FAQ

Financial Questions

How much does it cost to start my own business with ABS?
There is a one-time investment fee to start your own medical billing business with American Business Systems, LLC. You can learn more about the fee and all that it includes here.

What is the ongoing cost to operate a medical billing business?
This depends on the type of business you are seeking to develop and the services you may choose to offer to accomplish your goals. At ABS you have a wide variety of services to choose from and the ability to grow your business to whatever size you choose. For example, some Business Owners simply want a business they can run themselves at home, part-time. Others want to earn a full-time income by hiring staff and getting office space.

You also have the choice of marketing only to doctors and other medical providers or expanding your business to provide services to other industries such as government, education, and more. Learn more about all the services and solutions you will have access to.

In short, the number and type of clients you want will affect your marketing costs. However, our entire system is very cost-efficient, using tools that get attention and response. Many of the methods taught cost nothing but your time. Others involve sending out marketing materials that you get in your initial package, which you can reorder as needed.

Download our Research Guide to learn more about any potential operational costs you may incur.

Systems Questions

What kind of hardware/software do I need to use iClaim?
Unlike our competitors, we utilize a true, cloud-based system, so all you need is a computer with internet access. Our systems run perfectly on any PC or Mac, any browser, tablets, smartphones, etc.

Is it safe to send my data over the Internet?
Yes, iClaim & EMRx uses the same state-of-the-art security technology you use when shopping, banking, or trading stocks online.

This is a communications protocol designed to transfer encrypted information between computers over the Internet. For our encryption, we use VeriSign SSL 128-bit certificates. This is the same technology used for online banking and by websites that offer online purchasing. This exceeds current HIPAA security requirements. We take care of all HIPAA requirements for software, unlike our competitors who require the end-user (you) to take care of things such as data backup, and securing patient data that resides on your own harddrive (NOT recommended!)

Where and how is my data stored ... and is it secure?
Your data is stored at secure AWS data-storage facilities. The data centers are custom designed with raised floors, HVAC temperature control systems with separate cooling zones, and seismically braced racks.

AWS offers the widest range of physical security features, including state-of-the-art smoke detection and fire suppression systems, motion sensors, 24/7 secured access, as well as video camera surveillance, and security breach alarms. Backup online storage and online backup account files are rigorously segregated. There is no intermingling of one account's files with any others on the servers used to host the data.

The data storage meets the level 5 RAID fault-tolerant disk arrays on proven Sun Microsystems Technology. Simply put, RAID technology efficiently writes and monitors multiple copies of data as it guards against disk failures and data loss.

Data is also backed up daily by our hosting facility and stored off-site. In addition, we replicate our data in a different geographic location (3,000 miles away from the host) as part of our disaster recovery plan.

Is the iClaim/EMRx System HIPAA compliant?
Yes, the iClaim/EMRx System is HIPPA compliant. We have a full-time HIPAA Compliancy Officer, which assures you that the online system is updated routinely to keep current with any changes. You never have to worry about being out of compliance.

All system updates and backups are free and automatic, so all you have to do is pay attention to your clients, not worry about software updates or compliance. Our competitors only update their software every 18-24 months, which leaves you wide open for possible security or HIPAA issues!

If I run my business at more than one office, can I use iClaim at any location?
Yes, as long as you have access to the Internet and a Web browser, you can log into your ABS account from any location. You can work from home, a hotel, an airport... literally anywhere. The system is encrypted so security is not an issue.

And, if you wish, you can give the doctor and his/her staff access to certain parts of the system and they can log in from their office to view the status of their claims and use some practice management features. You are in complete control.

What happens with insurance carriers that do NOT accept electronic claim submissions?
Most major carriers allow electronic claims submission. For those that do not, we will print your claim on a standard "1500 form" and mail it to the carrier on your behalf.

What kind of reports can I generate with iClaim?
iClaim offers a wide range of accounting capabilities so you can see who's paying, who's not, and how much. And since every report can be specified by date, provider, or location, the report you run is always the report you need, and, it is up-to-date and accurate, as all the data is accessible in our web-based system.

