Why your practice should outsource medical billing?

To outsource or not to outsource medical billing is an important decision for physicians to practice. Below are a few key factors to keep in mind while considering the possibility to outsource medical billing:

1.Find the Right Medical Biller

Medical billing is complex. To do it right the biller should know the medical billing process, the functionality of the EMR/PM systems and should be able to create efficient workflows from patient appointment to payer and patient payments. Small practices may not be able to attract or afford such talent. Sometimes practices hire a family member or a person they know and hope that the person will be able to perform the job. However, it may take 2-3 years for the person to learn all the moving parts and still not keep up with the fast-changing work of medical billing.

2.Fewer Errors, More and Faster Payments

With lower billing errors, reimbursements to your practice will be received at a much faster rate. An expert outsourced medical billing company will have streamlined workflows ensuring the highest revenue and earnings potential for your practice. Inefficient collection policies and errors could cause serious delays to payments, and in a snowball effect, to overall revenue. Small things like incorrect patient information, duplicate billing submissions, and authorization errors can all cause these costly mistakes. It is best to leave it to the experts. Outsourcing medical billing takes the human error element out of the process and ensures the most up-to-date knowledge and processes are being used for your billing processes.

3.Working with EHR and PM systems

Billing companies will be experts at dealing with EMR/PM systems, clearinghouses, patient portals, electronic statements, and various connected technologies. Managing these systems in-house is an absolute time-consuming nightmare. Outsourcing your medical billing should get rid of these worries and save monies by automating and streamlining the process and leveraging negotiated prices through your outsourcing partners.

4.More Focus on Patient Experience

By removing medical billing complications, your practice staff will be free to focus on providing the best care to your patients. On a larger scale, this will allow your practice to scale by removing pain points and complications that would otherwise hinder your growth. Meeting your patient’s expectations should always be the number one priority of your practice staff. Patients who are satisfied are more likely to refer you and to stick with your practice in the long term.

5.Improve practice performance through Analytics

A medical billing company provides the practices with a substantial amount of analytics covering several key performance indicators of your practice. These analytics should allow your practice to pinpoint what is working and what is not. Performance reports are an incredible resource which, by nature, are time-consuming and expertise-heavy to produce.

6.Keep up with Changing Healthcare Rules and Regulations

The US healthcare system has ever-changing regulations and rules. These are often difficult to keep up with, and even if your practice staff is aware of these, they might not know how the changes specifically affect your practice. Outsourcing your medical billing will ensure that any changes to regulations and laws will be implemented immediately into your billing cycle. This is crucial not only to ensure you are maintaining a healthy revenue stream but also to ensure your practice is always in compliance.

Outsourcing medical billing is a hard decision particularly for those physicians who think it could result in loss of control. In fact, it means quite the opposite – outsourcing medical billing practices can hold the medical billing company more accountable compared to their internal staff and have higher control over their finances and practice performance.