Pre-Admissions
EMR TOUR
CloudMD365 CRM
Verification of Benefits
CloudMD365 provides daily monitoring of every patient in your census for any lapse in coverage. Polls multiple databases and payors directly when available to return an electronic, instant benefit verification, including basic coverage information as well as a phone number for the payor for telephone confirmation.
VOB At a Glance
- Automatic daily monitoring of your entire active census for instant notification of mid-month lapse of insurance for all active patients in CloudMD365's EMR.
- Instant electronic confirmation of coverage, often with coverage information included
- More accurate and reliable than just checking one electronic database. VOB polls at least three and often more databases — plus many payors direct — for a much higher match rate than simply looking in one popular database
- Phone verification available with 2-hour, 4-hour, and next day service available
- Monthly VOB updates: a new electronic coverage verification will be placed directly in the CloudMD365 patient file on the first day of each month, and you can configure VOB for instant notification of all VOBs or only lapsed policies
- Email, text, and/or CloudMD365 Messenger notifications to advise staff of new VOB results, urgent notifications, or lapses in insurance coverage
- Costs just pennies per day to monitor every patient in your CloudMD365 census for mid-month lapse of coverage and obtain monthly VOB updates — VOB pays for itself!
- Polls multiple databases and payors directly when available to return an electronic, instant benefit verification, including basic coverage information as well as a phone number for the payor for telephone confirmation
- VOBs placed directly into CloudMD365 patient file along with payor phone number for instant dialing to payor for verbal confirmation, when needed, or you can use our phone services.
- External-biller friendly: sends notifications internally and externally whenever a lapse of benefits occurs or instant VOB is available
VOB is as good as FREE!
- Consider the cost of a lapsed policy…just one. If VOB can eliminate just one unpaid claim due to a lapsed policy, your cost to run VOB is virtually nothing. Order just electronic or add phone verification when ordering your instant VOB.
- As Good As FREE!
- VOB pays you back with savings! Here’s how:
- Many national telemarketing studies report that a 40-60 minute phone call can cost as much as $65.00 (all inclusive costs) and many external billers charge $40.00 for a VOB (as much as $65.00 for weekend call).
- There is currently no way you can call on every patient each day to confirm that they are currently covered, with no lapse in coverage. Doing it manually would require many man-hours every day. VOB does all that for
just pennies per day. Considering the cost of a single lapsed policy (just one!), your cost to run VOB is completely paid for…for years to come! - Our service polls multiple databases, and often the payor directly (when available) and tells you if coverage is present at the initial call then every day as a monitor service.
- Best for instant results, where your admissions or marketing staff needs an answer right away. We can poll all available databases in seconds and advise you of the presence of in force policies instantly.
- Also offers instant VOB plus phone verification with 2-hour, 4-hour, or next day phone verification of benefits directly to payor.
- By polling multiple databases and payors direct, our match rate is much higher than if you checked a single database.
- *Or as selected -there is also a semi-weekly option and must be enabled by user.
VOB for Labs and other third parties:
- For labs and third-party providers who bill insurance directly for services, VOB is invaluable.
- FIRST, by providing proper insurance information with no errors, so your claims are right from the start, right at admission of a new patient.
- SECOND, VOB can give labs and third parties immediate notification in the event of a lapse of benefits. In this case, a lab, for example, can de-authorize collection of urine or hair samples for outside testing until benefits are reinstated.
VOB Q&A
- We have access to an electronic database that charges 20 cents. Why is VOB better?
A single database will never give you more than a 75% to 80% match rate. We poll 3-4 databases plus many insurance carriers directly for a 98% to 99% match rate. Providers typically do not have access to carriers directly and re-typing information into multiple websites would cost you time. And time is money. - How long does an instant benefit availability confirmation (Instant VOB) take?
About 2 to 5 seconds, depending on internet traffic and the number of databases we must poll to get a match on your patient request. - How much information do you need from the patient to run an instant confirmation VOB?
Just 8 fields. If you have the patient’s insurance card, you should photograph and upload via a smartphone or tablet. - Does VOB work on smartphones?
Yes. It is optimized for smartphones and tablets. For example, when you upload a photo of the insurance card on an iPhone, it is not saved on the device, for confidentiality. It’s just saved in the cloud. - How often do you check if a client is still insured; that their insurance has not lapsed?
Once enrolled, VOB will check each client in your census twice a week. If there is a lapse in coverage, you will receive an urgent email, text message, and/or CloudMD365 notification of the lapse. - What’s your experience with mid-month lapsed policies?
We’re finding about eleven per thousand policies lapse mid-month. That means a facility with a monthly census of 80 patients will experience almost one lapsed policy per month. - Why do we need VOB ? We just got confirmation that 20 days were authorized – our program is 15 days.
