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Click on any line for answers to these commonly asked questions:
How much does it cost?
Our standard rate is only 41
cents per accepted electronic claim.
There are NO Start up costs for
Signature
CLAIMS,
INCLUDING
the communications software!!
We do NOT charge a
per-provider fee.
We have NO annual fees.
We have no fees to talk to a
human being!
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Why so low?
The entire operation of
Signature
CLAIMS is
based around the computers doing all the work. Certainly, human
hands are involved, but by keeping our costs to a minimum we can
pass savings onto you! return
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I see a lot of "free" clearinghouses. Why aren't you "free"?
"Free" seems to be a relative term. Recently
seen on the Internet was a clearinghouse website that advertised
that they were "free"...for only $79 per month. Where is the
"free" part?
Signature
CLAIMS
charges a very low and competitive rate for a quality service
and we do so honestly and without gimmicks. return
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Do you use the Internet?
YES!
Signature
CLAIMS
has recently installed the proper software and modems so that
you can enjoy using the
Signature
CLAIMS
communications software, yet use your cable or DSL modem for the internet
and sending your
claims and receiving your reports safely! The choice is up to
you! Dial up or Internet!
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Will my modem work with
Signature
CLAIMS?
If you use a cable modem or DSL modem,
those are intended for the Internet (see above).
Signature
CLAIMS
also
uses a NORMAL TELEPHONE LINE MODEM to communicate with the
server. If your computer does not have one already built in, an
external modem that can be plugged into your serial port or your
USB port can be purchased for less than $50 at your local
computer store. If you need assistance, please contact
Signature
CLAIMS.
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Do I have to sign up with
each individual insurance company?
No,
Signature
CLAIMS
will take care of most of the insurance companies for you.
However, some insurance companies require a signature from the
providers on their forms. In these cases,
Signature
CLAIMS will provide you with the necessary forms.
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What is the "HIPAA" format and do I have to worry about
it?
The HIPAA format is what we at
Signature
CLAIMS are asked to submit our claims to the various insurance
companies in. You would think that this would be a "standard",
and that is not correct, as various insurance companies EACH
have their own special way of interpreting the data. That is why
there IS a
Signature
CLAIMS...so
that you don't have to worry about the various formats or
updates, you just
have to give
Signature
CLAIMS your claim data using the
HCFA 1500 form format. WE
DO THE REST...from converting your data to the proper format, to
the transmission of your claims, TWICE A DAY to the
insurance companies.
For an in-depth look at all things HIPAA,
check out
http://www.drzur.com/hipaa.html.
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Do you drop your claims to paper?
We have various services available to
Signature
CLAIMS
that can allow for paper claims. Currently, we do not take
advantage of these services because we feel that the paper
claims are best handled right in your own office. We are
not closed to suggestion however and if you have a strong desire
for your paper claims to be "dropped" to paper and mailed then
please contact
Signature
CLAIMS
and let's discuss it.
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What is my "Claims file" and how do I find it?
Your CLAIMS FILE is your claims, in the
HCFA 1500 format, that you would normally print on your printer
but instead, are "printed" to a FILE on your computer.
This file is in what is called the ASCII format and can be
viewed with any viewer on your computer. It will look like your
HCFA form but without all the red lines.
This file is created in YOUR medical
billing software. 99% of the medical billing software on the
market today allows for this function.
In order to find this file on your
computer, you either need to note it when you create the file,
or contact your medical billing software company and inquire as
to the NAME of the file and the LOCATION of the file.
When you create the file for
Signature
CLAIMS
and submit a test, we ask that you submit a test with as much
data as possible. This makes it easier for
Signature
CLAIMS to
"map" your data. Once your data is mapped, we would ask
that you try to NOT change any data locations or formats as that
will involve re-mapping your data.
You can also create your claim in the
Signature
CLAIMS
Provider CLAIM SOFTWARE.
This part of the program looks just like a HCFA 1500 form and
has some great features to make entering your claim very easy.
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How long does the
set up take?
You can be
sending in claims TODAY! The commercial carriers will take your
claims immediately and the Blue Cross/Blue Shields and
government claims only take a few days. With other
clearinghouses this could take 6 weeks!!!!
When you sign up with
Signature
CLAIMS,
you will be sent a series of forms. Some of these forms can be
faxed back to
Signature
CLAIMS
and some need to be mailed. Any form that requires a signature
will HAVE TO BE MAILED. We also ask that all signatures be in
BLUE ink. We MUST have original signatures to send on to
those insurance companies that require them.
We also need you to send us a sample test batch of claims,
via the
Signature
CLAIMS software that was sent to you. Please try not
to send in less than 10 claims and please try to send us claims
with as much filled out as possible as we will use these test
claims to "map" your file and the more information available to
us, the less we have to guess at certain fields.
Once we have received your forms and your
claims file is "mapped", you are READY TO SEND in your
"commercial" claims. It takes 7 working days to be able to
send your government claims.
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What is the "MAIL" and how does that help me?
Mail comes to
Signature
CLAIMS from most
of the insurance companies after they have had a chance to
process the claims. This mail normally comes from between 1 and
3 days after claims have been submitted. Once
Signature
CLAIMS
receives a mail batch from the insurance company, the software
will separate it out and make it available to the clients.
The next time that you send in claims, your mail will be
delivered to your computer, automatically.
This mail is VERY important!! Not
only is it useful in tracking claims, but it can also point out
problems in the claims submission. Because of it's nature
and the numbers,
Signature
CLAIMS cannot track the mail of each
individual client so it is up to you and your staff to browse
this mail for any inaccuracies.
