Medical Billing Wiki for Practice Owners and Managers

Dr. Zelik Frischer has recently discovered a treasure trove of free information about medical billing at Billing Wiki (pbwiki).

Dr. Frischer, a Clinical Professor at Stony Brook University and three times named in New York Magazine’s survey of the best doctors in the Metropolitan Area recognizes the growing complexity of medical billing as an increasingly formidable challenge to managing a successful practice. A new industry of high-technology medical billing has mushroomed under the auspices of its promise to streamline the collections process and leave doctors with more time to care for their patients.

Though many high-quality services and systems exist, an overwhelming variety of options and attractive (yet unsubstantiated) performance claims from some providers have charmed busy doctors into making poor strategic decisions for their practices. “It is surprising how many clinics use a 5-year ROI analysis to justify an investment in technology that will become obsolete in 2-3 years,” says Dr. Frischer.

Billing pbWiki offers fresh perspectives on the complex and murky medical billing industry. Articles like Dr. Glenn Laub’s “The Game of Medical Billing” expose the key issues in an effort to help doctors make strategically sound decisions for their medical practices. “As a free, collaborative resource open to the medical community,” Dr. Frischer says, “Billing Wiki (pbWiki) is an indispensable guide. Billing Wiki is the Wikipedia of medical billing.” BBC News has called Wikipedia “one of the most reliably useful sources of information around, on or off-line.”

Billing Wiki follows the Wikipedia example and welcomes articles, edits, links, and comments by physicians, billers, and practice administrators. The website is the brainchild of Dr. Yuval Lirov, author of Mission Critical Systems Management (Prentice Hall, 1997), and multiple patents in artificial intelligence and computer security. The CEO of Vericle, a leader in medical billing technology and EMR, Dr. Lirov is no newcomer to the challenges physicians face in modernizing their practices. He says the mission of Billing Wiki is to provide physicians with a shared knowledge-base so that they can ask the right questions when considering a billing system or service, make the best decision for their practices, and realize their ultimate goal of spending more time with patients.