It’s unbelievable that only recently has the state of our drinking water supplies become an area of concern in the media. Many people are starting to realize their need for a home purifier water system. Before CNN, NBC and the LA Times among other media heavyweights took notice of the present peril of our tap water, numerous studies had been showing for years that our tap water is tainted. Yet owning a home water purifier was long something considered to be the domain of health nuts.

But, do I really need a home water purifier?

This has been mistake number one, believing that most of our water supplies whether big city or rural areas are safe and don’t require a home water purifier. In a report issued by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)many metropolitan water systems were found to contain contaminants such as lead, radon, and pathogenic germs such as Cryptosporidium to name a few. Not to mention that many of the pesticides and prescription drugs recently reported in the news to be flowing from are kitchen taps are not even regulated by EPA established standards.

Even the chlorine originally added in most areas to disinfect water for consumption, is a major cause of concern according to many medical regulatory and watchdog organizations. The EPA itself in its Disinfectants and Disinfection Byproducts Rules states “Some disinfectants and disinfection byproducts (DBPs) have been shown to cause cancer and reproductive effects in lab animals and suggested bladder cancer and reproductive effects in humans.” They in fact slapped chlorine and its related disinfectant cousins with a mandated minimum limit that can be allowed in drinking water due to there dangerous by-products.

Home Water Purifier anyone?

I probably don’t have to tell you that our drinking water processing facilities don’t always meet acceptability levels. And if your like me,you would like as little cancer causing contaminants in your body as possible. I definitely refuse to let my children consume these contaminants if I can do anything to stop it.

Water is necessary for every living being and kids especially need decent water for proper growth and development.

Our bodies are as is the planet itself approximately 75 percent water. The water we drink infuses our cells, lubricating our joints and flushing toxins from our systems. If then the water we consume is polluted its self we can only expect a negative result in the public health. I mean have you ever before heard of the number of diseases and cancers being reported today?

A home purifier water system is a must in any home, despite its location. Rural locations must also be vigilant concerning there drinking water the pesticides talked about by the media are directly related to the pesticides and herbicides used in farming. These chemicals leach into the ground and into wells and aquifers were water is drawn from. We just are not able to control the action of others or the possibility of mistakes in processing of our drinking water. A comprehensive home water purifier is however not as simple as going to the local department store and picking the special of the day, or the most expensive one either. Expensive does not translate into affective.

A reverse osmosis home purifier water system, which have been very popular, for instance strips water of the good minerals that sustain our good health and our children’s development. What’s needed instead is a multistage home purifier water system that maintains good mineral balance while removing the contaminants and chemicals that are present in our water.

Your next step?

Your next step is to take what you’ve just learned and find a comprehensive home water purifier for your families needs. Not having a home purifier water system has been something many of us have been guilty of and its high time we correct this mistake.

Does your computer keep crashing or hanging on you? Sometimes when we’re in the middle of an important document, and alt tab, the screen can suddenly freeze, or even worse a blue screen error pops up. The second is called the blue screen of death, and if work is not saved, it is instantly loss when we reboot.

There are many reasons why the Blue screen of death happens or the screen freezes/crashes…Often it can be attributed to software or programs that we downloaded over the internet or installed through a cd, which caused a conflict with exisiting programs.

Check for a software conflict:

1. If an older program suddenly stops working properly after you install a new program, try reinstalling the older program, which may have had some of its files overwritten by the new one.

2. If your computer crashes after you install a new program, when both it and an older program are running, check with the publishers of the programs to see if there are updates that address the conflict.

3. If you’ve installed a new program and start getting crashes that don’t seem to be related to running any other program, try uninstalling the new program. (See How to Remove a Windows Program.) If crashes continue, reinstall the operating system.

4. The Lazy Mans Way

The lazy way is to get a good registry cleaner because software conflicts results in errors in our registry, which contains all the drivers, information about our computer, printer drivers, softwares, video card drivers etc. An up to date registry cleaner quickly and easily fixes software errors

There are many career schools offering medical coding and billing courses. Sometimes the program is referred to as “Medical Billing,” “Medical Billing and Coding” or “Medical Billing/Coding Specialist.” There are many variations of these names, but all these programs should teach the same skills.

The purpose of this article is to inform you on the top 8 classes (or subjects) you should learn in your medical coding and billing program.

