Sunday, February 24, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Hcfa 1500 Forms - When To Use Them, Where To Buy Them, How Much Should They Cost?
HCFA FORMS
HCFA1500 forms are the standard insurance form used by all insurance companies across the United States to process medical insurance claims. It is part of HIPAA to standardize all medical insurance billing. HCFA 1500 forms are red and white and can be purchased from many different suppliers in several different forms.
If you're shopping for HCFA 1500 forms , we pay $34.20 per box of 2500 plus shipping when the quantity is less than 12500 for single laser forms. The price is a little better if we order 6 or more boxes of 2500 per box. It costs us 1.6 cents per form.
They can be purchased either single or multiple copies,continuous form feed, or laser print, with or without barcode. Which type you decide to purchase will depend on your type of printer, and/or your need to keep a copy of the original form. For example, if you do not intend to keep a copy of the form, and you have a laser printer, you will purchase the single copy, single sheet forms.
If for some reason your office requires a copy of the HCFA form as well as the original, you can purchase the two part continuous feed forms and use a form feed printer although these are fairly antiquated now. You can also pretty easily print two claims although this can be costly if you are doing it on a large scale.
Most practice management systems are capable of printing the HCFA1500 form itself along with the claim, but unless you have a color printer that will print the form in red and the claim in black, you may have a problem submitting the forms. Some insurance companies will not accept HCFA’s that are not printed in red ink.
Just a funny side note here. Make sure you keep a supply of the forms on hand. You don't want to run out. We once ran out, and had to take an old box of continuous form feed, double copy forms separate them and tear off all the edges so that they would work in our laser printer! Not a fun task!
Different insurance companies require different blocks on the HCFA to be completed in a certain way. All medical billing software comes with the capability to print charges in the HCFA1500 format. For complete instructions on completing a HCFA 1500 form, click here.
You will use these forms whenever you are submitting a paper claim. You may submit all insurance claims on paper, or only your secondary claims that requires an attachment. Some insurance companies and no-fault carriers are not ready to accept electronic transmissions and must be filed on paper.
If you are using a clearing house, you may submit all your claims to them and they will, for a charge, turn your claims that cannot be sent electronically to paper.
When purchasing HCFA 1500 forms , be sure to compare prices. Check out your cost per copy.
Some companies also offer window envelopes to mail HCFA1500’s eliminating the need for labels which can be a big time saver. We purchase two sizes of the window envelopes. The regular business size window envelopes hold us to 12 - 14 claims and the large size will hold almost a pound of claims.
Michele Redmond is the co-owner of a medical billing business with her mother Alice Scott. They currently are responsible for the billing for over 50 providers. For more information about HCFA 1500 Forms, other insurance claim forms, or other information on Medical Billing, visit their website at http://www.solutions-medical-billing.com For instructions on how to complete a HCFA 1500 form, go to http://www.solutions-medical-billing.com/hcfa1500instructions.html
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michele_Redmond
HCFA1500 forms are the standard insurance form used by all insurance companies across the United States to process medical insurance claims. It is part of HIPAA to standardize all medical insurance billing. HCFA 1500 forms are red and white and can be purchased from many different suppliers in several different forms.
If you're shopping for HCFA 1500 forms , we pay $34.20 per box of 2500 plus shipping when the quantity is less than 12500 for single laser forms. The price is a little better if we order 6 or more boxes of 2500 per box. It costs us 1.6 cents per form.
They can be purchased either single or multiple copies,continuous form feed, or laser print, with or without barcode. Which type you decide to purchase will depend on your type of printer, and/or your need to keep a copy of the original form. For example, if you do not intend to keep a copy of the form, and you have a laser printer, you will purchase the single copy, single sheet forms.
If for some reason your office requires a copy of the HCFA form as well as the original, you can purchase the two part continuous feed forms and use a form feed printer although these are fairly antiquated now. You can also pretty easily print two claims although this can be costly if you are doing it on a large scale.
Most practice management systems are capable of printing the HCFA1500 form itself along with the claim, but unless you have a color printer that will print the form in red and the claim in black, you may have a problem submitting the forms. Some insurance companies will not accept HCFA’s that are not printed in red ink.
Just a funny side note here. Make sure you keep a supply of the forms on hand. You don't want to run out. We once ran out, and had to take an old box of continuous form feed, double copy forms separate them and tear off all the edges so that they would work in our laser printer! Not a fun task!
Different insurance companies require different blocks on the HCFA to be completed in a certain way. All medical billing software comes with the capability to print charges in the HCFA1500 format. For complete instructions on completing a HCFA 1500 form, click here.
You will use these forms whenever you are submitting a paper claim. You may submit all insurance claims on paper, or only your secondary claims that requires an attachment. Some insurance companies and no-fault carriers are not ready to accept electronic transmissions and must be filed on paper.
If you are using a clearing house, you may submit all your claims to them and they will, for a charge, turn your claims that cannot be sent electronically to paper.
When purchasing HCFA 1500 forms , be sure to compare prices. Check out your cost per copy.
Some companies also offer window envelopes to mail HCFA1500’s eliminating the need for labels which can be a big time saver. We purchase two sizes of the window envelopes. The regular business size window envelopes hold us to 12 - 14 claims and the large size will hold almost a pound of claims.
Michele Redmond is the co-owner of a medical billing business with her mother Alice Scott. They currently are responsible for the billing for over 50 providers. For more information about HCFA 1500 Forms, other insurance claim forms, or other information on Medical Billing, visit their website at http://www.solutions-medical-billing.com For instructions on how to complete a HCFA 1500 form, go to http://www.solutions-medical-billing.com/hcfa1500instructions.html
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michele_Redmond
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