Billing Services

Numerous reasons exist why healthcare practices might outsource their billing to a professional medical billing service such as, puzzling insurance requirements, staffing issues and simply keeping up with industry changes. However, at the end of it all, the reasons most medical billing companies might be outsourced come down to the two key principles of any business, which is time and money. Medical billing services save training and research time. Some people might think medical billing companies just enter data into a computer and send it off to a clearinghouse. However, the truth of the matter is medical billing is an intricate process that demands specialized skills and in-depth knowledge of insurance industry practices, and the regulatory framework around state and federal laws. Professional medical billing companies devote countless hours to train and research in order to keep up with current codes, submission requirements, industry trends and their clients’ needs.

Significant expenses are also made so that medical billing companies are current on the latest software. It is not practicable for small or medium sized practices to devote the time necessary to stay on top of the latest innovations. Investments of time by professional medical billing services are usually not well thought-out by providers, but they get rid of endless hours otherwise spent in seminars, meetings with vendors, or on the phone with clearinghouses. This time- savings creates a precious commodity for a practice seeking the upper hand necessary to maintain a rigorous patient schedule.

Medical billing services also save operational time. Billing services are able to conserve time by means of leveraging the economy of scale and the efficiency of task specialization. Professional medical billing companies, design an economy of scale in maintaining a team of medical billing professionals to offer services across many practices. This structure then develops a well-trained pool of resources to operate each practice’s needs as opposed to just one individual overseeing all billing functions.

Through task specialization, medical billing companies may provide each of their clients several billers submitting claims and reviewing insurance payments with the highest standard of accuracy. Simultaneously, the service might have alternative individuals or groups devoted to managing patient invoices and questions across numerous practices with increased efficiency. This approach increases the time obtainable for every activity by specialists with a greater insight of their roles, and, once more, assures minimal (if any at all) interruption during employee leave and staff changes.

Medical billing services save money. Employing and new staff training, employee benefits, vacation or sick leave, and staff turnover are just a few aspects involved when it comes to increasing the costs of managing an efficient in-house billing service. Added to the operational overhead of day-to-day billing, software or hardware maintenance, clearinghouse fees, postage, and things to that nature, the list of expenditures for practices is never-ending. Medical billing companies that are good will design their services around covering all of these expenses and do away with the problems they create right away. To clearly demonstrate exactly how the medical billing service can save practices money, is to compare the core costs associated with in-house medical billing opposed to working with a professional medical billing service.