You may be asking yourself if it's time to outsource. If you are unhappy with the return on claims in your medical billing establishment, you may get better luck using an outsourced company. The main reason why you will succeed more is that most billing companies work on a percentage factor. It usually is between 4% and 16%. This is a good price since they don't make money unless you do. Commission based structures are best because you usually get better results. Many medical billing companies today are using ICD-10 coding for several different reasons. For starters, it is the law that you must use it now. ICD-9 went away in September of 2015.
A good medical billing company should be able to tell you what went wrong with the billing process. They will be able to tell you how they can collect on these bills for you. Often, in house billers are not as good as an outsourced company. For starters, they don't work on commission. If your biller gets a regular check each week, they make the same amount of money whether they collect on these claims or not. A medical billing company that works on a percentage works harder for you because they don't make any money unless you do first. Which would you rather have?
Before signing up with a billing company, makes sure that they follow up on payments constantly. It takes an aggressive attitude to make this happen. Check on their reputation and what they are going to do for you when it comes to working on your service. Insurance companies love to reject claims and often look for any slight error that you may have. The battle between billers and insurance companies is that the insurance companies are always hoping to find a way not to pay you. The problem has gotten so bad that a large percentage of doctors are leaving their private practices and deciding to work for hospitals instead. The reason is because the job is more secure. When you work for yourself, there is no guarantee how often you will get a check and for how much. At least with a job, you know how much to expect each week.
When interviewing the billing company, make sure to ask them if they are HIPPA compliant. If they have no idea what you are talking about, run away fast! After all, the company is handling private information of patients. Hefts fines are given to companies that violate HIPPA. There are also specific time restraints. If the billing company that you are planning to use is so busy, they may forget to submit you're billing information on time. This is becoming a bigger problem with companies that have too many clients at one time.
Medical billing companies are also cheaper. You never have to buy the software. The medical billing companies have their own software and often it is custom built. This is great for specialty areas. If you were to build your own medical software from scratch, it can often cost between $50,000 and $100,000. Sometimes it is more expensive than that. When you look at the 4% to 16%, it is a real bargain. Especially since the billing company does utilization management and verification of benefits. It is always a good idea to have everything working together for you in different ways. Try to figure out what is working for you. It is always best to handle claims as they come. Medical billing company employees also know that their job depends on you being happy. This is a much different effect than having a 9 to 5 employee working for you. It is important to take each day as it comes to you and ask yourself what is most important on a day to day basis.
A good medical billing company should be able to tell you what went wrong with the billing process. They will be able to tell you how they can collect on these bills for you. Often, in house billers are not as good as an outsourced company. For starters, they don't work on commission. If your biller gets a regular check each week, they make the same amount of money whether they collect on these claims or not. A medical billing company that works on a percentage works harder for you because they don't make any money unless you do first. Which would you rather have?
Before signing up with a billing company, makes sure that they follow up on payments constantly. It takes an aggressive attitude to make this happen. Check on their reputation and what they are going to do for you when it comes to working on your service. Insurance companies love to reject claims and often look for any slight error that you may have. The battle between billers and insurance companies is that the insurance companies are always hoping to find a way not to pay you. The problem has gotten so bad that a large percentage of doctors are leaving their private practices and deciding to work for hospitals instead. The reason is because the job is more secure. When you work for yourself, there is no guarantee how often you will get a check and for how much. At least with a job, you know how much to expect each week.
When interviewing the billing company, make sure to ask them if they are HIPPA compliant. If they have no idea what you are talking about, run away fast! After all, the company is handling private information of patients. Hefts fines are given to companies that violate HIPPA. There are also specific time restraints. If the billing company that you are planning to use is so busy, they may forget to submit you're billing information on time. This is becoming a bigger problem with companies that have too many clients at one time.
Medical billing companies are also cheaper. You never have to buy the software. The medical billing companies have their own software and often it is custom built. This is great for specialty areas. If you were to build your own medical software from scratch, it can often cost between $50,000 and $100,000. Sometimes it is more expensive than that. When you look at the 4% to 16%, it is a real bargain. Especially since the billing company does utilization management and verification of benefits. It is always a good idea to have everything working together for you in different ways. Try to figure out what is working for you. It is always best to handle claims as they come. Medical billing company employees also know that their job depends on you being happy. This is a much different effect than having a 9 to 5 employee working for you. It is important to take each day as it comes to you and ask yourself what is most important on a day to day basis.
About the Author:
Our organization has advanced medical billing techniques for our clients. We do ICD-10 coding and have been doing it for many years. We do a lot of behavioral health billing for our clients in Pennsylvania, New York and California. We take billing clearly and our clients often see a 30% revenue increase. We work with clients in all 50 states and welcome new clients as well.
