Welcome Synapse Network,
We hope you’re keeping warm and well through these cooler winter months. We’ve been working hard behind the scenes here at Synapse and are excited to announce the launch of our new website to make your experience with us even better. My book for patients is in the final stages of editing and design, our rules engine is now available as a standalone product, and our flagship billing system is fully integrated with Stripe. Plus, we have an exciting announcement to make about a new member of our consulting team.
Happy reading!
In this issue
 Website launch |  Medical Bills Made Easy |  Synapse Rules Engine |  MBS Stripe Integration |
Read on for these articles and more…
Our new look website
We’ve had a makeover – but don’t worry, nothing’s changed for you.
We want to reassure you that the care, support, and high-quality service we provide to you and your patients remain exactly the same.
You will see our website has a streamlined new look, while keeping our user-friendly feel, reflecting who Synapse is today – a modern, evolving company focused on helping providers like you thrive in a complex health system. Your login, billing workflows, and everything you rely on day-to-day are unchanged. We’re simply making it easier for others to discover the services we provide.
We’ve been talking to your patients and they’ve had great things to say. Our team speaks to hundreds of your patients every month. We call them to do your Informed Financial Consents, and they call us to pay bills or ask questions.
We understand the patient experience better than ever and want to continue supporting that trusted relationship you have with them. Some of the questions we are getting include:
- Why did I receive this bill?
- What’s this 880 number for? I’m sure I didn’t see a doctor that day.
- What is this $350 known gap?
- How do I get my rebates from Medicare and my private health fund?
- Why didn’t I get more back?
Over time, as more patients have come to us, it has become obvious that we needed a separate place to de-code medical bills just for them. The new look website does just that. It is now easier for Patients, Providers and Payers to access the things they need with clear, simple menus.
The Providers menu is where most of you will head to, and everything there is the same.
The Patients menu takes you to Margaret’s new website which is the main place to purchase her soon-to-be-released book and ask medical billing questions.
Medical Bills Made Easy
Test readers are loving Margaret’s book. The feedback has been incredible so far. She’s receiving reactions like “gobsmacked”, “so helpful”, “every Australian should read this book”, and “OMG, I had no idea that’s how it worked.” It’s exciting times, but there’s still a way to go.
One thing we have learned from readers is that many don’t know what bulk billing is or what it means. We were surprised as we thought it was the one thing every Australian understood. But we were wrong. It’s one of the reasons the title of the book has now been changed to ‘Medical Bills Made Easy’. Readers have told us that makes sense to them whereas the earlier working title ‘Just Bulk Bill It!’ didn’t. The book is 100% for consumers so the title simply has to make sense to them. And now, hopefully, it does.
We are a still few months away but will hopefully be ready for a September / October launch. We’ll be posting about it a lot on our socials and would love your early reactions and engagement. This book will be a valuable resource for your patients and hopefully all Australians and visitors.
Read more about Medical Bills Made Easy
Standalone Rules Engine
We often have doctors thanking us for the various methods the app uses to keep them on track – blocking incorrect item combinations, pop-ups for more information, reminder messages and so on.
We now have 76,043 rules in our app, making it hands down the only comprehensive medical billing rules engine outside of Medicare. And we are just getting started.
There has been a demand from payers to access our rules, which makes sense. Payers who don’t send their claims through the ECLIPSE channel such as workers comp and third-party insurers, overseas visitor insurers and defence, don’t benefit from Medicare rules and have no way to check claims before they are paid.
Well now they can.
The same rules that you have in your hand are now available as a standalone system for payers to use. If you are a payer in need of a medical billing rules engine look no further. Contact us for a demo.
Synapps MBS is now fully integrated with STRIPE
The development roadmap for our flagship billing app has been very exciting and we hit a milestone recently – integrating with STRIPE! Our new STRIPE integration is available, and the early adopters are loving it. You can now collect patient payments directly from your phone. If you’d like to find out more, please get in touch.
Please welcome Bruce Topperwien to our consulting team
After more than a decade as General Manager and General Counsel at the Professional Services Review Agency (which many of you would know as the Medicare watchdog), we are delighted to welcome Bruce Topperwien to our consulting team.
Bruce has been a trusted legal colleague of Margaret’s for many years, and together they bring unparalleled expertise in medical billing law and practice.
At Synapse, Bruce will contribute to an increasing number of consulting projects that demand sophisticated interpretation of Australia’s complex Medicare and broader health insurance legal frameworks. He will also support our education initiatives and play a key role in advancing the Synapse Rules Engine. His unparalleled legal insight will ensure accuracy, compliance, and payment integrity across all initiatives.
To learn more about the types of consulting projects we have done for both providers and payers, check out our new consulting web pages here and here.
Accurate billing matters. Beware the noise – there’s lots of bad advice out there. We’re the team providers trust to provide accurate advice and guidance on Medicare and private billing rules. Please get in touch if you have a project that we can help you with.
Overall, some exciting new updates to share this winter. Until next time, stay warm and well and please reach out if we can help in any way.
