Adding up billing system offerings.

Raymond Aller, MD T billing/accounts receivable information systems featured on the following pages run the gamut from modules for a particular vendor’s laboratory information system to fully independent billing systems that are interfaced to a variety of LISs. Most vendors provide systems for their clients’ offices, but a few market an outsourced or application service provider model. Some ASP vendors use transaction-based billing mechanisms, while others establish a fixed fee. In a few cases, such as Xifin and Medical Data Processing, companies that are well established as outsourced billing services have begun offering a software module so laboratories can manage more of their own billing processes. A number of organizations have found LOINC (Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes) useful for billing. LOINC is a standard terminology and coding system for identifying laboratory results. The LOINC codes that are reported correlate with the CPT (current procedural terminology) or HCPCS (healthcare common procedure coding system) code billed. LOINC codes can be used to validate that appropriate CPT codes are being used. Many of the vendors in this year’s survey offer clients the capability of storing LOINC codes in their databases, but only two—Sysware and Xifin—say they provide the LOINC dictionary with each new installation. This is a prerequisite to linking the LOINC result codes with billing codes. We hope that more vendors will begin to integrate LOINC codes into their billing systems and, eventually, into algorithms for validating CPT codes. Showcased on pages 34–42 are 15 billing/accounts receivable systems from as many vendors. The tables are based entirely on information provided by the companies. We urge readers to verify all information about systems they are considering purchasing. Potential clients should talk to users of these systems and ask about the level of support provided by the vendor. Ask the vendor for a complete list of users and contact several of them. The selection process is less about choosing a particular piece of software than about assessing the character and reliability of the vendor that will be supporting and enhancing that software—and your laboratory—over many years. Ask yourself if this is a company with which you are comfortable entering into a long-term business partnership and upon which you are willing to stake the financial viability of your laboratory. ■