Seasoned resellers know that selling medical software is just the tip of the revenue iceberg. Getting wealthy off of software sales alone is not realistic in this industry for any reseller. Finding additional sources of revenue and new solutions for your customers is crucial to your survival and an important part of maintaining a large and happy customer-base. Once you have put strategic relationships in place that will enable you to bill for additional services, it becomes very simple to put these solutions into every software proposal you submit.

Medical Billing Services:  I know a number of resellers that have already started tapping into this recurring revenue stream.  Selling a medical office their practice management or electronic medical records software and then charging them "a per claim fee" or "a percentage collected fee" each month to maintain their billing can be a relatively easy transition for an experienced medical software reseller. 

The recurring monthly revenue generated from taking on a billing client is just one lasting benefit to this income stream.  It is also interesting to note that resellers who are using their software everyday in their own billing service often give better training and support to their software clients because they understand the practical application of the software they are selling. 

This can also work the other way.  In recent months I've seen a number of billing services becoming extremely successful on the software sales side because it is easier for them to demo and answer difficult questions on the software.  It is no surprise that some of the most successful billing services also make some of the most successful resellers.

Electronic Claims: Electronic Insurance Claims have been a steady source of residual income to resellers for years. Each state differs in their options for this solution, however, knowing and understanding the insurance companies in your state and the options associated with filing to them is critical to your business. Texas's main solution, for example, is THIN. It seems that every doctor in Texas has a desire to submit claims through THIN and thus selling any other option can be difficult and sometimes futile. Luckily, THIN does offer commissions to resellers for commercial claims. Washington has both WMSC and NDEX which are free options and generally the choice of the local doctors there depending on what part of the state they are in.

Clearinghouses like Gateway EDI, APEX, ET&T, ENS, and Intelliclaim are smaller organizations with a good management team and a fairly lucrative reseller program. They are all good solutions where there is not a free or standard option in your state.

In states like Texas and Washington where there are predominant free filing options, it is often a difficult sell to encourage your clients to use a paid clearinghouse, however, there is something to be said for having a 3rd party maintain a vested interest in helping ensure that a doctor's insurance claims are all submitted properly and paid promptly -- both the doctor's offices and the clearinghouses entire business depends on that happening successfully.

In determining which clearinghouse is right for your clients, there are four main questions I would present in an interview process with each clearinghouse.  How much do you charge per claim (or per month if they have that option)?  What insurance carriers do you work with for my state electronically?    How familiar are you with the software that my client uses?  What  is my commission per claim?

Electronic Claims Appeals:  Most medical software resellers are familiar with the residual income available for Electronic Claims, however, very few seem to be familiar with the process of Electronic Claims Appeals and the potential residual income available there.  eAppeals (www.eAppeals.com), for example, is a new and unique service available to healthcare providers to substantially increase previously lost or abandoned revenues from claims that have been denied, unpaid or not paid correctly by the insurance companies.   eAppeals provides a valuable service in tracking down lost revenue for doctors and also has a competitive reseller program with monthly royalties for medical software resellers.

eStatements: Busy doctors offices can spend hours at the end or middle of each month mailing and preparing countless statements that have to be sorted and mailed out to their patients. This process can be both time-consuming and frustrating depending on the software system that the office is using.

Some software vendors provide very few solutions in the realm of paper statements, little customizability, and few options for sorting and printing the statements. In these cases, the manual work by an office staff can be overwhelming.

Electronic statements are a valuable solution for any office looking to outsource the cost of the time, paper, and postage involved with handling patient statements.

Many vendors have an in-house eStatement solution. If your vendor's in-house solution is working for you and you are receiving valuable residual income from the process, by all means stick with them. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  In recent conversations with resellers, however, many of you have suggested that these in-house solutions are often unreliable and cumbersome. Many offer no additional value to your customers whatsoever. For these resellers I would suggest outsourcing your client's statements through an organization that specializes in electronic statements.

NexTrust (www.nextrust.com) is one such organization that I have become personally familiar in recent months. Their only business is electronic statements, they have a record of reliability (millions of statements sent, 0% error rating), and they have a fantastic reseller program that combines the strengths of a wholesale program with the convenience of a typical reseller program.

NexTrust only sells their services through resellers. Your base-cost as a reseller is $.52 as a reseller. You set your own rates for your clients, so if you wanted to make $.05 per statement, you would sign your clients up at a $.57 per statement rate. NexTrust handles all of the billing and mails you out your commission check on a monthly basis.

For more information on NexTrust and eStatements, check out our special offers page.

Credit Card Processing: I can’t remember the last time I went to a physician and paid my co-pay with anything but a credit card. In today’s financial climate, doctors need to be able to accept credit and debit cards because patients want to pay with them.

Though opportunities with Credit Card Processing have been around for years, many resellers are just starting to tap into this residual revenue stream. Organizations like PPI (www.paypros.com) have started working with software vendors and have a generous program for sharing revenue with resellers. Under their program with one such vendor, 20% of the revenue from credit card processing is returned to the resellers.

If your vendor doesn’t provide a reliable credit card processing solution, contact PPI or some other credit card processing organization directly in order to tap into this valuable revenue stream.

Local Monthly Support Contracts:  Most resellers set up their own recurring monthly, semi-annual, or annual support contracts.  Technical support is truly the life-blood of any good reseller business plan.  Always include the option to have a residual recurring monthly, semi-annual, or annual support payment in your proposals.  Consistent support is a smart investment by your clients in their practice.  Generally, good support ensures that things will run smoothly for the office.

Some vendors charge their own annual maintenance and do not allow you to charge for the support you will be giving your clients.  If your vendor does not allow you to charge for support, they do not understand this industry or your value to the end-user.  If that is the situation you are in, I would say that it is time to shop for a new product line to represent.

Web Hosting and Design: Resellers who do not possess the time or web design skills themselves can outsource these solutions to other companies and receive residual income for it. Intelligent Hosting (www.intelligenthosting.com) has a competitive reseller program that allows you to sell their services directly to a doctor’s office. Doctors need a webpage in today’s market in order to say competitive and market to new patients.  This valuable service to any client can be a simple addition to a larger proposal.

3^rd Party Software/Hardware Products:  There are a number of third party products available that can interface directly with your software or can work along side your software.  Many of these include recurring revenue programs.  Patient reminder systems, networking, integrated phone systems and messaging systems, long distance, ASP solutions, and digital medical hardware and upgrades can all be a source of residual income as well.  For more residual income ideas, feel free to contact me at:  kburdick@investmedllc.com

Residual income is a key in developing your successful medical software dealership.  Living on software sales alone is a hard and unpredictable road.  Its always financially comforting, not only to know that you have provided a series of valuable services to your client, but that the residual monthly checks are in the mail and that you are still being paid long after you've closed the deal.

 -- Kevin Burdick,               
InvestMedLLC.com        

August 2004, TOP STORY:  Putting Your Eggs in Two Baskets -  A Resellers Guide to Having a Back-Up Plan