Anyone who’s worked in a medical equipment store has likely had to deal with insurance companies and other health benefit providers. Those fortunate enough to work with integrated ERP systems know it doesn’t have to be a complicated or drawn-out process.
One of the major challenges people in this field constantly face—whether they deal in medical equipment or supplies—is with regards to tracking and billing sales accurately. In order to collect the money owed by an insurance company, the paperwork needs to be perfect. One mistake and the health billing organization will likely reject your request to be paid.
For many medical equipment companies, the majority of customers they deal with carry insurance coverage. As such, it’s a good idea to operate medical store software that will process this information accurately and effectively to ensure your cash flow is optimized. Here are a few ways ERP systems can help:
Create and Manage Customer Accounts
The first step towards invoicing a health benefits provider is knowing who your customers are and what level of coverage they carry. When you sell to an existing customer, you can use ERP systems to:
- Easily verify their benefit
- Calculate the customer portion
- Determine the health provider portion
For new customers, you can add their information on the fly and begin tracking their purchase history from that moment on.
Split Billing
To determine how much you should invoice a health billing organization, your business needs to calculate the customer portion and the insurance portion owed for the equipment or service you provide. Split billing handles this with ease, generating invoices that clearly detail these amounts.
Transactions like this will happen a lot in the medical equipment industry. As you can imagine, a feature such as split billing can save a tremendous amount of time and energy every day.
Manage Your Inventory
Many health benefit providers implement a cap on consumable products such as diapers. This is done to prevent wastage. Medical supplies companies that dispense more than the allotted amount to a customer might find themselves on the hook for the excess.
ERP systems can assign category codes to particular products, and notify a staff member at the point of sale if a customer is about to go over their quota. The customer will then have the option of paying for the extra inventory, or waiting until the time limit to reset.
Track Reference Numbers
In order to submit requests for reimbursement to an insurance company, you’ll need to include the correct health billing reference number. Without it, your claim could be delayed, or worse yet, rejected.
With medical store software, you can easily attach the corresponding reference number to a particular customer’s file, making for a straightforward transaction.
If you operate a rental service for things like wheelchairs and other equipment, read our post: 3 Things Rental Software Does to Help Manage Your Business.
Do you need integrated ERP systems for your medical equipment and supplies store? Windward System Five is a comprehensive business management system that includes an industry-specific module for medical stores. Call us to learn more.
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