e-Notes Medical Billing Services, Medical Billing for Medical offices, EMR

Conversions take from 4 days to 2 or 3 weeks, everything will depend on the complexity of the conversion. If the data is corrupted, it will be impossible to convert it.

If none of these alternatives is possible, the prior software vendor needs to write a program to extract the information, sometimes they have utilities built into the software that facilitates the migration of data. This last option very rarely happens, but it is possible. Once this is done, the conversion can start

The first option "Directly from the database" is the easy one, since the database is an open architecture, and the data can be seen by different applications. If your old system is a DOS system, this option does not apply.

The second option "Directly from an ASCII file" or binary files, (mostly DOS systems) is somewhat challenge. There are a lot of challenges to see the information in an unknown format, at this stage of the conversion process, there are a lot of "guesses". Once everything has been confirmed, the conversion process can start. One additional step after these challenges, is to extract the data from the prior system, and store it to a file called "Flat file" or ASCII file" again. Once the data is in that format, the information is readable and be stored in a different system

The third option "Directly from a printed report". This option is very challenging and not always 100% accurate. It sometimes requires the combination of two reports in order to create one "Flat file" or ASCII file with all the information needed in that file.

Mapping is the process of identifying every field in the database or flat file, this process requires the analysis of every field in the old system to match it with a field in the new system.

Field	Old System Flat File	New System
Patient Number	Pos 1 to 5	Patient_NR
Patient Name	Pos 6 to 35	Patient_Name
Patient SS#	Pos 36 to 44	Patient_SS
Patient Date of Birth	Pos 45 to 52	Patient_dob

If the source of information is an open database, then there is a need to match (Map) old names with current names in the databases and not positions as is shown in the above example on column 2.

Field	Old System Field name	New System
Patient Number	Patient_NR_OLD	Patient_NR
Patient Name	Patient_Name_OLD	Patient_Name
Patient SS#	Patient_SS_OLD	Patient_SS
Patient Date of Birth	Patient_dob_OLD	Patient_dob

Once the data has been mapped, the conversion process starts, the results are moved to the new system, then the information can be seen in the new billing system.

Your job is to certify the information, as you are the most knowledgeable person of your data, and only you can say if it is right or wrong. You can tell if the grand total of the account receivables is correct or not, so you need to certify the information. Once the information has been certified, the information is moved again permanently.

This task usually costs between $4,000 and $6,000 (assuming you have only one system), the price will depend on the complexity of the conversion; $2,500 if it is demographics only.

Some office managers decide that they do not want to move the information and they prefer to start entering the information from scratch, and let the old system die until all the A/R becomes zero. If you want to preserve the history in one single system, this option is not a good one.