Just because the days are authorized, does not mean you will get paid. An authorization is NOT a commitment to pay, Example, Your UR team calls to get 15 days authorized on March 30. The patient did not pay his/her insurance bill and the policy lapses on April 1 , so you provide 15 days of service and get paid for 1 (March 31) because the policy lapsed on April 1.
Monitoring: A VOB Exclusive!
Our signature Monitoring feature enables your staff to keep tabs on admitted patients to ensure that his or her policy does not terminate. Monitoring is automated, so your staff does not have to manually check for coverage. It’s a VOB exclusive!
We won’t kick a patient out even if their insurance lapses so why would we want VOB Monitoring Service?
Knowledge is power. VOB is intended to capture the date at which coverage is no longer confirmed for a patient. That does not mean you need to kick the patient out, that means you should have a conversation with the patient or family to find out who their new insurance provider is so that you can bill the new insurance. It is not expected, nor anticipated, that a patient would get kicked out, we simply are offering you a notice that the policy has lapsed and that you need to seek other payment arrangements.
- Is VOB easy to use?
Very easy. In fact, speed and ease of use are VOB main features. We have just 8 fields that are required — and with one click, your results are returned in seconds! - And VOB is FREE?
Yes! FREE to CloudMD365 customers and we include 50 FREE lookups per month! - We are a detox center. Why do we need VOB ?
Our Instant VOB service can advise you in seconds if a prospective patient has a policy in place. Further, our VOB Plus service can give you 2-hour turnaround phone verification with full details on the particulars of the policy and coverage available. Since a detox facility only keeps patients a week or so, the monthly monitoring service will not be as valuable to you as a residential treatment, PHP or IOP facility that keeps patients longer. - How does the VOB Phone Verification work?
When you receive the instant confirmation, you can order a phone verification with 2-hour, 4-hour or next day response time. We have a call center of trained VOB professionals and call management systems which match up our personnel with the same insurance carriers every day. While hold times average an hour or more, once through, our volume allows us to clear as many as 6 VOBs at a time. We will return highly detailed VOB information with our phone verification service. Ask your account representative for a sample VOB Plus report. - Why is the VOB Plus Phone service so expensive?
Our Biller only charges $20.00. Hold times average 50 – 80 minutes for a phone-verified VOB. And once through, it takes 5-10 minutes to complete a highly detailed report. If your Biller offers high-quality VOBs with the same 2-hour guaranteed response, then your best move is to use our instant coverage verification and monthly monitoring service. You can always try our phone verification when in a pinch for time. - How much information do you return with the Instant VOB Verification service?
Within 5 seconds, you will receive a green or red “Verified” or “No Coverage” response. Seconds later, we send a PDF report containing merged data from all the databases and from the payors where available. We give you whatever we get, which normally requires a phone confirmation. The important part is FIRST getting a confirmation or rejection on coverage, and second, knowing you have the right carrier before calling. Your 99-cent investment here pays for itself many times over. - What specific information is returned?
You’ll receive Plan Name, Plan Number, Service Types (Includes all service types; Substance Abuse, Mental Health, Health Plan Benefit coverage, X-Ray, etc.). You also receive Accumulator values (deductible, co-insurance, copay, out-of-pocket) for in- and out-of-network, individual/family, Subscriber Information, Address Information, Benefit Limitations and other carrier data. - What other errors do you get back?
If the patient insurance data is provided correctly, you will get a “Verified” or “No Coverage” response after we poll multiple databases and insurance companies. The most common error is a “No Match, Please Correct Data” meaning there is a problem with the supplied data. You get this response in seconds so you correct the request and re-submit for a confirmation of available benefits. Once there is a match on the supplied data, the monthly monitoring takes it from there with a twice weekly check that there has not been a lapse in coverage. - What is the match rate for VOB averages on the Instant Verification of Benefit Availability?
The old adage “Garbage In, Garbage Out” applies here. The most common error we encounter is getting the insurance carrier selected properly from our list. If the information is supplied correctly, we average 99% match rate.
How It Works
- Just enter the most basic insurance information into the CloudMD365 VOB Module interface. Patient information is filled-in from the CloudMD365 Facesheet. Upload a photo of the insurance card with mobile phone camera, iPad or tablet.
- Request a VOB Instant VOB and get an electronic benefit verification in seconds. This VOB typically confirms available coverage, but sometimes includes basic coverage information.
- Optional VOB plus phone verification with 2-hour, 4-hour or next day service available, for phone verified coverage data.
- Monthly electronic VOB coverage update placed in patient file. A new electronic VOB on the first of each month.
- Urgent Email/CloudMD365 Messenger/Text Messages are sent in the event of a lapse of coverage.
- Daily benefit monitoring of your entire patient census in CloudMD365 for just pennies per day. You will receive an instant text message/Email/CloudMD365 message in the event of a lapse in coverage for any patient in your census.