Can I use iClaim to bill patients?
Yes, You can use the system to print your providers' patient statements, or you can have iClaim print and mail them automatically, on your behalf. In your training, you'll learn how easy it is to provide this service.

What do I have to do to submit claims electronically through iClaim?
Some government carriers (i.e. Medicare and Medicaid) require the provider to fill out separate enrollment forms for electronic claims submission. For all other carriers, you can take advantage of our electronic claims submission immediately. Your ABS training will guide you through this step-by-step.

Can I get a hard copy or a backup of my data, and do my clients own their own data?
Yes, the system is backed up on redundant servers automatically, but should you desire, you may also download data to your hard drive. The doctors can have access to this data anytime they wish.

Do I have to connect a clearinghouse, and are there extra fees for this?
No, we have unique, built-in clearinghouses that was built by the same development team that created the iClaim/EMRx platforms. There is nothing extra you need to do and there are no extra clearinghouse fees. Our competitor requires you to research and connect to a 3rd party clearinghouse and most of them have extra fees associated.

General Questions

Do I need prior experience in the medical field to do this?
No. In fact, the bulk of our most successful Business Owners have no prior medical experience. Our training will teach you everything you need to know to get ramped up and generating revenue quickly.

We have Business Owners from every walk of life, most of whom had no previous medical training or background. The online system itself takes care of all the proper coding. You simply input the data provided on the patients' information sheets filled out at the doctor's office and the "superbills" the doctor fills out when seeing patients.

Do I have to obtain accounts myself or do you provide them for me?
We will teach you our proven, step-by-step marketing methods and will guide you each step of the way to make sure that you are maximizing your efforts. Recent training graduates have signed up accounts within 60-90 days of completing our Live Training.

Business Owners have also had great success with using our Sales Rep program to get clients quickly. We will teach you how to find experts in the medical field who are looking to supplement their income. Pharmaceutical reps, for example.

Does ABS offer any of its services directly to medical providers or businesses?
No, ABS only offers its services through its Business Owners, who operate their own independent billing companies. Our competitor sells their software directly to medical practices (under a different name), competing with their licensees.

Why should I go with ABS when I can go to a billing/coding school that has a smaller investment?
People who invest with ABS have decided they don't want to reinvent the wheel. It takes a lot of time and effort to start any business, and any time you can utilize a system that is duplicatable, it gives you an advantage over your competition.

Medical Billing/Coding school courses typically don't spend much time on the marketing aspect of the business. That's where ABS comes in. We will teach how to get doctors interested in the services you have, and how to start generating revenue as quickly as possible.

How long will it take for me to get my first client?
Business Owners who have 4-5 hours a day to devote to marketing their business get their first account in approximately 30-90 days after completing their training.

If you have less time, that's OK. We can show you how to build this business part-time at first, as several of our most successful Business Owners have done.

How many ABS Business Owners are already doing this in my area?
We are not a franchise and do not restrict you to any certain territory. Our ABS Business Owners are free to market anywhere in the U.S. with no restrictions. We are very careful to not oversaturate a market with ABS Business Owners, but based on our average Business Owner's client base, this has never been an issue.

Our average Business Owner has 3-5 clients. This is due to several factors: targeted income replacement, desire to hire employees, and business acumen of the Business Owner. Because of this, even in an area with multiple Business Owners, there is still enormous potential based on the hundreds of doctors in most metropolitan markets.

Industry Questions

What is "Revenue Cycle Management" (RCM) and why is it important?

Revenue cycle management (RCM) is the process of managing the financial aspects of a healthcare organization's operations. It involves tracking and managing the revenue generated by an organization, as well as ensuring that the organization is paid for the services it provides. The goal of RCM is to optimize the flow of revenue and maximize the organization's financial performance.

The revenue cycle begins when a patient receives healthcare services and ends when the provider is paid for those services. The RCM process includes a number of activities, such as:

Scheduling and registration: Scheduling appointments and registering patients for healthcare services.
Billing and coding: Processing and submitting claims to payers for payment.
Claims management: Tracking the status of claims and following up on denied or unpaid claims.
Payment processing: Receiving and recording payments from payers.
Reporting and analytics: Analyzing data and generating reports to track and optimize the organization's financial performance.

