Help with automating billing and payroll

I am looking to improve our functionality. We are on version 5.02
Would like to automate billing with a software. Not exactly understanding the X-12 feature.

For Payroll: Is there some sort of compatible software.
Right now I run a report that shows the encounters and I add up the units per worker.

@tjbarr,

We can do the billing automation means for the Openemr to clearning and clearing house back to OpenEMR

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We are currently working on automating the billing process so we can bypass the clearing houses and submit directly to the insurance companies. Basically, when claims are generated in the billing manager they are dumped into directories that are insurance company specific. A cron job will submit the claims via SFTP or another secure method. This removes steps from the whole billing process. By the end of year we should have this complete and submitted to the community, specifically to OpenEMR 6.0.

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Also, if you are speaking in terms of units, I imagine you are doing mental health or social work?

We are a behavioral health treatment center for chemical/alcohol dependency.

To answer your questions. We generate the X12 so we can send the claim to the clearing house / insurance company. When you enter your query specifications in the Billing Manager, it will present a list of claims that have not been billed yet:

For each of the patients, you select the insurance company of the patient. Generally, most places only use one clearinghouse. If you are only using one clearing house, all you have to do is make sure each patient has the correct insurance company associated with it. once the X12 file is created, it saves to the sites/default/documents/edi folder, and it also gives you the ability to download the x12 generated file locally. This is the file that gets sent to the clearing house.

Payroll: If you want OpenEMR to handle payroll, this would require customization. The cost depends on what you are looking for. It can be as simple as just a spreadsheet where employees can create a time-sheet and update it, then it is saved and can be viewed/printed by a payroll department. More complex would be integrating Google Maps API to track mileage for outpatient visits by staff. It really depends on the needs of your practice, each one is different than the other.

Feel free to PM me and I am happy to discuss more with you. I am currently working on a module that will automate billing so you can by pass the clearinghouse all together. All you have to do is run the billing manager and it handles the submission of claims to each individual insurance company. This billing addition will be ready for OpenEMR 6.0.

Thanks for all the valuable information!