These class names are generic here, but it will give you an idea of what you should expect to learn in a medical billing program. You want to make sure your medical coding program incorporates these subjects into their curriculum to ensure you receive proper training.

Medical Insurance and Billing Issues A strong knowledge of health care plans and understanding strategies for insurance problem solving is vital for careers in medical billing. This class usually will give students hands-on training in processing insurance claims and learning how to obtain and use correct ICD-9 and CPT codes.

Medical Billing Documentation and Evaluation This class introduces students to the process of documenting medical procedures, as well as documenting unlisted procedures. This class will also cover insurance collection strategies, and will teach you the communication skills necessary to help you find and collect on money owed.

Government Health Care Programs & Billing Methods A professional medical biller needs to have a comprehensive understanding of preparing insurance claims to government programs like Medicare, Medicade, and TRICARE.

Electronic Data Interchange This class might sounds scary, but don’t worry. This class provides medical billing students an opportunity to learn to process medical codes and data on different types of computer claims systems. Popular claims systems include clearinghouse and carrier-direct. Find out what claims systems you’ll be trained on.

Medical Insurance Claim Form - CMS-1500 Any medical billing student needs to gain experience completing various types of health care claim forms. It can seem like a complicated process, but a quality medical billing school should teach you the basics to compete these forms correctly.

Ethical and Legal Responsibilities This will probably not be a class name, but it should be a subject covered within your medical program. You should learn the legal ramifications involved in medical billing practices, and learn how to avoid common medical billing mistakes that can lead to problems.

Medical Terminology A class in medical terminology is extremely important to the medical billing profession. Medical terminology can give you a handle on discussing billing issues more confidently, and give you a better understanding of the medical conditions you will code.

Internship/Practicum Program Depending on the medical billing program, you might find the school offers an internship (some campuses refer to this as an externship) or a practicum. Both of these are ways for students to practice their skills in a real-world environment. An internship is always recommended because it might lead to a job offer or at least a job recommendation.

A medical billing service is a company that takes over the nasty job of collecting money so that the doctor’s office doesn’t have to do it. So, then, choosing the right medical billing for your company can mean a lot when it comes to revenue. The right company will keep a doctor’s office’s receivables at the maximum level while maintaining a consistent flow of cash. So, in order to keep things running smoothly in the office, you must make sure you choose the right medical billing service for the office.

The first step in choosing the right medical billing for your company is to make sure they are going to submit insurance claims promptly. They should also track payments accurately and perform thorough follow up on all claims that require that. With the right billing service, no claim should ever go unpaid.

The right service will be thorough and complete in their preparedness. Reps from the company should attend insurance seminars so that they can advice the office doctors about changes in insurance and keep them abreast of financial situations in the office. They are hands on handlers of billing as well as advisors and consultants for the doctors about the business side of the practice.

Though a doctor could probably do much of the information on his own or hire employees to do it, he can save money by outsourcing the process. The doctor will save him or herself the cost of equipment, software, updates, postage, legal forms, and even payroll. Additionally, these companies do this all the time and thus can actually maximize the doctor’s accounts payable. It is likely that if the doctor tried to do it in-house he would not be able to maximize to the degree a professional company can.

Choosing the right medical billing for your company means finding an expert company that will have the expertise to collect on all claims and submit claims accurately. They should even be able to collect on claims denied by the insurance company. When done in-house, it is the problem claims that end up neglected, so choosing the right medical billing for your company will prevent you from losing the money on such claims.

In order to prevent yourself from choosing the wrong medical billing company, you should check references thoroughly. Call several other doctors who are using the service and get their opinions of the company. By doing so, you can save your office the trouble of getting the wrong company for the job and having to start over after possibly losing money. Getting it right the first time will, as much as anything else, save you money in the long run.

Choosing the right medical billing for your company is important. Besides taking one more thing off the plate of your employees and allowing them to concentrate on other things, it also allows you to maximize your company income. By making sure all claims are paid and keeping money flowing through your office, your medical billing company is an important part of your business. Make sure you make the right hire the first time around.

In a previous installment of medical billing software, we covered the many nightmares that a programmer has to go through to get that medical billing software on the market. In this article, we’re going to reveal what the poor QA tester has to go through when getting the module fixes from the programmer. In the world of major headaches, this ranks up there with the worst of them.

