When should I outsource Medical Billing?
The article aims to discuss when to outsource medical billing services.
Medical Billing plays an important role in revenue cycle management.
Outsourcing medical billing and other related services can help healthcare providers and physicians focus on the core operations of the business which, in this case, is patient care.
Outsourcing medical billing also allows for a dedicated and highly specialized offshore healthcare support team to streamline operations and lower costs.
Business owners, however, have difficulty determining the perfect time to outsource medical billing.
If you are not sure when to outsource medical billing, here are several indicators that your business needs to outsource medical billing services:
Meet collections and revenue objectives
There are a lot of factors that contribute to a low volume of collections or unmet revenue goals.
Technical issues in the current systems used in the billing process, outdated or inadequate software, untrained or inexperienced staff, all contribute to low collections.
Medical billing errors, non-payments and denials can be a significant challenge in a physician’s practice. If you have difficulty solving these issues, it is a great idea to start outsourcing medical billing services to an outsourcing provider.
Collection issues, and even revenue cycle problems in general can be solved through medical billing outsourcing. The provider can provide a solution, not to mention medical billing tools and software to improve the efficiency and overall performance of the process. This means hiring outsourced medical billing personnel to improve claim payment accuracy by reaching out to and follow up claims collections or payments on time, or entirely outsourcing covered services of the revenue cycle.
Support for your growing practice
When your medical practice is growing, there is a ton of work to do. One such administrative function that requires attention to detail and effort, taking up most of the time of healthcare providers, is medical billing.
The high volume of medical billing transactions keeps staff busy, and these staff find themselves staying at the office for an extra couple of hours attending to billing transactions.
As with any growing practice, healthcare providers want increased focus on the core operations of the business. Support for functions that are important but not critical to day-to-day business operations, can be provided through outsourcing.
Outsourcing payments and collections such as medical billing is one way to achieve this kind of focus. When you outsource medical billing, you reduce the need to maintain a low backlog of work.
Working with a medical billing service provider helps growing practices and startups meet their volume and revenue targets.
Find available staff
If you are planning to hire an additional staff to your local team, both the availability of local staff and the cost of hiring local staff are taken into consideration.
Medical Billing takes up most of the time of healthcare providers, markedly affecting performance and customer service. Associated turnover, and rapid wage increases in the labor market for healthcare also make finding the right staff difficult, and thus affect medical billing operations.
Healthcare practices in need of medical billing staff with expertise can work with medical billing outsourcing providers. Outsourced Medical Billing Specialists are able to greatly reduce the rate of errors in processing services at a reduced cost compared to locally hired staff. This will allow your business to significantly increase efficiency throughout your organization.
In need of technical expertise
Functions related to accounting and collections, particularly medical billing and collections, are not the primary focus of physicians but still is equally important for the business’ day-to-day operations. However, it can be a challenge building a team of experienced medical billers or coders internally.
Outsourcing makes sense when assigning high volume data entry work such as medical billing.
Outsourced medical billing specialists have extensive training and experience within the industry. They have an understanding of US rules, regulations and practices affecting medical billing and insurance verification, have a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of rules, regulations and practices affecting medical billing and insurance verification, revenue cycle, collections and payment posting, medical billing and coding.
They can be assigned to tasks such as provide correct posting for all credit cards/checks and cash payments, payment postings for insurance payments, and provide month end closing among others. The tasks can also extend to participate in all quality assessment activities and assist to collect and analyze all information and recommend required improvements to all processes.
Outsourcing medical billing services allows for a more efficient business process for healthcare providers.
Connext Global Solutions offers custom medical billing outsourcing solutions. Here is a list of common roles with their accompanying tasks that you can delegate to a Healthcare outsourcing and staffing solutions provider like Connext Global Solutions:
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- Medical Coding Specialist
- Medical Billing Specialist
- Eligibility Verification Specialist
- Prior Authorization Specialist
- Virtual Nurse
- Virtual Optometrist
- Patient Care Coordinator
- Patient Scheduler
Learn more about Connext Global Solutions’ custom medical billing outsourcing and other healthcare-related solutions.