Effective RCM is essential for the financial success of a healthcare organization. By efficiently managing the revenue cycle, an organization can improve its cash flow and financial stability, and provide better care to its patients.

It's becoming increasingly difficult for medical practices to focus on RCM processes in-house, hence the need for all that you can offer them as an ABS Business Owner.

Is there really a need for medical billing services?
Yes! Doctors have a tough time collecting insurance reimbursements.

A large percentage of most doctors' revenue comes from insurance reimbursements.

But many people don't realize that the process of filing insurance claims is cumbersome, time-consuming, and energy-draining for the doctor. It can take 60-120 days to receive payments.

In addition, many doctors provide care for Medicare and Medicaid patients. The government acts with its usual speed and efficiency when responding to claims. Payments can take more than 90 days to reach the doctor.

Meanwhile, office rent, staff paychecks, and other expenses keep coming due. This is no way to run a business.

Doctors and other healthcare facilities have traditionally had two basic options:

One or more staff members are hired to be responsible for filing claims – the standard CMS 1500. Traditionally, paper forms were used. Incredibly, many offices still use paper forms. Employees have to complete forms, being careful to get the right codes inserted for the insured’s medical issue and treatment. Even with meticulous attention, these forms are, frankly, anything but error-proof, leading to rejections. This is a labor-intensive, time-consuming, and expensive process. If there's any minute detail on the paperwork that is not filled out correctly, the insurance company rejects the entire claim and sends it back to the doctor unpaid. The doctor's staff then has to figure out what the problem is, attempt to fix it, resubmit the claim and hope they've gotten it right the second time around.
Medical billers have provided a welcome outsourcing option. Unfortunately, although many use their computers to streamline the process, most are still using software installed on their own computers. This might seem like a small difference, but in fact, non-cloud-based solutions can create some major problems for you and your clients.

- Medical billing software can go out of date very quickly and needs updating regularly (at extra expense) as changes are made due to new regulations, etc. And, if you don’t update immediately, there may be flaws in the claims that cause them to be rejected.
- In many respects, hiring a medical billing service using the old methods of paper claims – or even computer-generated claims – simply shifts the tedious work outside the office. Depending on the system used, many medical billers may not be able to offer the benefits of speed, accuracy, or faster payment.
- Having client data on a home computer is risky. Sensitive patient data can be lost if there’s a computer crash, burglary, or fire. Patient privacy is now a priority. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) compliance is stringent.
- Depending on the software or computer being used, a person working with this outdated approach may find it difficult to be in compliance at all times. Our competitor only updates their software an average of 18-24 months!

The Solution: ABS Web-based Electronic Medical Billing

As an ABS Business Owner, you become a trained professional equipped with a state-of-the-art system that will allow you to electronically file the claims for the doctor online, in real-time. The benefits to the doctor include:

Is there still a market or demand for medical billing services?
Yes. There’s a great window of opportunity right now.

The market for this service is absolutely enormous. You may be surprised at the variety of prospects actively looking for the solution you provide:

Doctors still using paper claims. There are over 1-million medical providers in the United States. It’s astonishing, but statistics from Medicare show that a large number of them still aren’t filing electronic claims or using an electronic medical records system.
Doctors who are struggling with electronic claims in their offices. Some doctors have tried to switch. This saves them time compared to traditional filing, but still causes a whole host of problems, including training and retraining when there’s staff turnover, unforeseen technical issues, and more. What seemed like a good idea – handling electronic billing in the office – has turned into a nightmare for some doctors. Right now is the perfect time to become an ABS Business Owner because these doctors are prime candidates for your web-based electronic billing solution.
Doctors who are looking for an in-office electronic billing solution. Every practice is different, and some doctors or medical clinics have their own reasons for wanting to have the claims filed directly from their offices. Those doctors are not a lost opportunity, but a different opportunity. As an ABS Business Owner, you have the option to resell the entire system to doctors and make ongoing income from support and automatic upgrades to the system.
Some medical billers steadfastly cling to the outdated software solution. But doctors know 100% electronic billing is on the way and are quietly looking for a reliable solution.

