If you work in medical billing and coding, you know the struggle of paper statements and bills that require multiple people’s input. Too many papers get lost in the shuffle, causing each case to take much longer than necessary. Fortunately, American adults agree that a digital system would help them as well. In fact, 73% of Americans agree that a secure online communication tool could be used to provide them many benefits, as well as benefits for those who work in a health care facility or are in medical billing. Below are some of the benefits that an online system could provide.


Allow patients to get their lab results
Instead of having to call patients individually in order to inform them about their lab results, an online system could notify the patient when their lab results are in, allowing them to read the results online. This could be useful especially for results that are normal. For results that require a conversation, phone calls could be made instead.

Allow patients to request appointments online
Rather than having patients schedule follow up appointments while in the office, especially when they don’t know their schedules, they could look at availability calendars online and compare it to their own. This would save a lot of back-and-forth and ensure that patients can get the most convenient appointment time possible.

Allow patients to access a digital statement/bill and pay it
As mentioned earlier, paper statements and bills can be lost in the shuffle, especially since they make it to the hands of many people. As many as 250 people may be involved in the process of developing one single statement or bill. In addition to the possible confusion that paper statements can cause for those in medical billing or medical coding, many patients also would prefer digital copies. In fact, 55% of Millenials would rather receive a digital statement or bill versus a paper statement or bill.

Allow patients to fill out pre-appointment information

Many times, patients are required to come in 15-30 minutes early to fill out pre-appointment paperwork. Allowing patients to fill out these forms online would decrease the number of people in the waiting rooms, decrease the amount of time a patient spends in the office, and inevitably lead to happier patients.

Allow patients to access insurance information
Those who work in medical billing know that many people do not have the best health insurance, or even average health insurance. Around 14.7% of people in 2012 had no health insurance at all. By letting patients access information about insurance online, those who are uninsured could find an average health insurance, and those with average health insurance could find better health insurance, thus making billing much easier.

Do you think an online system would benefit patients? Do you think it would benefit those in health care facilities and/or those in medical billing? Let us know in the comments!