MediStar^SM Billing Center Optimizes the Financial Health of a Busy Orthopedic Practice

Founded in 1863, New York City's Hospital for Special Surgery is the oldest orthopedic hospital in the United States. It has been the hospital of choice for nearly 150 years for individuals who suffer from musculoskeletal conditions such as arthritis, osteoporosis, spinal and sports injuries, cerebral palsy, and spina bifida. Hospital for Special Surgery has been recognized for its excellent medical care in The Best Hospitals in America, The Best in Medicine, and U.S. News and World Report's annual ranking of the country's best hospitals. Patients come from all over the world - at the rate of about 15,000 every year - to take advantage of the training and expertise of the hospital's highly respected teams of specialists.

One of those specialists is Dr. Peter G. Bullough, Director of Laboratories and a member of the hospital's Medical Board. With a daily schedule that requires the utmost in efficiency, Dr. Bullough needed a billing service that would augment the services of his office personnel, ensure prompt billing and collection, and run smoothly with minimal intervention from him and his staff.

He found what he was looking for in MediStar^SM Billing Center, a full-service medical billing firm that provides claims processing and receivables management for healthcare professions. Through cost-effective management of claims, billing, and receivables and timely collection and deposit of payments, MediStar has earned a reputation for excellence by improving cash flow for many medical practices.

Referred to MediStar by his long-time accountant, Dr. Bullough has been a MediStar client since May of 2000. "We had used several other billing services before this with less than satisfactory results," he says. "Things have certainly changed for the better, now that we are with MediStar."

According to Dr. Bullough, one of the main reasons why patients fail to pay medical bills in a timely fashion is that they don't understand all the charges on them. "People see a string of numbers and a large amount of money at the bottom, and they don't know what they're being asked to pay for," he says. "Since we began using MediStar, our patients receive their bills sooner, and those bills are easier for them to understand because everything is clearly itemized. The bills are more user-friendly, patients know exactly what they are being charged for, and they tend to pay more promptly. For us, this has translated into a significant improvement in our monthly returns."

To accomplish results like this, the professionals at MediStar adhere to "best-in-class" procedures and a highly efficient workflow process. They gather demographic, insurance, and charge information from their medical clients, enter all data, and promptly submit claims to all appropriate carriers. Then they follow up on each submission and review progress toward collection. They deposit and post payments as soon as they are received and mail updated patient statements twice a month.

MediStar personnel are courteous, knowledgeable, and highly accessible, both to their medical clients and to the patients of those clients. By calling a toll-free number, patients can obtain accurate and up-to-date information about their accounts. Each inquiry is handled with complete confidentiality by the MediStar staff.

Dr. Bullough sums up his experience with MediStar this way, "The people at MediStar Billing Center are readily available to us. They always respond promptly to our inquiries and address all of our concerns. We are very satisfied with the results they have already achieved for us."