With so many doctors looking for an electronic claims filing solution, the only question now is, “Will you be there as a professional billing expert to handle the demand?”

The Benefits For the Doctors Are Obvious, But What’s In It For You?
Why is the ABS electronic medical claims filing system the ideal choice if you want a solid, profitable business?

We’ve covered some of the benefits already on this page and elsewhere on the site, but here’s a summary:

Contact us today!

Any references to income potential anywhere on this website are based on actual income examples provided by our Business Owners, or, are figures based on industry averages. Since ABS does not have any knowledge of any particular individual's business background or acumen, no guarantees of income are made. Your success in this, or any business, depends entirely upon your personal efforts and abilities as an independent business person and we cannot, therefore, guarantee your success should you decide to get involved in this business.

References
1. According to Curtis Udell, senior advisor at Annandale, Va.-based Health Care Advisors Inc., “approximately 30% of all claims are rejected, and 50% of those rejected claims are not resubmitted. Providers, however, can use their own I.T. to fight back. “Code scrubbing” and claims editing software, for example, can help reduce billing errors and identify underpayments. The applications also enable providers to analyze and track denials and underpayments so they can improve their work processes, more effectively appeal rejections and negotiate more favorable managed care contracts. “Providers can’t manage what they can’t track,” Udell said. “And this can’t be done with paper. If practices want to really analyze their revenue cycle, they need software and electronic data to do so.” (From Health Data Management Magazine). Health Data Management Magazine is a leading health care IT authority.

2. According to Community Health Plan of Washington, a non-profit organization, “paper claims can get lost in the mail, and average claim processing turnaround time is 45 to 90 days, with a rejection rate of 35 to 50 percent. For claims submitted electronically, the average claim processing turnaround time is 14 to 21 days with a rejection rate of less than 2 percent.” (Community Health Plan).

3. According to Medicare (www.cms.hhs.gov) “many doctors still aren’t filing claims electronically.” They list the advantages of electronic claims filing as follows:

Faster payment on electronic claims. Electronic claims submitted in a standard format adopted for national use under HIPAA can be paid after the expiration of a 13-day waiting period, i.e., as early as the 14th day after the date of receipt while paper claims and electronic claims submitted in a non-HIPAA format can not be paid earlier than the 27th day after the date of receipt.

Electronic transactions are cost-effective, and reduce the opportunity for error. Electronic claims have lower administrative, postage and handling costs than paper claims. Online acknowledgment of receipt of electronic claims. Standardized formats reduce administrative costs since one format will meet billing requirements for all U.S. health care payers under HIPAA, not only Medicare. Standardized electronic claims submission and COB exchange and remittance receipt reduce system costs. Electronic remittances are sent to a provider-preferred location. Claim status and eligibility information in 24 hours or less.

Electronic funds transfer (EFT) can have accounts receivable in the provider's bank, drawing interest, in two working days after payment. Paper checks can take as long as one week to process.

Competitor Questions

Your competition says that I can’t sell my business if I want to down the road?
False. Our Business Owners set up and operate under their own entity, which grants them full rights to sell their business with zero restrictions. The more typical scenario is a Business Owner selling off their individual practices (clients) for approximately 3 times the yearly revenue!

Do you have to force the doctors to use the iClaim/EMRx software?
No. The doctors will most certainly see the most dramatic increase in revenue by using our integrated cloud systems, but they don’t have to use them. A common scenario is a doctor who wants to continue using his or her own EHR system. iClaim will integrate with a majority of systems out there (if HL7 compliant) so they don’t have to learn a new system.

Your competition updates their software every 18-24 months and charges large sums of money for this. When do you update yours and what is the cost?
The iClaim/EMRx system is cloud-based. Updates and backups are automatic and done on a weekly basis. 18-24 months between updates is far too long to keep up with changes in the healthcare industry. The low monthly fee that you are charging the doctors for the software covers everything, including software updates.

