ProClaim Inc. | Medical Billing Solutions Supported by Expert Advice

One thing, among many, that we scan here at ProClaim Inc. is EOBs. Here’s how it works. Our payment poster makes two piles as she posts. One pile is for problem EOBs that need some sort of follow-up (denials, forward to secondary, underpaid, etc.). The other pile is for clean EOBs that need no follow-up. We then scan EOBs into a 45-page-per-minute duplex scanner, which automatically deletes blank pages if the back is blank. After we have scanned the EOBs, we give the problem pile to our follow-up people, who use the originals for attaching to secondaries or whatever needs to be done (no copying needed). We file the clean EOBs in a pile for two days,and then put them in the shredding bin. We back up our software daily, and take tapes off site.

The Aquarius DMS software we use with the scanner allows us to "index" the EOBs by:

1. EOB (we also scan demographic info, office/worker's comp notes, encounter forms, etc.)

2. Client (we are a billing company, so we have two EOB piles for each client)

3. Date of entry into our software system

Each of our employees has a viewer at his/her workstation, which can access the EOB images in a matter of seconds. The employee selects the document type he/she wants to find (an EOB in this case), and a box comes up asking which client and what date. The file then appears on screen, and each image can be looked at within that batch. The images can be OCR'd (optical character recognition), so an employee can search a batch of EOBs by account number or name. The OCR search works about 90% of the time. Or they can arrow down through each image. The software even allows you to white out all names above and/or below the name you want and prints the EOB in that format, without altering the image.

The scanner scans both sides of the EOB one time through. It is the size of a small fax machine and takes up very little space. The cost, space and time savings is tremendous. The cost of hardware/software is about $14,000. The cost of the system is less or more depending on the number of employees that need access (we have 13 employees).