In these uncertain times, with all the current changing regulations of how claims are submitted, received and processed by Insurance Carriers, it can be very overwhelming financially. The most common questions asked are… Am I collecting the utmost amount possible? Just how do I know I am collecting around possible? How can I increase my revenue? Perhaps a Medical Billing Service could answer all of these questions and calm the angst that is associated with them. There are lots of benefits to a Medical Billing Service. Guidelines six benefits that are explored in more detail.

Increase Collection Rates with a Medical Billing Service

Many folks are beneath the impression that Medical Billing is merely data entry; however, it is a great deal more than that. In order to generate the utmost amount of money on the claims being submitted there needs to be follow-up on the claims medical billing. This sometimes is where in-house billing falls short, with regards to the quantity of staff that is area of the department, claim submission and payment posting become the priorities. For example if you have one biller in a two physician practice that sees a decent quantity of patients each day, the biller’s time is principally going to be allocated to creating, submitting and posting payments for claims. Entering in the claims, and reviewing each claim before it gets provided for the insurance carrier is time consuming. This really is also true with payment posting; it is time consuming to post the money received to each CPT code, yet extremely important. With only those two responsibilities, there’s short amount of time left for the claims that need more action. Frequently the claims that are denied require little action to be able to become paid claims. However, it will take the time to follow-up with the insurance company to see what is needed to obtain the claim paid. Follow-up alone is just a regular position. With a Medical Billing Service you can find multiple personnel employed by your practice. Often times there’s one regular dedicated person following through to all claims that need further action. In place of spending money on two regular employees most Medical Billing Services have follow-up on claims as a standard service of Claim Processing.

Increase Profitability with a Medical Billing Service

You can find multiple ways that a Medical Billing Service can raise the profitability of a Medical Practice, including, but not restricted to staff availability, eligibility services, and CPT trending. Once you hire a Medical Billing Service you are getting multiple billers focusing on your account. There is constant activity with claims submissions, payment posting, follow-up, patient billing and account inquiries. If one of those billers happens to be out, you can find multiple billers there to fill out, ensuring that no work is left until that biller is back in the office. What this means is there’s no disruption in the Billing Process and no hiccup in the revenue received. Patient Eligibility is one of the easiest ways to make sure proper payment of claims. Before the patient even walks through the doorway, the patient has already established their eligibility verified. Therefore ensures the practice that the patient happens to be covered beneath the insurance carrier on their file, and any referral that is needed has been obtained. In addition, it enables any Insurance Carrier discrepancies (such as a big change of insurance, mistyped ID number, etc) to be fixed prior to the visit, ultimately causing a growth in “clean” claims, which leads to a growth in profit for the practice. Another way to boost profitability with a Medical Billing Service is through CPT trending. When payments are receiving posted to CPT codes, the billers often see a pattern as to the codes are increasingly being paid and just how much has been received per code. This may often cause two different scenarios. One being that certain codes are not being paid on, which allows the practice to choose if to continue to provide that service with their patients, or find an alternative or comparable service that they can provide and which is paid. The second scenario is that the practice is performing a procedure often, therefore allowing a renegotiation with the Insurance Carrier of just how much to be compensated. The aforementioned are only three out of several ways a Medical Billing Service will help Increase Profitability for a Practice.

Increase Physician Productivity with a Medical Billing Service

When a physician is confident that the financial aspect of their business is in good hands, and is not worried about if claims are increasingly being submitted and money has been collected, they can focus on what’s the main facets of a physician’s job – patient care. With a Medical Billing Service if you have a CPT code involved or even a diagnosis code that can not be found, the Medical Billing Service will be able to aid in finding that code. Therefore allows the physician to help keep on seeing patients and charting without skipping a defeat, in place of sitting and trying to figure out what the code is. Much like CPT trending, which helps increase profitability, a similar trend happens once the billers are reviewing claims prior for them being submitted to the insurance carrier. The billers will assist the physicians if you find a conflict in the codes being billed or if they see something that is being repeated that will help the physician and save them time when doing their chart notes. Many Medical Billing Services provide the services of a Business Analyst who works with the physician and their office staff and provide suggestions on the best way to maximize the usage of tools available (i.e. EMR, MAs, office flow, etc). This may increase efficiency and productivity.

Increase Staff Productivity with a Medical Billing Service

As well as offering the services of a Business Analyst, some Medical Billing Services will even offer training on the best way to properly register an individual, collect co-payments, and create an optimum office flow that’ll increase productivity through the office. Many office personnel don’t realize the importance of their job; not realizing that they are projecting the first impression on patients that walk through the door. Properly trained office staff will give more of their focus on the patients, which will undoubtedly be appreciated by those patients who are also more likely to recommend the physician with their friends and relatives. Alongside increasing the efficiency of the office a Medical Billing Service also eliminates many patient calls regarding their accounts. When a patient includes a question regarding a record, or even a bill they’ve received either from the office or an insurance carrier, the decision is handled by the Medical Billing Service. They can assist your patient in a specialist manner, with no pressure of getting to check on in patients, answer the device, etc. The attention and professional way the Medical Billing Service personnel conduct their business will assure the patients that their questions and concerns are increasingly being dealt with properly.

Decrease Claim Denials with a Medical Billing Service

With a Medical Billing Service, the staff that is dedicated to your practice experiences each claim before it is submitted to ensure that it is just a “clean” claim. A “clean” claim is what it appears like; a claim that has the right CPT codes associated with the diagnosis codes, complete patient information, and complete insurance information. This decreases the opportunity of denial by the insurance company. Medical Billing Services ensure that the highest percentage of “clean” claims possible are increasingly being submitted to the insurance carrier. This increases the revenue coming back to the practice along with decreases the amount of labor needed seriously to follow-up on claims. Medical Billing Services realize that the full time spent reviewing claims to make sure they meet with the insurance carrier standards is well worth the time.

Gain insight into your practice financials with a Medical Billing Service

A Medical Billing Service knows which reports to operate to offer physicians complete insight to the financial side of their practice. Medical Billing Services know very well what money has been billed out to the insurance carriers, along with what’s being received from insurance carriers and patient payments. This really is turn allows the Medical Billing Service to operate the right reports that report the physicians what they want to know, in place of giving reports that report miscellaneous data that does not pertain to the main financial insight of the practice. Many Billing Services will also be able to offer physician requested financial reports very easily. For example, if your physician needs to understand how many specific procedures were done in a date span for Credentialing, the Medical Billing Service can easily obtain this information. Another way to achieve insight in to the financial side of the practice would be to trend how the insurance carriers are paying. If an Insurance carrier increases or decreases the amount received, it will undoubtedly be seen straight away by the Medical Billing Service, thereby allowing the correction or renegotiation of any discrepancy in payments.