
Date: 7 March 2007
Time: 8.00am – 9.45am
Venue: AMA(SA), Newland House, 80 Brougham Place, North Adelaide
Cost: AMA(SA) members and staff: $55.00
Interested? Download the registration form from our website:
http://www.amasa.org.au/download/Seminars/2006%20publisher.pdf
Regards
I am a little confused. At the beginning of your message you promote:
> Medicare on-line aims to process patient claims within 3-4 days.
> Most practice software is now compatible with Medicare On-line.
which uses my practice's billing software and pays claims in a
politically-determined 3-4 days, and then you tell me:
> *Electronic claiming – /New & Improved Claiming System!!/*
>
> Electronic Medicare claiming is a fast, easy and convenient new
> claiming channel which will be available in the second half of this
> year. It allows you and your patients to lodge Medicare claims using
> the existing EFTPOS terminals already in most surgeries.
which uses an EFTPOS terminal and pays claims on the (also
politically-determined?) next working day.
Is the AMA suggesting that I do both?
--
Oliver Frank, general practitioner
255 North East Road, Hampstead Gardens, South Australia 5086
Phone 08 8261 1355 Fax 08 8266 5149 Mobile 0407 181 683
_______________________________________________
Gpcg_talk mailing list
[email protected]
http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk
