Questions for the Billing Manager

Abstract

The use of a highly structured encounter form or “superbill” indicates a degree of readiness to computerize a practice. It usually means that all elements needed to produce a bill and claim (charges, diagnoses, etc.) have been captured onto one document that you can enter immediately to produce a computerized bill, or present a carbon of the form itself to the patient which serves as a statement for services rendered. Practices that do not have the flow of data organized to this degree are not yet ready to computerize. The encounter form itself does not necessarily have to be highly encoded in medical codes or computerese, but it should contain all of the charge data accumulated during a visit from both physician and nurse entries. This is absolutely a critical step to have in place prior to attempts at computerization.