Device for automating billing reimbursement

Abstract

An apparatus for automating billing reimbursement includes an electronic handheld processing device that displays patient demographic information, billing codes and guideline information. The physician selects patient information and is able to sort the patient information by different categories. The physician, after examination of the patient, inputs a billing code which is outputted to an interface device for distribution to an information system for providing medical bills.

1 . An electronic handheld processing device comprising: 
 a memory storing demographic information, patient diagnosis information and billing information;    an interface to enable physicians to input billing and diagnosis information; and    an interface to communicate with an interface device for downloading billing and diagnosis information and receiving updated patient demographic information.    
     
     
         2 . The electronic handheld processing device  claim 1 , wherein the patient information can be sorted by different categories.  
     
     
         3 . The electronic handheld processing device of  claim 2 , wherein the patient information is sorted by patient location.  
     
     
         4 . The electronic handheld processing device of  claim 1 , wherein the handheld processing device provides guideline notifications associated with different billing codes.  
     
     
         5 . The electronic handheld processing device of  claim 1 , wherein changes in guidelines associated with the billing codes are flagged by an alarm.  
     
     
         6 . The electronic handheld processing device of  claim 1 , further comprising billing code and diagnosis menus specific to a physician.  
     
     
         7 . The electronic handheld processing device of  claim 6 , further comprising medical procedures evaluation and management menus.  
     
     
         8 . The electronic handheld processing device  claim 1 , further comprising a bar code scanner.  
     
     
         9 . A method for automating the billing process for physicians using an electronic handheld processing device the method comprising: 
 displaying patient demographic information on a screen of the handheld processing device;    displaying billing information on the screen of the handheld processing device;    selecting the required patient and billing information once a patient has been examined; and    outputting billing code data to an interface device for distributing the billing code data to information systems for further processing to generate medical bills.    
     
     
         10 . The method for automating the billing process of  claim 9 , further comprising sorting the patient information by different categories.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the patient information is sorted by patient locations.  
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising displaying guideline notifications for different billing codes.  
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein changes in guidelines associated with the billing codes are flagged by an alarm.  
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising displaying billing code and diagnosis menus specific to a physician.  
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising displaying medical procedures and evaluation menus specific to a physician.  
     
     
         16 . A method in a computer system for automating a physicians billing process, comprising: 
 displaying a list of patients to be seen on a particular day;    displaying a list of patient locations;    displaying billing codes;    receiving a billing code selection corresponding to a patient examined by a physician;    creating a new billing record for the patient;    an interface device, sending billing codes for the patient to an information processing system to generate a medical bill.    
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising, sorting the patient information by different categories.  
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the patient information is sorted by patient locations.  
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising displaying guideline notifications for different billing codes.  
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein changes in guidelines associated with billing codes are flagged by an alarm.  
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising displaying billing code and diagnosis menus specific to a physician.  
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising displaying medical procedures and evaluation menus specific to a physician.