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What if a claim is just "not paid"?
A claim that does not get some sort of
resolution is a failed claim and that is not acceptable to us at
Signature
CLAIMS. If a claim fails to pay, then contact
Signature
CLAIMS and let us see if we can help track down any
problems. We DO strive for perfection but if something is amiss,
we want to know about it as soon as we can so that future claims
are ALL paid.
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What does it cost to talk to a human?
In these days of machines it is easy to
get lost in a phone tree. If you want to talk to a real
person at
Signature
CLAIMS, just call between the business hours
of 9am to 5pm Pacific Time, Monday through Friday and you can talk to a real
person for FREE. If we are assisting another customer then you
might get a busy signal, but please keep trying.
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What is "Medigap"
and how do I use it?
A Medigap plan is a health insurance policy
offered by a private entity to persons entitled to Medicare
benefits. It is specifically designed to cover some of the
"gaps" in Medicare's coverage (deductibles, coinsurance amounts or other limitations imposed by
Medicare).
Often, all you need to do is list the Medigap
payer in box 9d on your HCFA form. However, you do need to spell
it according to our records so you need to have the list that
Signature
CLAIMS provides, of Medigap payers.
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Can you email me my software?
YES! As long as you can deal with email
attachments we are more than happy to email you your
Signature
CLAIMS software.
When you sign up with
Signature
CLAIMS
you will receive an email with the forms that you need, your
personal registration number and a link to the software that you
can download from the Internet. You can be using our software
TODAY!
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Can you work with my medical billing software?
If your software can output the HCFA data
as noted above, then we can process your claims for you.
However, we do not directly "talk" to your medical billing
software for any sort of confirmation process. Also, we cannot
circumvent your software and change your claim data. If you have
an issue with your software then you must take it up with your
software company.
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What if I don't have medical
billing software?
Signature
CLAIMS
works with many different software
packages and we can recommend a few for you to shop around and
explore. If you have a need to JUST send in some claims
electronically,
Signature
CLAIMS
does have our
Provider CLAIM
SOFTWARE
built into the communications software.
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What is "NPI" and
what do I have to do?
"NPI" stands for "National
Provider Identifier" and all providers that are sending claims
to government agencies MUST attain this number. Contact your
local Medicare office. As to what to do with it, there is a
schedule being set by Medicare that allows for the transition
from the old or "legacy" number to the new NPI. Medicare will
decide WHERE on the HCFA form to put this information but with
Signature
CLAIMS,
we can put that NPI number exactly where Medicare requires it,
electronically and YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO A THING!
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Can I review my claims before being sent to
Signature
CLAIMS?
Yes you can view and review your claims
before they are sent to
Signature
CLAIMS. However, if a claim
has incorrect information, you should NOT try to correct that
information at that level!! If a claim is not correct,
then you must delete the entire batch and resubmit the claim so
that the data is correct in your medical billing software.
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How often do you send your claims to the payers?
We are sending our claims into the payers
THREE TIMES A
DAY.
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How often do you get mail from the payers?
The payers process overnight during the
week so we get
the mail from the payers in the morning and distribute it at the
same time. Most payers will not give us mail on the weekends and
holidays.
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I like to work late. Can I send in my claims at any time?
Yes, the system is up and running 24
hours a day, 7 days a week. If you wish to talk to a real
person, our hours are 9am to 5pm, pacific time, Monday through
Friday.
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I don't like to use my credit card. What are your payment
policies?
Although we prefer to use the credit
cards, we understand that some people like to write checks. Our
policy is that if the last invoice was not paid by the time the
current invoice is issued, the system will automatically shut
the customer out from being allowed to submit claims until all
invoices are current. We apologize for any inconvenience this
may cause but in order to pass on the savings of low overhead
Signature
CLAIMS simply cannot afford to hold unpaid
invoices. In the case of "flat" fee customers, using a
credit card is required.
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How easy it is to learn your software and train my staff?
Signature
CLAIMS
should be the last of your worries when it comes to your claims
processing. The software is designed for ease of use and even
though it does some pretty complicated things, it does so
automatically. After your
Signature
CLAIMS
software is set up, you need to only enter the software and
click on a single button to submit your claims. Can't get much
easier than that!
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Are you a billing service?
No, we are a clearing house only. This
means that we do not enter the data itself into the computer.
Many of the
Signature
CLAIMS clients are billing services so if
you have a need for a billing service please contact us and let
us put you in touch with one of our satisfied customers.
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If I would like to submit to a payer that is not on your
list, what is involved?
The list that we use for national
commercial companies comes from Emdeon and we regularly update
this list. The list is given to you after EACH claim submission
so that you have the most up-to-date list on your computer!
If the payer you would like to submit is NOT associated with
Emdeon (NEIC) then we can contact
that payer directly to see if they will accept claims from
Signature
CLAIMS.
This includes government claims.
It is our goal to add these payers to our
list, so please feel free to let us know about them or to let
them know about
Signature
CLAIMS!
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What are remittance reports (advice) and what does it mean
to me?
These are reports that come from SOME of
the payers that will tell you in advance of the EOB about the
payment information. This can be very useful in seeing what is
paid and what has been altered in what you expect to see from
the payers.
To get the remittance advice you need to
sign up ahead of time when you first enroll with
Signature
CLAIMS. Not all payers provide this service, but if they do then
the software that runs on
Signature
CLAIMS is ready to decode
and distribute that information.
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For more information about
Signature CLAIMS,
contact us.
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