Outsource Medical Billing: 8 Benefits

It can be difficult to determine whether or not outsourcing medical billing is the best option for your practice. However, deciding whether or not to perform your own appendectomy should be straightforward. Medical billing has always necessitated a unique set of skills, and the complexity and red tape have risen dramatically in recent years. Referring to a specialist makes a lot of sense whether you’re a new practice startup, a seasoned veteran, or in the midst of a crisis like a system upgrade.

Due to reduced carrier allowances, increased regulation, and carrier red tape, profit margins in the private sector are shrinking. It is now more a matter of survival than of good business sense to operate efficiently.

1. Scale Economies

A billing service spreads its costs across its entire client base, resulting in cost savings.

You’ll pay less for the same or even higher collection rates because a billing service can afford to hire the best employees. In addition to the direct financial benefit of higher returns and lower costs, you save in the more difficult to quantify areas of time, stress, and office space.

2. Specialists Who Are Committed and Experienced

The team’s sole goal is to boost the profitability of your practice. There is no such thing as a separate team. They work in tandem with your existing team and share the same objectives. The billing service does not make money if the practice does not make money. They collaborate closely with office personnel to ensure a smooth overall workflow and provide training as needed.

3. Improve Control

Many people believe that outsourcing medical billing entails handing over control to a third party. The opposite is true, and most practices feel more in command than they have in the past. Someone else is doing the time-consuming work and dealing with the headaches, allowing the providers to review their monthly reports and see the practice’s health at a glance. Monthly and annual comparisons are made quickly, and account managers answer all questions thoroughly. Charge entry errors and payer reimbursement issues can be identified early on, before they get out of hand.

4. A Dynamic Industry

The healthcare landscape is changing at a breakneck pace, and medical billing is not immune to the upheaval. Even in the best of circumstances, keeping up with the ever-changing rules and requirements is difficult. It necessitates ongoing training and vigilance. The majority of people simply do not have the time to devote to this task.

5. Constability

When you bill in-house, you run the risk of revenue interruptions due to unplanned employee absences or changes in staff. With an outsourced medical billing service, you’ll have a whole team of people ensuring that your claims are processed quickly and accurately, reducing the risk of cash flow disruptions in your practice. Many medical billing companies can work with your current EHR/Practice Management software, so you won’t have to learn a new system to outsource your billing and reap the benefits of having a smaller staff.

A medical billing service can offer you access to a vast knowledge base and, more importantly, aggregated trends from a network of other practices.

6. Get Paid More Quickly

Cash flow is crucial! The number of days in AR, also known as revenue cycle time, greatly impacts your bottom line. Outsource medical billing to a billing service allows you to submit claims faster and with fewer errors, resulting in faster payment from payers.

7. Focus on Your Strengths

You went to medical school for all those years in the hopes of having a long career helping people.

It takes a lot of time and effort to bill your customers in-house. Even if you’re not the one who spends 15 minutes trying to contact a carrier to follow up on a single claim, you must deal with high-level management and all the headaches that entail.

8. Less Stress Means More Money

Only a percentage of the money collected is charged by a good outsource medical billing service. The less money that is incorrectly deducted or the fewer claims that are sent out incorrectly, the more money you keep. A good billing service will run a fee schedule analysis to ensure that you’re getting reimbursed at the highest possible rate from your carriers, use multiple claim scrubs to ensure that claims are submitted correctly, use efficient policies and procedures to shorten your cycle time, and have their experienced staff review denials for accuracy.

A good billing service works hard to improve your collection rate because they make more money if you make more. Most practices that use a billing service see a significant increase in revenue and a reduction in costs that far outweighs the billing service fee.

These are just a few of the reasons why outsourcing your billing to experts is a good idea. There are some exceptions to the rule where doing it yourself may be preferable.