The QA tester basically takes what the programmer does and makes sure it works the way it is supposed to work. But that’s not where it ends. The QA tester, in smaller companies, also has to write up the documentation to show the end user how the software is supposed to be used. Sometimes just one wrong instruction can mean the difference between zero support calls for the software and a hundred calls an hour. What follows is a typical example of how this happens.

The medical billing software company is making an electronic billing module. The module requires that the user use a particular kind of modem with certain settings. The programmer sends the module to the QA tester and the QA tester walks through the procedure. The QA tester determines that the module is working correctly. What he or she doesn’t realize is that the modem being used for the test was the wrong kind of modem and would only work on Windows 95 machines and not on 98 or 2000 machines. So the documentation goes out telling users that the modem has to be set a certain way but doesn’t mention that this won’t work on Windows 98 or 2000 because of a com port problem.

The software gets shipped out and the customers start to install the software, many of them on Windows 98 and 2000 machines. Much to their surprise, they find out that the modems do not respond to the commands from the electronic billing module. The calls start coming in. The first thing support does is ask the QA department if they bothered testing the software. Of course the answer is yes. They then demonstrate and low and behold, they are using a modem that is not supported. Turns out that they discover that this will not work on Windows 98 and 2000 machines. So what now?

The module has to go back to programming and somehow they have to figure out how to make the software work on Windows 98 and 2000 machines because of the com port issue. They ultimate create a program to emulate Windows 95 protocol for com ports and everything is fine.

It turns out that all of this could have been avoided if the QA tester had tested this on both a Windows 95 operating system and a 98 and 2000 operating system. But the software was only tested on 95 on an old modem so of course it was going to work.

This is just one example of what a QA tester has to go through when testing software. It isn’t enough that the software works. It must work under as many conditions as possible. Unfortunately, sometimes things fall through the cracks. That’s when the calls start coming in and fast.

In this installment of medical billing and the DME software setup, we’re going to briefly cover what is involved with the setup that is specifically designated for the people who do the actual billing of claims. This is a very complex process that involves a number of items that all have to work together.

In order to bill an insurance carrier for a claim, there are a number of items that the biller needs access to. This includes the patient personal information, the item being billed, the carrier the bill is sent to and the method by which the bill will be sent. In order for this to happen, these things have to be setup in the system for the biller.

The first order of business is that the biller needs to have patient access. When the bill comes in, the patient number is usually on the first page of the bill. This number should have then been entered into the system along with the patient information. The biller will then have access to this information through what is called a patient lookup feature. These features usually have several fields by which the biller can lookup the patient, such as by last name, ID number, etc.

After the patient is found, the next thing the biller needs to know is what the item is being billed. These items all have to be setup in inventory, which is usually done by the inventory manager. Another lookup function is then provided to the biller for looking up inventory items. This is usually done by item name or sku number. Once the item is found in inventory, the item is then added to the billing sheet.

The next thing that the biller needs is the carrier that is going to be billed and the method by which the bill will be sent. The carrier is usually attached to the patient when the patient file is setup. But in some cases, the insurance carrier is not known at the time and the biller has to add it at the time of billing. For this, another lookup table is provided with all the insurance carriers that the system supports. These are usually updated on a regular basis. The way the biller knows which carrier to pull is by looking at the billing sheet that came in. The carrier is listed there.

The method by which the bill itself will be sent is usually determined by the billing agency itself. Not all agencies have electronic billing capabilities. In the cases where such capability doesn’t exist, the default billing method will be via paper claims and the biller won’t have to do anything. The claim will automatically go to the print que upon submission.

Naturally, the above process is greatly simplified, but for the most part, that is all that is involved with sending a bill for a medical claim. The truth is, if medical billing was this easy, there wouldn’t be so many claims that get denied each day. The problem is that billers are not properly trained and the medical billing software itself can only do so much.

When it comes to Medical Office Billing Software, you will find there is no shortage! There are hundreds to choose from and they vary in price from $99 to several thousand dollars. It is important to pick a billing software that is right for your needs. Ask yourself the following questions before purchasing a medical office billing software:

• Are you a medical office or billing service? This makes a difference in the capabilities you will need in a software.

• Are you a specialty practice? Some softwares are for a specific specialty. For example, Lytec has a chiropractic version. RLI is a software specifically for optometry offices.

