Wiki Office Ally - Practice Mate

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How many of you are currently users of Office Ally - Practice Mate? Is it really FREE unless a paper claim is needed? I'm wondering how you like it and if you can tell me how many physicians you bill for and how many claims you normally submit in a months time. Are you getting paid by all your insurance companies and if not, why? Thanks!
 
Hi,

First, I have to say that I am not currently using Office Ally, but when I was managing a specialty practice 2 years ago for 2 MD's, I did. I did not use Practice Mate because we already had practice management software. I basically used them as a clearinghouse to submit my claims electronically. The software we had was not a well known one, but I had no problem with it interfacing with them (I'm not a techie type of person, so it had to be simple). I was very satisfied with the process and the company. They had real people you could talk to and they were US based, so there was no problem with us understanding each other. I felt that since they were US based, there was a better chance that they would live up to their Business Associate Agreement per HIPAA regulations.

When I started submitting electronically through them we were paid promptly from the insurance carriers. You know right away if something has failed to go through, so you can fix it quicker and get it sent back out and then you are paid quicker than a paper claim. Also, when it's submitted, you have proof that you sent it AND that it was received by the payor, so the payor can't say they didn't receive the claim.

As far as it being free -- mostly it is. The exception was (back then) if more than half of your claim submissions per month were to government-type payors (Medicare, Medicaid, etc.) there was a fee to the submitting MD because government payors don't pay a fee for the electronic submission of claims, but commercial payors do. When I signed on with Office Ally it was explained to me that most entities (?clearing houses) get paid on both ends -- from the commercial carrier AND the MD who submits the claim -- but Office Ally didn't collect from the submitting MD's. There were very few months where half of our submissions were government only; if your practice is predominantly government then make sure you understand how they will charge you.

Hope this helps.
 
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We use OA it isn't the best program out there but it got the job done. I liked we can submit our own templates and they added them to their system. The customer services is outstanding. They will walk you thru an issue or help with a claim. You pay extra if you use their credit card processing but it is cheaper than most, if more than 50% of your claims are to government insurances, or if you choose to have them print the paper claims. We just print and mail our own. We like it and it meets our needs.
 
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