Chiropractic Office Billing Software Performance Index (BPI) in April 2007 outperformed its March value by 4.3%, bringing the index from 18.9 up to 14.6, ahead of the national average of 17.7%, while replacing four of BPI participants in March on the list of top ten performers. BPI guides chiropractic office managers and helps the development of both chiropractic billing software and billing performance standards. This article describes a rule-based chiropractic billing index, including its coverage definition, update cycle, volume weighting, and provided information.

BPI = 14.6 means that the average of ten top performing payers working with Billing Precision clients have 14.6% of Accounts Receivable beyond 120 days. BPI is a key billing performance characteristic, as it is a proxy of the claims that are never paid. Obviously, the lower is the index the better is billing performance. The table below also lists the top ten performing payers and their relative index as recorded in the Billing Precision's system.

Billing Precision Index 14.6 Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan 3.2 Blue Cross Blue Shield Colorado 6.8 Humana 7.9 Blue Cross Blue Shield Illinois 11.1 (down from 11.2 in March) United Health Care 13.9 (up from 23.2 in March) Cigna 15 (down from 12.9 in March) Medicare New Jersey 16.4 (up from 20.5 in March) Blue Cross Blue Shield Texas 20 (down from 15.2 in March)

Great West 22 Aetna 22.1 (down from 20.9 in March)

April BPI dropped four participants since March: Blue Cross Blue Shield Pennsylvania Blue Cross Blue Shield Alabama Medicare Pennsylvania Blue Cross Blue Shield New Jersey

Three payers improved their index since March: Blue Cross Blue Shield Illinois 11.1 (down from 11.2 in March) United Health Care 13.9 (up from 23.2 in March) Medicare New Jersey 16.4 (up from 20.5 in March)

Three participants lowered their indexes with respect to March BPI: Cigna 15 (down from 12.9 in March) Blue Cross Blue Shield Texas 20 (down from 15.2 in March) Aetna 22.1 (down from 20.9 in March)

April BPI added four new participants since March: Blue Cross Blue Shield Michigan 3.2 Blue Cross Blue Shield Colorado 6.8 Humana 7.9 Great West 22

Coverage

BPI is rule-based, i.e., payer participation in the index is defined by dynamically rules at the time of computation and not by a static listing of specific payers. Therefore, any specific payer may start or discontinue participation in the index, dependent on satisfaction of rule's conditions.

Current selection of payers for participation in the BPI is based on fifty top-volume providers across all United States that have received Billing Precision services for more than six months and have more than two hundred claims in their current Accounts Receivable.

Update Cycle

BillingPrecision.com updates BPI on a monthly basis.

Volume Weighting

BPI is volume weighted, which is important to accommodate future growth of provided information, index combinations, and sensitivity across multiple indices.

Information Provided

BPI computes the percent of Accounts Receivable beyond 120 days. Note that national average across all medical specialties of percent of accounts receivable beyond 120 days is 17.7%.

Summary

Chiropractic Office Billing Software Performance Index helps the development of both chiropractic office billing software and billing performance standards. Chiropractic office managers can use the index to benchmark their billing performance and guide its improvement over time. Rule-based index definition allows for automated inclusion and exclusion of payers in the index based on payer attributes, such as numbers of processed claims, accounts receivable distribution, certain mix of CPT codes, or patient demographics.