The AMA published an article a few years ago in American Medical News about the use of bank lockboxes in response to a question about whether or not it was worth the expense. Although the article did a great job of explaining the benefits of using a lockbox to expedite deposits, it did not answer the second part of the question asked, which was, “Are there any alternatives?”

CEO, Adrian Velasquez and COO, Christine Krause have always recognized the benefits to physicians of using a lockbox service and prior to creating Fi-Med’s internal bank and lockbox service, they used to encourage all of their clients to use a lockbox if at all possible. Unfortunately, not all banks provided lockbox services to their customers, and those who did often charged very high fees making the use of a lockbox not a very practical solution for most physicians.

Adrian and Christine consulted with several banks in order to find an affordable solution for their clients. As they began to work with banks they realized that there was a very important component to the lockbox process that all banks were missing. The problem? Banks don’t understand medical billing. They don’t understand what an Explanation of Benefits (EOB) is. They have scanning technology but their employees aren’t trained to recognize and capture all the important information that a medical practice needs. They don’t do this intentionally, they just don’t understand how medical billing works. Adrian and Christine realized that in order to provide the best service to their clients, they were going to need to create it themselves.  

The  Fi-Med lockbox brings the best of both worlds to our clients—the security and efficiency of a  lockbox that is more affordable than most traditional bank lockboxes, combined with years of medical billing experience. Fi-Med’s lockbox is more affordable than most traditional lockboxes. There is no need to change your existing banking relationship, payments are immediately scanned and deposited by ACH into your bank account of choice and you can view daily deposit activity online.

The Fi-Med lockbox service trims more than a week off the normal payment cycle for most clients and  eliminates time spent opening and sorting checks and Explanation of Benefits (EOB), filling out deposit slips and taking deposits to the bank. Fi-Med’s lockbox service takes human error at the office level out of the equation, completely eliminates the potential of employee theft and makes account reconciliation faster and easier. 

Fi-Med staff is bonded and follows GAAP in the separation of duties and responsibilities. Fi-Med is committed to excellence, offering its clients reduced costs so that they can concentrate on maintaining a high level of care for their patients and a competitive advantage.

2:45 pm, March 5th, 2010 |