What does ERA stand for in Medical Billing

A large number of claims are being processed in the health care industry daily. Processing these claims requires generating thousands of EOB statements regularly. However, manual processing so many claims are both tiring and time-consuming. This means the chances of error in manual EOB are quite high and may result in incorrect payment posting. To resolve accounting issues all hospitals nowadays are switching to ERA—an HIPAA compliant that allows storing payment information for medical billing purposes. Being a technologically advanced tool, ERA is quite reliable and has the potential to boost revenue.

Definition of ERA

The term ERA stands for Electronic Remittance Advice referring to a form of electronic communication used in medical billing. The purpose of ERA is to eliminate paper-based EOB (Explanation of Benefits). The ERAs are designed to contain EOB related information like paid claims, denied claims, final status, and payment adjustments. With the help of ERA, payment posting for insurance claims has become more efficient.

Benefits of ERA

• Automated Payment Posting: ERA allows automatic posting of insurance payments to improve accuracy, productivity, rate of payment collection and save time.
• Checking Claim Status: ERA proves to be quite beneficial in keeping the claim status in check by segregating paid and denied claims.
• Quick Payments: ERA opens the option of electronic payments thus making payments faster. Opting for Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) while enrolling for ERA services ensures that you get confirmation of payment along with the ERA report.
• Receiving ERA Reports: The ERA technology allows you to receive electronic remittance advice reports for both federal and private insurance plans like Medicaid, Medicare, and Blue Cross, etc.
• No-more Manual EOB Statement: ERA reduces the need to manually create the EOB statement. The feature helps eliminate errors, save paper cost and time.

Outsourcing ERA services from a medical billing company allows hospitals to get a reliable service to generate remittance advice for payment posting, ERA reports and getting maximum insurance reimbursement.