• Do you need a multi-user software or is a single user ok? Some medical office billing softwares have a limit on the number of users that can be using the software at one time. It is important that you know the limit and that you consider your needs, not only right now, but in the future. If you purchase a software with a limit on the number of users, you may want to find out if you can upgrade to more users down the road.

• What are the aging report capabilities? For billing services this is a HUGE deal. Unfortunately for many medical offices, aging reports are never run, which is an area where they lose a lot of money. Whatever your situation, you will want to know what the aging report capabilities are. (One of the offices we bill for has a very expensive program. However, in the aging reports, it doesn’t show the date of service, it shows the last date the account was adjusted. Also, the report does not separate charges by the number of days old. It only runs a report showing everything that is outstanding. There report makes it almost impossible to follow up on the oldest charges.)

• What is the cost of the software? The old saying ‘you get what you pay for’ is usually true, and applies in the case of billing software. Again, you will need to consider your specific needs when determining how much you should spend on your software. If you are a solo practitioner who sees patients part time out of your house, you will not need a terribly complex program, but if you are a 5 doctor medical office, you will need to look at an appropriate medical office billing software.

• What are the report writing capabilities? Sometimes it is necessary to create your own report. For example, you may have a form that is required but it is not a standard insurance form. If you have to fill out a number of them a month, it may be worth having a report in your billing software that does it for you. (One of our practices had to submit Medicaid claims on their preprinted forms. It was very time consuming, and they did quite a volume of them weekly. We wrote a report in Lytec to fill the forms out, and it was a HUGE time saver!)

• Is the software user friendly? Most softwares today are user friendly, but you should do a demo of the program before buying. You may also want to find out if hands on training is available. It may be beneficial to you to hire someone to train your staff. A lot of times, offices don’t use even a fraction of the billing software’s capabilities, because they were never trained properly.

• Does your software allow for more than one practice? If you are a billing service, you will need to be able to bill for multiple practices from the same software and be able to keep them separate. Or maybe you are a medical office with more than one location, and you want to keep them separate. In any case, make sure the software you are buying has the capability.

• Do you need an appointment scheduler? For billing services this feature is usually not required. Most software comes with it built in, but some are much more elaborate and easy to use. If you have a busy medical office, this feature will be important to look at.

After answering all of the above questions, make yourself a list of the features that you will need in your software. A list will make it easier when you begin your search. Compare your list to the list of features and you will be able to eliminate softwares that will not work for you and narrow your list down to ones that will. Then you can decide based on price, ease of use, and extra features that are not necessities for you.

When we started our billing service, we tested a lot of different demos of medical office billing software. At the time we started there were still programs that ran on DOS? (There’s a term you don’t hear a lot anymore!) We wanted a medical office billing software that definitely ran on windows, and was user friendly. As a billing service, we would need to train people on it as we grew.

The leading provider of customer self-service and e-billing software solutions, today announced that Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM), one of the nation’s largest publicly traded health benefits companies, is using edocs(R) eaSuite(TM) platform to improve online billing capabilities and better serve its employer customers. Humana is using edocs’ software solutions to streamline billing operations and to make conducting business with Humana easier, simpler and more satisfying for its employer customers.

“We are committed to offering Humana employer groups a more cost-effective and convenient means to manage their accounts,” said Bruce J. Goodman, senior vice president and chief service and information officer of Humana. “Offering industry leading web-enabled account management and billing solutions for employer groups is a natural outgrowth of this commitment. We are already getting positive feedback on how easy the solution is to learn and use.”

Specifically, Humana has implemented two modules within the eaSuite: eaDirect(TM), edocs’ core self-service and e-billing platform; and, eaPay(TM), edocs’ payment warehousing and scheduling solution with multiple online payment gateway options. Humana has integrated these solutions to allow employer groups to quickly and easily submit subscriber terminations online, receive immediate adjustments on invoices, and make payments at the click of a button. This not only delivers greater convenience, but also streamlines administrative tasks for Humana’s employer customers.

“By deploying edocs’ platform, Humana is adding a vital new dimension to its customer care offering,” said edocs’ CEO Kevin Laracey. “edocs’ customer self-service and e-billing capabilities enable Humana to serve its employer customers more effectively and efficiently over the Internet.”

About Humana

Humana Inc., headquartered in Louisville, Ky., is one of the nation’s largest publicly traded health benefits companies, with approximately 6.6 million medical members located primarily in 18 states and Puerto Rico. Humana offers coordinated health insurance coverage and related services - through traditional and Internet-based plans - to employer groups, government-sponsored plans and individuals.

