Top 5 Benefits of Outsourcing a Billing Company over In-house Billing
Medical billing forms a critical pillar in the healthcare practice. Your core business is to provide quality healthcare and any other support activity like billing can adversely affect your performance if not handled accurately and promptly. To ensure that you get paid for the services your company offers, you need a knowledgeable, reliable, and focused team that will oversee the process. The activities may include medical coding and processing claims, handling insurance firms, and following up on unpaid patient accounts.
As the business leader, you will have to make one critical determination on whether you’ll use your internal staff for billing, or hire a professional billing company to do the task.
In-house Billing vs. Outsourced Billing Services
If you choose to carry out the billing processes in-house, your responsible staff will have to acquire practice management software that keeps track of patients’ balances and release bills to clients. You will be responsible for following up denied claims, payment rejections, etc. Your firm must also move at par with the evolving regulatory frameworks and policies like the use of the ICD-10 coding system.
It is generally less expensive to run your own billing in-house, but for a small or medium sized practice, the task can be challenging and time-consuming. You may end up losing a lot of revenues due to unpaid claims, rejected claims, etc. That’s where you’ll need the services a professional billing company that provides revenue cycle management services as you concentrate on your core business.
5 Benefits of Outsourced Billing Services
1. Economies of Scale
A billing service company can distribute its billing expenses across many clients it serves. That provides economies of scale that pass down to your business. They generally operate at a lower cost and record more collection percentages. You also save on time, overhead, staff, hardware, and office space.
2. Highly Trained and Dedicated Staff
The outsourced company has one purpose of increasing your profitability. They carry out reviews on payment methods and ensure that carriers are paying the correct figures. They also follow up on claims to make sure that every penny is settled to the fullest. Since this is their area of expertise, they have a team of experts to navigate the evolving industry procedures.
3. Get Paid Faster
Cash flow is critical for any business venture. The number of days your money spends in revenue cycle impacts your bottom line. Outsourced billing companies submit claims faster and with minimal errors which enable your customers to pay on time.
4. Focus on Your Core Business
In-house billing will demand that you spend a substantial amount of time trying to contact careers on unpaid claims, rejected or delayed payments, etc. This brings a lot of headache in addition to diverting your attention from your core calling of helping patients. A billing company will free up your time to enable you to handle a better patient volume and increase revenues.
5. A Changing Industry
The healthcare landscape is continuously transforming, and medical billing is equally affected by the unprecedented transition. It is quite difficult to keep up with the ever-changing regulations and rules. It may require constant vigilance and staff education to cope with the system changes. For instance, CPT codes come out every year and carrier rules and fees changes occur almost every other day. Let the professionals maneuver their ways as you do what you know best; provide healthcare.
The top five reasons for hiring a professional billing company should guide you towards making an informed decision that will be beneficial to your business. However, there are some exceptions when your firm mainly offers cash services like laser treatment, or a huge part of your clients are self-pay.
