Increase Your Revenue in 2016 with Professional Billing Services

Medical billing is a crucial part of running any healthcare practice. Providers depend on accurate and efficient billing practices in order to receive reimbursements from payers in a timely manner.

With numerous PQRS and meaningful use requirements, running an efficient practice is becoming more difficult. Staff members and healthcare professionals are required to stay up to date with PQRS, meaningful use, and a new ICD-10 code. It can be easy to become overwhelmed and frustrated with billing tasks when your top priority is giving your patients the time and attention they need.

Reimbursements from payers aren’t always clear or timely, and it can become burdensome to keep up with the costs of running a practice. Roughly $125 billion dollars misses the hands of physicians due to billing errors each year. Outsourcing billing services can solve numerous administrative difficulties and can help your practice dramatically increase revenue.

Reduce billing errors to ensure claims payment

Insurance companies are sticklers when it comes to correctly reporting medical codes and adhering to billing regulations. A missed code or billing error will result in a rejected payment. If this happens, physicians then have to enter into a long process of interaction with the insurance company in order to fix the mistake and apply for the payment a second time.

Medical billing professionals are thoroughly trained and experienced in medical billing to ensure accurate reporting so that providers get paid the first time a claim is sent. Accurately submitting claims results in increased reimbursements for the practice and quicker receipt of these payments.

Comply with medical billing rules and regulations

Billing regulations change frequently and cause frustration for physicians who are busy keeping up-to-date with changes regarding PQRS and meaningful use regulations, as well as learning an entirely new ICD-10 code. In addition, continuing education and training courses can be costly and time-consuming.

Lack of medical necessity is a common billing error that occurs when sufficient information for a patient’s diagnosis is not given to the medical coder. This could then lead to submitting a bill with the wrong code, and a denied claim by the insurance company.  Medical billing professionals stay current on all medical billing regulations, medical procedures, and ICD codes, ensuring compliance and lower cost for the practice.

Save money to allocate office expenses elsewhere

Smaller healthcare practices tend to place billing responsibilities on administrative staff, giving them too much responsibility and spreading them too thin. Overwhelmed by office tasks and ensuring a comfortable patient experience may not allow office staff the time to ensure maximum return on claims. In addition, too much work and office responsibility do not allow them the time to resubmit denied claims or to fight for delayed payments.

For hospitals and large clinics requiring their own billing department, office space needed for a billing department and the costs of retaining employees also present a financial burden. Using a medical billing service also helps ease the stress of retaining employees needed to staff a billing department. By outsourcing billing, practices can cut costs on office expenses, costly software updates, and can allow administrative staff to focus on their primary responsibilities.

Make operations more efficient

Administrative tasks are becoming more convoluted with PQRS and meaningful use requirements. A lot of time is used to educate staff members on the regulations that change frequently. Outsourcing billing services help ease the administrative workload in the office, so staff members can focus on running an efficient practice. With less burden of responsibility in the office and more efficiency, the practice may even be able to accept new patients and take more appointments throughout the day, whereas before this may have seemed impossible.

Retain existing patients and entice new ones

Physicians may easily become distracted by billing compliance and reimbursement disputes from payers. Delayed or denied payments can cause frustration and can significantly decrease the quality of the practice and may even affect the retention of patients.

Spending less time on admin work means that healthcare professionals can then focus more on patient relationships and care. This type of environment will help any practice retain current patients and attract new patients. 

For more information on medical billing services, contact us online or call us at 480-821-1371.