From pierre at pvmed.com Thu Sep 4 07:11:36 2008 From: pierre at pvmed.com (Thomas Piergallini) Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2008 07:11:36 -0400 Subject: [Alteer] Alteer Office Billing Statements Message-ID: <038d01c90e7f$029c4140$07d4c3c0$@com> Anyone do their own statement mailing? Properly, you should be mailing out no statements per month, in a perfect world. We mail 200 or so, which is just barely the break-even point, if use the third-party service that alteer offers to send out statements. Further we pre-sort the statements, because some patients, who owe $5 are not worth the cost of the stamp to send them a bill. So those statements need to be pulled. And many statements are the same family. Do not want to send the same family multiple envelopes. Yes we are that stingy with the stamps. Finding a double-window envelope that matches the Alteer billing statement is not easy. After more than a few years, I finally found a source at www.envelopesdirect.com. A double window envelope that fits the alteer billing statement perfectly. -tom -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.nova.org/pipermail/alteer/attachments/20080904/7a3ee81b/attachment.html From mintek at charter.net Thu Sep 4 08:28:33 2008 From: mintek at charter.net (Mintek) Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2008 08:28:33 -0400 Subject: [Alteer] Alteer Office Billing Statements References: <038d01c90e7f$029c4140$07d4c3c0$@com> Message-ID: <003401c90e89$bf0a4700$52065461@gha.chartermi.net> Hi Tom I do our own Alteer statements. I just sent out a batch. I only send them every two months or so due to postage costs, etc. We always batch same family statements into one envelope. It's odd that you had trouble finding envelopes. I've found envelopes that fit Alteer statements at Staples, Office Max and Office Depot. We insert a small (size 9?) return envelope into our statements with our address on it. When we buy those, we stamp batches of them with our return address stamp. I used to set the minimum balance for statements to be printed at anything over $4.99 but recently I lowered that down to anything over $1.99 because there were some patients who had old, small balances and I thought they should know about them. We always have some patients whose accounts I need to research more or who need some extra writing from me on them before sending statements. So, when printing statements, I preview the list and right-click to eliminate the ones that will need more work. I keep a Word document with their names on it. Then, when I take the time for one of those "problem" people, I do a single statement for them (in the Status area of Billing). You can specifically type in comments that pertain to them that way. Also, the date of those "problem" statements will be more accurate and timely. Otherwise, I was finding that I set those problem statements aside and then when they were mailed a week or two later, the date was not current. I didn't even know that Alteer did statements but for those of you using that option, consider doing your own. It's really not hard at all. Our nurse is much faster than I am but when she stuffs the envelopes and seals them, she gets a batch of 200, or so, done in less than an hour. My biggest frustration with Alteer statements is that they automatically print the lines for writing in credit card payments and we still don't accept credit cards. Inevitably, a few patients each billing cycle fill in those lines and I have to call them to let them know we don't accept credit cards. Long ago I asked Alteer to remove that part from our statements but they said it couldn't be done. We have recently decided to accept credit cards but I haven't made the leap yet. I keep researching different offers. If anyone wants to call me or email separately with questions about using Alteer statements, I'd be happy to try to help. I've been doing them for several years now. Paula (Mintek) office phone: 269-686-0600 mintek at charter.net ----- Original Message ----- From: Thomas Piergallini To: alteer at nova.org Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 7:11 AM Subject: [Alteer] Alteer Office Billing Statements Anyone do their own statement mailing? Properly, you should be mailing out no statements per month, in a perfect world. We mail 200 or so, which is just barely the break-even point, if use the third-party service that alteer offers to send out statements. Further we pre-sort the statements, because some patients, who owe $5 are not worth the cost of the stamp to send them a bill. So those statements need to be pulled. And many statements are the same family. Do not want to send the same family multiple envelopes. Yes we are that stingy with the stamps. Finding a double-window envelope that matches the Alteer billing statement is not easy. After more than a few years, I finally found a source at www.envelopesdirect.com. A double window envelope that fits the alteer billing statement perfectly. -tom ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Alteer mailing list Alteer at nova.org http://mail.nova.org/mailman/listinfo/alteer ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.526 / Virus Database: 270.6.14/1647 - Release Date: 09/02/2008 6:02 AM -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.nova.org/pipermail/alteer/attachments/20080904/cfa22091/attachment.html From drbishop at argyllmedical.com Thu Sep 4 09:41:52 2008 From: drbishop at argyllmedical.com (Roy L Bishop MD) Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2008 14:41:52 +0100 Subject: [Alteer] Alteer Office Billing Statements In-Reply-To: <038d01c90e7f$029c4140$07d4c3c0$@com> References: <038d01c90e7f$029c4140$07d4c3c0$@com> Message-ID: <000f01c90e93$fe5710f0$0301a8c0@argyll.local> We do our own statement runs - had no problem finding the envelopes Any balance > $4-99 gets sent out We do not pay a return envelope We would like to see Alteer make the patient portal useable and allow people to view and pay their own bill online - like E Clinical Works allows for instance. Glad to see Alteer is finally going to add E Prescribing without I hope additional fees, probably driven by the ending of the Fax exemption at the end of the year. I visited Irvine and strongly urged them to add E Rx and EDI capabilities in .... 2003 Best wishes Roy L Bishop MD CEO Argyll Medical Group Chico CA _____ From: alteer-bounces at nova.org [mailto:alteer-bounces at nova.org] On Behalf Of Thomas Piergallini Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 12:12 PM To: alteer at nova.org Subject: [Alteer] Alteer Office Billing Statements Anyone do their own statement mailing? Properly, you should be mailing out no statements per month, in a perfect world. We mail 200 or so, which is just barely the break-even point, if use the third-party service that alteer offers to send out statements. Further we pre-sort the statements, because some patients, who owe $5 are not worth the cost of the stamp to send them a bill. So those statements need to be pulled. And many statements are the same family. Do not want to send the same family multiple envelopes. Yes we are that stingy with the stamps. Finding a double-window envelope that matches the Alteer billing statement is not easy. After more than a few years, I finally found a source at www.envelopesdirect.com. A double window envelope that fits the alteer billing statement perfectly. -tom -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.nova.org/pipermail/alteer/attachments/20080904/76be51f3/attachment-0001.html