2016 Recommendations for Medical Billing Services
One of the most vital parts of your health care practice is medical billing and coding. While patients are first, effective revenue cycle management can be the difference when it comes to the success of your practice. This means that you will need to decide if these services are performed in-house or through the use of outsourced medical billing agencies. Both courses of action carry with it advantages and potential disadvantages, but understanding all of what both entail will help you make the best informed decision.
In-House Medical Billing & Coding
This means that you and your staff directly oversee all the medical billing practices and coding performed by your practice. By doing it yourself, the most noticeable advantage is that the expense is built in to the salaries of the staff that you employ assuming they can do the work without additional assistance. Plus, you can oversee the billing and coding directly which means that you can set up a system that works most efficiently for you.
However, you will need to purchase practice management software in order to keep track of your patient’s billing. In addition, it will be necessary to hire a medical coder who is certified to make sure everything runs smoothly. Plus, any rejections or denied claims will have to be handled directly so that the processing goes as smoothly as possible.
An even bigger downside is the time needed to effectively run your medical billing and coding. This is because changes are being made frequently and you might find yourself putting outdated codes which cause a new series of problems. This makes it very time-consuming and highly inefficient with you and your staff having to be experts on so many different levels.
Outsourcing to Medical Billing Agencies
This is when you hire an independent company that will process the Medical Billing and Coding Services. The company will probably be handling the services of several different practices, but they do offer some significant advantages.
- Charge through percentage of collections or subscription fee
- Frees up your staff to focus more on patients
- Increase collection rate
- Lower rejections and denied claims
- Provide analysis of accounts receivable
Your practice can also get reports on-demand so that you know the status of all your billing. In addition, the agency will use the latest billing software and technology as well as keeping up to date with all the latest changes. This improves the efficiency of your revenue cycle management and allows you and your staff to focus more on other areas of your practice.
The downsides are relatively few if you choose a reputable agency with a proven track record. While you do not get to handle the billing first-hand, you do get up to the minute reports so you can look at any patient’s billing record whenever you want.
Overall, outsourcing your medical billing and coding services offers many advantages that will help save on your bottom line and rake in higher returns thanks to the greater efficiency of the service.
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