This article provides a good reference point regarding what controls and transparency features you should be looking for in a chiropractic billing system.

One important aspect of chiropractic billing software should be to have an adequate level of transparency and control. Control means, for example, being assured that every claim is submitted and that there are no gaps in the time when a claim is submitted and when it arrives at the filling company. An ideal control approach is where a claim is entered right at the adjusting table.

Another aspect of control is providing all authorized personnel to access to control information when they need it. An ideal way to provide this access is through a web based interface so that information is easily available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.

Control extends across many areas including making sure that when claims are entered at the end of business that all of them are transmitted for processing.

Transparency means being able to access all information about a transaction or group of transactions.

For example, if an insurance company has an outstanding balance owed you in receivables; you should be able to drill down to all the claims that comprise that outstanding balance.

Here’s a list of the types of information that an effective billing system should provide to supply an adequate level of transparency and control:

· Amount practice collected so far this month
· Total amount practice has outstanding
· How many claims need to be followed up on
· How many claims are actively being followed up on right now
· Past due amount in receivables up to 30 days old
· Past due amounts in receivables 31-60 days old
· Past due amounts in receivables 61-120 days old
· Amount outstanding aged by insurance company
· Individual claims related to the outstanding amount by insurance company
· Insurance balances in A/R sorted by balance
· List of claims not being followed up on
· History of all actions related to each individual claim
· Date claim submitted and date claim processed
· Aged list of claims not processed
· Missed appointment list by type
· Missed appointment list by patient to identify patients who consistently miss appointments

To summarize this, when it comes to transparency and control, you need:

- Access to all information down to the lowest level of detail
- Ability to drill down from the highest level of detail to the lowest
- Dates each change occurred to each event or transaction and the date that change occurred
- Reason codes showing why changes occurred to each transaction

When selecting a billing system, it is extremely important to assure that, soap supplies, the system has an adequate level of controls.

The best approach for assuring controls and evaluating a billing system is to develop your own checklist of controls that should be in the system you are evaluating and to compare your list with the features of any system you are evaluating.