another Medicare consideration

[Guest guest]

.....being a 'non-HIPPA' office, I have been concerned about the requirements of

Medicare to do electronic billing MANDATORY soon....not to mention nearly daily

reports of such as the IRS, DMV, Pentagon, various banks, credit card companies,

etc etc being hacked for personal information....via internet....

.....I read closely HIPPA guidelines a few years back, to evaluate what THEIR

requirements were concerning 'record security'....

NOT just online....but IN the office as well....the hard-copy stuff...

My study then of HIPPA guidelines showed me it would cost me TOO DAMN MUCH to

construct the physical security stuff....

So I don't do ANY electronic billing, and even took the net out of my office,

after being online since CompuServe days with 300 baud modems....

kudos to Dr. for putting this hidden factor of overhead cost clearly in the

subject matter once again....

I simply can not afford the extra overhead, let alone the indifference and/or

outright hostility of the carriers as well as the frustration of dealing with

Medicare....if I'm going to treat a patient for " free " I ain't about to fill

out the forms multiple times and wait 6 months before I'm advised that's just

what I did....

Medicare a few years back sent me an informative brochure that stated their

study showed every time a small office has to rebill an account, the additional

cost of collecting was something over $17 per EACH re-billing....without

interest on the balance due....

I'm all for humane treatment of everyone, including DCs.....

J. Pedersen DC