TotalMD - The Advantages Of Using This Affordable Practice Management Software

I have been a medical biller and software trainer for 20 years. My clients want value for their money, so I am always on the lookout for better medical billing software with great features and a low price tag. We use several practice management systems in our billing service including Medisoft, AdvancedMD, and TotalMD. These are all great systems, but that hasn't stopped me from my quest for that perfect software. TotalMD has the same great price and ease of use as Medisoft does, however, it has some other advantages that are not as obvious.

Let's review the features that everyone wants:

Ease Of Use

Time is a precious commodity in a medical office or billing service and easy to use, intuitive software saves time. I like software features that do not require you to walk around the block to get next door. TotalMD foots the bill in this regard. It has all the features you need and is simple to use and requires very little training.

Great Price

TotalMD is very reasonably priced and does not require upgrades in order to obtain support. And just as important, the training and support fees are very reasonable.

Now, let's take a look at some other features that not all software users think of:

Great Technical Support

Everyone needs technical support once in a while and no one wants to spend a lot of time on the phone, on hold, waiting to resolve a problem. TotalMD is very responsive and really delivers in this area.

Remote Access

TotalMD is a desktop solution but it also offers an ASP model. Medical billing services will appreciate this flexibility because many of their clients want to share the data from any location.

Connectivity To Other Software

This is an important requirement that doesn't receive enough consideration and it is where TotalMD excels. The software provides integration on several levels which offers more choices to a practice or billing service.

Electronic Health Records

The connectivity to EHR (electronic health records) systems is really important. Unfortunately, some practices only discover this as a potential problem after they have already made a software purchase. TotalMD has free, built-in HL7 capability that allows it to integrate with or "talk to" popular EHR software like SpringCharts, Praxis, Amazing Charts, and others. What is HL7? It's a function that passes data elements from the practice management system to the EHR system. This important feature offers providers more choices in electronic health records software.

A medical office may like their practice management software, however, it may not integrate or link with the EHR of their choice, in which case, a third party HL7 (linking) software may be needed. Things can get complicated when two to three vendors are involved in coordinating installations and technical support. This may result in added expense and can be time consuming for the user.

Medical Coding Software & Other Add-Ons

TotalMD also intergrates seamlessly with several other well known products. You can look up CPT and diagnosis codes using Encoder Pro medical coding software. There is also credit card processing available by Intuit or X-Charge at very affordable rates. This service is a time saver because it works seamlessly with the software.

Electronic Processing

With TotalMD, electronic billing can be handled using any clearinghouse. The user is not limited in this respect. My favorite is the electronic remittance posting feature. You can download your 835 ERA files from ANY clearinghouse and post them with ease in TotalMD. Insurance verification is also a very valuable feature that can be integrated into the patient scheduler using either Gateway or Apex clearinghouses.

Document Manager

This is another well integrated product. If your electronic records requirements are minimal, TotalMD also has a very reasonably priced document manager. This easy-to-use software allows your office to organize, capture and store:

(1) patient insurance cards, driver's licenses and ID cards
(2) patient signatures on your own financial, privacy and patient release forms
(3) all printed documents
(4) mail merge templates for letters and forms.

TotalMD is an all around great product and the vendor is a pleasure to work with. Affordability and ease of use are critical, however, technical support and product integration are also really high on my priority list, and TotalMD delivers.

Learn to ask software vendors the right questions. Visit our web site to find out how to prepare for a software demonstration and determine the requirements for your practice. Also read our TotalMD review of this great practice management software. We can provide you with a quick tour of the product and we also offer a 10% discount on all TotalMD products.

Is There A Better Alternative To Pet Insurance?

If your home is like 72.9 million others in the U.S., it is home to at least one pet. According to the 2011-2012 APPA National Pet Owners Survey, 62 percent of households in the U.S. have at least one pet. It's not hard to imagine why. Pets, whether furred, hoofed or winged, bring so much to our lives. But, along with unconditional love and unquestioning devotion, they can also bring significant vet bills. In fact, the APPA (American Pet Products Association) estimates that U.S. pet owners will spend $14.1 billion on veterinary care in 2011.

Some pet owners opt for pet insurance as a method of reducing the costs of routine and emergency vet visits. However, Consumer Reports recently published a review of several pet insurance plans. The review was not favorable. Their basic conclusion: "Pet insurance is rarely worth the price... Only in uncommon cases, when a pet required very expensive care, would the coverage have more than paid for itself."

