Just an update for those of you in Australia that manage the business cash flow.
The Department of Veterans Affairs payment cycle for voucher base payments has doubled from 2.5 weeks to 5 weeks in 2009.
However if you change to "DVA online" you receive the payment into your bank account in about two days.
So if you have a large DVA client base it may be worth your time to look into changing your method of claiming:D:eek:
Can you please elaborate on how to go about this?
I have looked on the website and from what I read, Allied Health are not able to use online claiming.
????????
Would love to go down that path if it is possible!
A gremlin has got into the system and we have lost a few threads. I was able to retrieve the first three posts of this thread. Sorry to the others who went AWOL.
Sorry folks the original forum has vanished and or been lost.
For those who wanted details the story is as follows
I posted information that the DVA voucher
payment cycle had gone from 2.5 weeks to five weeks.
I also mentioned that DVA online had recently started for podiatry and that the payment cycle was two or three days.
In order for you to use the
DVA online payment system you need DVA approved practice management software.
We are using Front desk from smartsoft in Adelaide. It works well and they have one of the best customer support desks in OZ.
Also I believe the Senate estimates committee is looking into the why voucher payments now take 5 weeks.
Would love to do the DVA online too but we don't have a PMS system. We do Medicare claims online via our HICAPS terminal. Any chance of DVA being included in that system?
3 options for Claiming ...paper, medicare Ezyclaim ( through eftpos terminal dva claim not available ) and Medicare online integrated with PMS which allows all levels of medicare billing including DVA .
In the process of setting up the latter based on cashflow
I spoke to someone from DVA re HICAPS payments and she said it's a possibility due to Medicare having successfully been linked with a HICAPS terminal. But she said not in the near future as DVA had spend " a lot of money on electronic claiming".
Paul,
Even though it's 21 steps to be paid, it's sure quicker than waiting 2-4 weeks for a cheque from Medicare!
I was previously using an eftpos terminal through the commonwealth bank to process medicare claims. They were the only bank at the time which offered merchant facilities capable of doing medicare easyclaim. Since updating my HICAPS terminal, I now process all medicare rebates using HICAPS and I have to say it's a lot easier than what it was claiming through the Commonwealth Banks eftpos terminal.
YES as a podiatrist You can claim both DVA and Medicare EPC claims electronically using your Practice management software and the internet.
You do not have to swipe the patients card using this system, you just follow the prompts from your invoice screen. There is also a verify button on the screen, so you can check with Medicare that the patients details are valid before you bill.
The best part is that payments usually go into your bank account within two or three days. However I suspect that this will vary with different banks.
It may be that not all practice management software is compatible with the Medicare system, you will have to check with your supplier. We use Smartsoft's Frontdesk and it appears to work well.
Call your supplier or if they cannot help call Smartsoft and see if they can help you.
Paul, I understand that you can select either of your options with frontdesk.
If you chose to take the EPC BULK BILL fee of $48.95 it comes to the practice direct.
If you chose a >fee the cheque goes to the patient.
We have chosen not to do either. The patient pays us at the time of the consult. However we are in a process of review and may change to Bulk Bill at the discression of the practioner, the same as most GPs.
We have only been running Medicare/DVA online for three or four weeks
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but the problem with bulk billing is that we are not actually allowed to charge the patient any gap payment if your regular fee schedule is higher than the $48.95. For example, if your regular consult costs $60...you either make them pay the $60 up front and the patient gets their $48.95 rebate, or you bulk bill Medicare, getting only $48.95, with no out of pocket costs to the patient. Can be very difficult when your patients don't want to pay anything up front.
Nat, There are two payment options with Medicare online. The bulk bill one where you claim and receive $48.95 direct from medicare.
The other one is where you claim your fee and medicare sends your cheque to the patient for $48.95 The patient brings you the cheque with the gap payment.
We only use the system for DVA patients and do not use the Medicare options.
So you will need to check with your software provider to confirm the gap payment
details are correct.
We are using HICAPS to claim medicare rebates back for the patient directly (at least thats the way HICAPS have educated us to do so) and we get back $53 dollars for the patient. This is deposited directly into their bank account (cheque or savings) and then they pay us.
This is how HICAPS have instructed our staff to do it with their system....personally I think its a huge waste of time!
We are using HICAPS for medicare claims too and we are doing it either of two ways: 1) Bulk bill where the patient assigns their benefit to us, or 2) part pay where the patient still assigns their benefit to us and pays the gap (we use this otpion for those without a Centrelink concession card).
It's been working fine for us, but it seems as though everyone is doing it differently. It'll certainly be good when DVA come on board!
No idea - thats doing it the way HICAPS says in their manual that comes with the new terminal - but it goes back to the patient, then the patient pays for the consult.
I'm so confused! Hahahaha
We just do it the way the man installing the new terminal showed us- when it comes back with the benifit amount of $48.95, it asks if we want it assigned to the provider, which is yes, then it's in the bank 2 days later like HICAPS.
Hi all have also set up and been using Medicare online and DVA online billing and payments cash flow alot better, bit fiddly in the setup and increased expense to do so. Have had good support from Medicare with relationship and service from the Medicare Business development officer.
However I am amazed that there are people out there that are hearing about this for the first time. This is a little concerning from an information dissemination point of view or I guess alternatively there are those that have not read up on it yet either way we need to be more proactive about these things and lobby the appropriate people to ensure we as Pods are treated like every other health professional using Medicare. APodA has good info in current edition of Newsletter.
I'm still not sure how and why the rebate goes to your patients, and not you. Maybe you chose that option when signing up for Medicare rebates through HICAPS whereas we chose to be bulk billers (but we only bulk bill those on a concession and charge the rest a 'gap').
Seems that you are just processing your patients' claims for them with no benefit to you! We used to give them a claim form and send it off for them if they had difficulty, but now all we need is their Medicare number and the money goes directly to us!
DVA is not setup for eftpos machine /Hicaps machine. You either use old voucher system or Medicare /DVA online via software system. Very good for improving cashflow, only a couple of day wait i have have found, no need for patient to rumage around for their gold card or to sign for each item code (no card no signature) all via software.