I am told that I can have a cloud system with your competitor’s software; is it the same as yours?
Misleading. With ABS, you sign up a doctor and securely access the system on any computer with internet. No technical skill is required. Our competitors are still selling a software system they created in 1994, so you are required to purchase or rent your own computer servers, accessing them thru some kind of connection software. Technical skills are required and there are extra costs for servers on top of software fees. Also, keep in mind, you must install our competitors' software only on certain Windows computers, using a CD drive. No Apple Devices, Tablets, Smartphones, etc. are allowed.

I am told that I need dental billing software. Does ABS have that?
We do! We have partnered with DentiMax, a highly rated, nationally known dental billing, practice management, and EHR system. Click here to learn more about this and all our other services. We also have some great ancillary services for dental that are easy to offer. ChoicePay, CompliancyGuard, and Doctible are all great solutions for dental practices.

I heard that your software is far more expensive! Is that true?
No. There is a small monthly fee that you build into your invoice to the doctors. The doctors are paying that software fee, in addition to paying you a percentage of what they earn because you are doing the billing for them. Our competitors charge their Business Owners thousands of dollars for User Seats, System Updates, Coding Updates, and more.

Your competition charges thousands of dollars in yearly support fees after the first few years. What does ABS charge?
ABS provides free marketing and technical support for life. There are no fees of any kind after the initial investment fee. How are we able to do this? We make a small residual from our technology partners when you sign up clients, so you know we are committed to helping you market your business!

Your competition markets their software directly to doctors under a different brand name, which means they are competing with their own Licensees. Does ABS do this?
ABS doesn't sell directly to doctors. Because we get a small residual on every claim from our software partners, we'd rather focus on helping our Owners sign up doctor clients. It's a better model for everyone. Win-Win-Win.

I found some videos online about people who decided to switch to your competitor’s products. Why would they do that?
Our competitors actively search out and find our Business Owners and offer them greatly discounted pricing in trade for doing these videos. We could do the same, but we choose not to disparage our competition. This business isn’t for everyone. There are people who succeed and fail in every type of business. We want you to make an informed decision, this is why we offer you a 30-day trial period. Our competitor offers no refunds or guarantees of any kind.

Some companies offer several different business packages with wildly variant pricing. Does ABS do that?
Years ago, we experimented with “cheaper” packages with limited services and support. We realized that people were limited in their efforts to compete and get business so we stopped doing that. All of the services, training, and support that you will read about on our website are included for one fee.

How does your EMRx (electronic medical records) system compare to your competitors?
Our EMRx system was built by the same development team that built the Practice Management and Billing Systems, as well as the Patient Portal and Clearinghouse. This makes for a much more responsive integrated system and updates are done quickly. Also, there is no fear of something “breaking”. Believe it or not, our competitor is charging money for a free open source EHR system that they didn’t create. You are responsible for connecting it to their software and teaching the doctors how to use it. Read more about it here: www.open-emr.org. You are only able to install it on Windows, Linux, or you must purchase your own AWS cloud service account. Our system runs on any PC/MAC/Browser/Tablet/Smartphone. We provide all training for the practice (doctors and staff) so you don’t have to! We also provide help desk support for them as well!

Your competitor says that they allow for multiple clearinghouses and ABS doesn’t. Why is that?
Misleading. They require you to use multiple 3rd party clearinghouses because they don’t own their own and you have to connect different clearinghouses based on certain specialties. With our iClaim system, the clearinghouse is built-in (built by the same team that built iClaim.) We are able to process for any and all specialties with no extra fees or hassles of using multiples. Most 3rd party clearinghouses charge you extra fees as well and we do not.

Do you offer customized marketing materials?
Yes! We send in your initial business package several hundred marketing pieces that you can customize with your own printed labels. Once you get your company name and logo picked out, you are then able to order custom printed materials that we have professionally printed and shipped to your door! Our competitors don’t offer this level of customization. We also include a custom website and have several templates for you to choose from.

Frequently Asked Questions