Here are a couple of reasons why a pet insurance plan may not be your best option to save on your pet's healthcare costs.

1. Lack of Coverage
Most pet insurance companies promise to cover 70 to 90 percent of your pet's veterinary costs. However, these companies have adopted much of the fine print that the large human health insurers use: cumbersome claims processing, deductibles, per-visit reimbursement limits and per-incident limits. They may also deny coverage for many common conditions, including those deemed "inherent to the breed" and "pre-existing" conditions. As a result, their insurance rarely covers more than 50 percent of a pet's annual medical costs. And since they charge $400-$1100 for a policy, the insurance typically costs the average pet owner far more than it saves.

2. Poor Return on Investment
In the aforementioned Consumer Reports review, they analyzed the lifetime vet bills of Roxy, a 10-year-old beagle in Dobbs Ferry, NY. Costs were totaled for nine different pet insurance policies, calculating how much would be paid out in reimbursements. Over Roxy's 10 years, none of the policies Consumer Reports evaluated would have paid out more than the cost of the plan. Even when treatments for several hypothetical serious ailments were added in, the average policy would only have saved Roxy's family $65 over her lifetime.

Consumer Reports concludes: "We believe most pet owners will be better off passing up pet insurance."

So what should pet owners do to help cover rising vet costs? Here are a few alternatives to help:

1. Financial Assistance
There are a number of financial assistance programs financed by grants and private donations. While each one has different guidelines and requirements, your local shelter is a good place to start. Many shelters have updated listings and information on financing opportunities.

2. Veterinary Discount Plans
Veterinary discount plans provide discounts on services at participating veterinarians, immediately reducing the amount you have to spend on routine and emergency care. In Consumer Reports hypothetical case of Roxy, the largest veterinary discount plan showed Roxy's family saving almost $2,500.

3. Start a Pet Savings Plan
Open a savings account with a high interest yield that you can use an emergency fund. If you put away just $25 a month for 4-5 years, the compounded sum will cover almost any procedure.

Be creative! Mix a Pet Savings Plan with a Veterinary Discount Plan and Financial Assistance plan. Now that's something to crow (meow, bark or chirp) about!

Protection and Your Landlords Building Insurance Policy

Landlords building insurance covers the cost of damage to permanent structures in homes as well as the land it is located on. This may include the external structure of your home along with the permanent fixtures including toilets, baths, fitted kitchen, and sink, boundary features like walls or fences surrounding the property. Landlords realty insurance can also provide coverage outbuildings such as sheds, fences, or garages. However, it is always good to check with the insurance provider for you to get the most suitable policy.

Once you have the landlords building insurance quotes, you will see that it will normally essential for you to take out buildings insurance as part of your mortgage agreement, as your house is seen as one of the mortgage companies investments until it is paid off. Other mortgage providers offer buildings insurance rolled up into the mortgage payments, whilst they may appear competitive they can often turn out to be overpriced. Take note that you are not required to buy from these companies. It is recommended that you get a quote from these companies purely for the purpose of comparing quotes.

What is covered in landlord building insurance?

Landlords building insurance typically covers a set of eventualities including damage from factors such as:

• Fire
• Floods
• Vandalism or riots
• Earthquakes
• Subsidence
• Vehicle impact
• Falling objects, trees, or branches
• Malicious conduct
• Storm

Some types of landlords property insurance cover additional factors including frost damage to pipes from outbuildings connected to the main supply. This part is usually considered the landlord's responsibility and some insurers exclude it.

In some circumstances, cover is conditional on where your property is located. One example of this is a an area where buildings are have a high-risk to flooding. Landlords accept this and insurers are usually remarkably switched on and will price the premium dependent on the properties location. However if there is something they don't know about and you haven't disclosed a potential risk increase at the time of taking out the insurance, it could cause a problem when it is time to make a claim. So, do not forget to fully disclose to your potential landlords realty insurance provider any material fact so that you can maintain adequate cover under the policy.

In addition, landlords building property policies can also be configured to cover accidental damage to permanent fixtures in your property. Among the permanent fixtures include bathroom furniture items or bespoke fitted kitchens. Accidental damage in glass doors and windows can also be covered. However, majority of policies ask for extra costs on your premium. This is why you need to get plenty of competitive landlords property insurance quotes for a suitable and less costly insurance policy.