The evidence is in. There are serious problems in the area of medical billing and other health care billing. Health industry leaders Athenahealth, Inc. and Sermo conducted a nation-wide (U.S.) survey of 1000 physicians -- a first-of-its-kind "Physician Sentiment Index" (PSI). Athenahealth, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet-based business services for physician practices. Sermo is the largest online physician community, where over 112,000 physicians collaborate to improve patient care.

The survey revealed the great and not-so-secret frustration of physicians with insurers and their constantly changing medical billing reimbursement protocols and regulations:

• 92% strongly agree/agree that getting paid by insurers has become increasingly burdensome and complex (less than 1% suggest it is getting better)


• 83% strongly agree/agree that administrative costs incurred in order to comply with payer rules and regulations significantly affects their bottom line


• Nearly half (43%) don't know what their insurance submission rejection rate is


• Among physicians who know their submission rejection rate, a range of 5-10% was most commonly cited. If one considers that the average report practice income is $2.5 million, this rate could mean $125-250,000 in deferred or lost income per practice.

It is unfortunate that conscientious medical professionals are unable to provide the very best care to their patients, because their precious time is consumed with the administrative drudgery involved with getting paid. This state of affairs can be dramatically changed if physicians turn to the SDD Global Solutions Medical Billing Department.

As reported in The Times of India, SDD Global is the #1 outsourcing company in India, based on a survey of 6,547 clients. We provide medical billing services that free up a physician's time so that he/she can focus on providing the best quality healthcare to patients. The staff of the medical practice, too, can focus on interaction with patients and on ensuring that the patient has the best possible experience on his/her visit to the practice. Additionally, our success rate in ensuring reimbursement to the physician from the insurer is very high. Not only is the physician paid for the services provided, the physician receives payment much faster than when follow-up is done in-house. The reduction of tedious paperwork and the quicker turnaround on payment for services leads to a more successful practice, more focused, caring medical professionals, and happier, healthier patients. Unlike other medical billing companies, who think their role starts only after Doctor's front-end office has collected and verified the information, the SDD Global health care billing division actively cooperates with the physicians, dentists, and clinics in every process involved.

SDD Global provides services that range from collecting, sorting and coding patient documents, filing insurance claims, compiling and analyzing receipts from insurers, following up on denials or payments that are less than the claim and collecting payments from patients. We are fully conversant with the commonly used medical billing software, and we have excellent spoken-English skills to ensure smooth communication with insurers and third-party payers. In particular, we do the following for our medical billing clients:

• provide a clean registration process, which is the key for clean claims, which in turn ensures faster payments. We therefore regard registration as the backbone of medical billing, and we help doctors' offices collect accurate patient personal and insurance information and verify patient's insurance one day or even one hour before the appointment;


• enable the doctor's office to inform the patient about his or her liability even before the claim is billed to insurance, such that the doctor's office can collect payment upfront. This, in turn, will increase the patient payment percentage of the total revenue and also reduce the cost of patient billing;


• increase the clean-claim percentage, reduce rejections and denials, and also reduce or eliminate items in accounts receivable, all through this billing process (in other words, clean registration process);


• use our recommended billing software that has integrated EHR or EMR, which is very easy to handle for the physician and makes documentation of services a breeze. The software also has code and eligibility edits which ensure more than 95% of claims transmission in the first go;


• use certified medical coders to validate all the coded charges to ensure they are in line with insurance claim guidelines, such as local coverage determinations, medical necessity requirements, and appropriate usage of global modifiers, and also to update physicians on coding changes that happen every year;


• ensure insurance claims are transmitted to the payers every day, including secondary electronic claims, and as a result, increase cash flow on a regular basis;


• follow up on any insurance claims that have gone unpaid for more than thirty days and ensure payment. Our method of one-touch resolution involves an initial evaluation, a detailed analysis and immediate action on the unpaid claim, which in turn often results in immediate payment and leaves no claim in accounts receivables;


• efficiently negotiate a better fee schedule with the insurance companies and accordingly increase the doctor's revenue;


• keep our clients informed on updates in healthcare and billing norms from CMS or any other body actively participating with healthcare bodies like HBMA, MGMA, etc.

If enough medical professionals use the services of an outside medical billing service, the increased efficiency and improved cash flow of the practices involved could ultimately result in lowering the cost of healthcare for patients. We at SDD Global Solutions believe that in our own small way, we are contributing to an improvement of the healthcare system in the United States and Canada.

WHY SDD GLOBAL: Out of over 2,700 outsourcing providers, we are ranked as the #1 outsourcing company in India for 2010, and #2 in the world, according the industry's leading customer satisfaction barometer, The Black Book of Outsourcing. The 2010 customer satisfaction survey included over 12,000 client responses. SDD Global is managed by the respected New York-and-London-based media law firm, SmithDehn LLP. We have been providing medical and/or dental billing services since 2006. By outsourcing your healthcare billing to SDD Global, you can be assured of 100% reimbursement, or very close to it, in record time.

TO CONTACT US : Please email our Medical Billing Manager, James John, at   jamesj@sddglobal.com , or call James at +1(347)468-8796.

SDD Global's medical billing team has an advantage that no other medical billing company in the world enjoys - working in tandem with the #1 ranked legal outsourcing team in India!! "How does that help?" you may ask. It helps . . . big time.

SDD Global understands HIPAA better than anyone else in the business. Our legal team has been in the forefront helping advise clients on HIPAA compliance issues, especially after the changes made to the HIPAA law pursuant to The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act ("the HITECH Act"), in 2009. The HITECH Act has made HIPAA compliance more challenging that ever before, especially for "Business Associates" like medical billing service providers. At SDD Global, we have analyzed the changes at a micro level and know exactly what it takes to be HIPAA compliant under the current state of the law.

SDD Global's medical billing division ensures privacy of all electronic protected health information ("EPHI") it receives. SDD Global has the requisite infrastructure, and its workforce is adequately trained to be in compliance with the latest changes to the HIPAA law. SDD Global's HIPAA compliance policies are in tune with the security standards laid down by HIPAA for the protection of EPHI.

In particular SDD Global's HIPAA compliance policy provides as follows:

• EPHI is accessible only by authorized personnel and is safeguarded from unauthorized physical access, tampering and theft;


• The EPHI it receives is governed by a HIPAA compliant data backup and disaster recovery plan;


• The receipt and removal of hardware and electronic media that contain EPHI; and the movement of these items within the facility are governed by HIPAA compliant policies and procedures;


• EPHI is encrypted when transmitted;


• The EPHI is accessed on computer systems that automatically log off after 10 minutes of inactivity, and which do not permit use of personal email accounts or non-work-related websites, and which are protected from intrusion by secure firewalls;


• Its workforce is not allowed to carry any electronic device including pen drives, compact discs, or cell phones that have cameras or blue tooth connectivity into the work premises.


• Electronic access control is provided for all areas of the building, such that no one is able to enter any floor or project area without being specifically authorized to do so.


• Every employee is governed by a Non Disclosure Agreement and is trained by a security official who is also responsible for the development and implementation of policies and procedures required to ensure HIPAA compliance.