I have an outside billing company that uses Lytec. However, when patients check in I assume there is a way to post copays being collected but I don't see that in AC. Am I missing it?

There is a way to post it to AC, but if you do it before the chart is signed you will be posting it to the previous visit. We have the same setup (AC on site, outside billing service uses Lytec) and we simply have a spreadsheet that we update throughout the day and give those to the billing company. They keep track of what the insurance and the patient pay/owe and generate statements. It saves us major headaches and time. Until the PM portion comes along, there is no easy way to collect copayments upon arrival and make note of it AC.

What are you entering on the spreadsheet? I am using a superbill with codes that I circle and that's what we mail to the billing company.

A spreadsheet could be emailed and is less paper.

What about giving them logmein pro and they can then access AC remotely. The superbills or spreadsheet can be sent to them and they can get the insurance info from the scanned in insurance cards from AC.

I will be curious what the more knowledgeable members here think of allowing the outsider to log onto your server. Since it is your billing service you have to trust them. Does anyone see an issue with letting them log on?

Get thee away Outsider lest I have at you and thrash you with my righteous spiked club!

NO WAY!! I do not even want my accountant to have the password to sign on to my online payroll service (Intuit Online Payroll which, by the way, rocks).

I made a separate user account for them on the server and allow access through Remote Desktop in case they need information regarding what procedures were done, or to find out if the visit was coded correctly.

Lowell, our spreadsheet consists of a couple of columns which hold the amount info and what type of payment was made (cash/cc/check) and it automatically tallies at the bottom and separates the different payments so that it is easier to make the bank deposit and check the amounts. If you trust your staff to code on paper, why not let them code in AC? Then you can generate the HCFA/CMS1500 and print it to PDFRedirect. We print ours to a PDF file daily and send via email. Much less paper wasted and we don't have to worry as much about something getting lost in the shuffle. You could also set up FTP, file transfer over an IM client, or use a USB drive to give them the files everyday(in case their inbox cannot accept large documents.

I must be missing something. All of my staff have access to the server at work and we ( 3 of us) use remote desktop to access AC when we are out of the office ( hospital work, refills, telephone questions). My IT guy can remote in ( thank goodness) and the lady who does the billing can remote in. I need these people to do their job and they need access to the server to do it.
I don't see any option except to trust them.

I am not one who tends to run scared of medico-legal issues, but do we need to be concerned about giving our billing companies free access to our medical records? As it is, we provide copies of notes if needed by the insurance companies, but somehow it seems different to hand over complete access to someone who can browse through the practice's complete medical files.

And Deborah...I am correct to assume that your IT guy and billing person cannot access remotely at the same time? And if they use something like logmein to get to the server, then no one else in the office can use the program at the same time?