Over the past decade, the field of chiropractic and complementary medicine has advanced tremendously, from practitioners learning new techniques of care to the continued emergence of quantifiable evidence to support its findings. As a result, the entire discipline has grown in acceptance, popularity, and respect.

Over the same period, something else has evolved as well — the tools you can use to make your practice run smoother, more efficiently, and more profitably.

Nowhere is this more evident than when it comes to the new back-office technologies that support practices of all sizes.

Although some software solutions were once only affordable and practical for large offices, today these technologies make sense even for practices with few staff and modest budgets. As a result, now most doctors can benefit from powerful technology if they plan and choose wisely.

Still, though, too many chiropractors are continuing to run the back end of their practice “old school,” performing tasks manually on paper when they could be more efficient and cost effective by upgrading to a computerized approach. Consider the following examples.

Submitting claims electronically: It’s an electronic world, and if you want to get paid quickly and correctly, you need to submit claims electronically. You can enhance your practice with a clearing- house and practice management system that encompasses scheduling, billing, and accounts receivable.

Your system should allow you to easily and accurately enter your diagnosis and treatment. It can then produce a claim and send it to a clearinghouse that will flag any mistakes and then pass it on to the appropriate payer.

Handling your billing this way greatly reduces time and expenses (paper, stamps, etc.), as well as the time it takes for you to get paid. Remember that insurance companies love providers who work electronically because they, like you, are saving time and money by adapting to these new norms.

Eligibility checking: You already know that it’s critical to ensure that your patients have insurance, and that they understand what part of their bill they are responsible for. Advanced eligibility checking technology makes this easy.

The right program can authenticate insurance, and confirm how many visits a patient has remaining, before the patient even walks into your office. It is a lot easier for you to collect a direct payment before the patient leaves your office than it is to bill the insurance company later and then need to follow up. And remember, this is important even if you’ve seen the patient before, because you need to know how many visits he or she has remaining for insurance reimbursement.

Electronic remittance advice: Another technology that can save you time is the electronic remittance advice (ERA), also referred to as explanation of benefits (EOB). With some software packages, you can view the ERA electronically, but have to post manually. With the right kind of software, you can integrate ERA with a clearinghouse for automatic posting.

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