More information regarding Humana is available via the Internet at www.humana.com.

About edocs

edocs, Inc. is the leading provider of customer self-service and e-billing solutions for Global 2000 businesses. edocs’ eaSuite(TM) self-service platform improves the quality of customer care, reduces support costs and deepens relationships with business and consumer customers. edocs’ solutions enable end customers to manage their accounts, research offerings, buy products and services, review bills and statements, initiate and track payments, and resolve issues online from a single starting point at a company’s web site. edocs’ products and services are used by some of the world’s leading companies across a variety of industries including financial services, energy, healthcare, insurance, retail and telecommunications. Customers include AT&T Wireless, American Express, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, BT (British Telecom), Fannie Mae, FleetBoston Financial, GE Capital, Sprint, Target, Telstra and Toyota Financial Services. Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Natick, Massachusetts, edocs has offices in Europe and Asia.

TACOMA, Wash. — HIMC Corporation (OTC:HMCO), whose wholly-owned subsidiary is ITI Internet Services Inc. (”ITI”), today announced the launch of MedCoPay(TM), an electronic payment service which enables medical professionals to seamlessly process the co-payments for office visits or medical prescriptions of their patients.

MedCoPay(TM) interfaces with the medical billing software used by a wide range of healthcare organizations and inexpensively transfers the co-pay amount directly from the patients’ bank account into the medical office’s bank account through the automated clearing house (ACH) network. Through MedCoPay(TM)’s technology, patients are authenticated using the company’s PersonaGUARD(R) biometric finger scanning hardware and software, which is included in the offering. The transfer of information is initiated at the healthcare providers office and takes approximately five seconds to process. Full accounting is provided by online reports or custom reports that can be easily imported into an existing accounting system.

“MedCoPay(TM) is the first in a series of strategic product lines we will launch aimed at capturing sectors of the payment industry that traditionally have been poorly served,” commented A.J. McCann, HIMC Corporation’s CEO. Health insurance and medical billing usually requires a co-payment. With MedCoPay(TM), doctors, dentists, pharmacists, chiropractors, hospitals and other health care professionals can minimize collection problems and reduce costs by eliminating the need for pricey credit card and check processing. The cost of sending out invoices and processing of incoming payments is also drastically reduced. Additionally, it eliminates security and ‘change’ issues related to cash payments.

“The health care industry is constantly looking for ways of increasing cash flow and reducing processing time spent on traditional billing procedures. MedCoPay(TM) fits those needs,” continued McCann. “It also allows healthcare providers to become HIPAA compliant with one plug and play solution. With our biometric scanning technology, there is no possibility of insurance fraud, because the provider always knows they are talking to the right person,” added McCann.

Patient enrollment with MedCoPay(TM) is free and takes place at the medical office or online. The new patient information is stored in a secure Web form and an identification number (ID) is instantly issued to the patient. This ID number can be presented at any medical office using MedCoPay(TM). The system also enables medical offices to perform global searches in order to retrieve a forgotten ID number.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — PaperFree Medical Solutions Inc. (OTCBB:PFMS) announced today that its president, Bill Sklar, has been interviewed by the Wall Street Reporter. The interview covered topics including the company’s recent acquisition of KMS Computer Services as well as PaperFree’s current and future strategic growth initiatives.

Investors interested in hearing the interview may do so at www.wallstreetreporter.com. The interview will be posted on that site for seven days, until March 24, 2005.

About PaperFree Medical Solutions Inc.

PaperFree Medical Solutions Inc. offers Electronic Medical Records, Practice Management Software Systems and broadband wireless connectivity to the physician office, clinic and hospital. This patient information software solution will initially focus on the medical community’s needs to meet the new HIPAA regulations. The company is positioned to become a major provider of medical facility software and hardware solutions including secure computer ASP servers with fully encrypted Internet and wireless access technology. The company has done extensive research within the healthcare market and determined that an area of extreme growth over the next three-five years is medical facility automation and information management and security, with a primary focus on the solo and group practice physician office.

Except for statements of historical fact, the information presented herein constitutes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include general economic and business conditions, the ability to acquire and develop specific projects, the ability to fund operations and changes in consumer and business consumption habits and other factors over which PaperFree Medical Solutions Inc. has little or no control.