Why Outsource your Medical Billing Services?

Undoubtedly, you can rely on your in-house team of doctors and other staff for your practice to thrive. But do they have sufficient time and availability to keep themselves updated with the ever-changing regulations of the healthcare industry, especially in the medical billing domain? Despite having talent and capabilities in taking care of the patients, your team usually lacks the required skills for medical billing and coding tasks.

Therefore, this necessitates having a responsible financial health plan in place for every medical practice to achieve the desired success. And, the deserving success can be achieved only by outsourcing medical billing and coding activities. In fact, when you choose to outsource your medical billing processes, you can expect your practice to become more efficient with accurate billing processing.

But have you ever wondered why many practices still hesitate to outsource their billing and coding tasks despite having numerous outsourcing advantages? The reason is that the initial thought about outsourcing the billing processes is quite daunting as it is a necessary process. However, the reality is entirely different.

Let’s have a deep dive into this comprehensive guide to learn all you need to know about why outsourcing medical billing can be one of the best financial moves for your practice.

What is the Difference between In-house & Outsourced Medical Billing & Coding?

Though both in-house and outsourced billing teams submit the claims for getting the reimbursements, there is a difference in the amount paid by the payers due to various factors. And, these are the factors that mark the difference between both – highlighting the need to make a wise choice for enhancing your practice revenue.

One of the most obvious differences lies in their billing location. The in-house team denotes working from within the premises, and outsourcing means hiring an offsite third party who works remotely. The various other factors include:

Control over the Processes

Undoubtedly, your practice with an in-house billing team would mean complete control and ownership of the medical billing processes. But simultaneously, outsourcing medical billing services would relieve your in-house employees to focus more on delivering quality care to the patients. That's why choosing the right billing partner is usually suggested after considering all the facts, as plenty of trusts are involved.  

Reduction in Errors Risk

As far as medical billing and coding errors and mistakes are concerned, in-house billing teams are more likely to make such errors at a high cost. This can negatively impact your reimbursement rate, shaking your practice's existence in the healthcare industry. All these unnecessary expenses and losses can be prevented with the help of outsourcing medical billing companies. They are the experts with years of experience in carefully processing your billing and coding tasks accurately without any avoidable errors.

Medical Billing Expertise

Though your in-house billing team may have plenty of experienced staff, your outsourced billing partners can be the stress removers of your practice when it comes to the medical billing and coding process. Apart from being solely dedicated to your medical billing, staff at onshore medical billing companies constantly upgrade themselves for every change in the regulatory environment with its impact on your practice. These outsourcing medical billing companies ensure compliance which means your healthcare practice will enjoy the most accurate billing processing.

What is the Need for Outsourced Medical Billing Companies for your Practice?

While considering outsourcing your medical billing and coding tasks, the most crucial decision is to choose the right outsourcing partner. The right choice of your outsourced billing team can provide you with a controlled yet sustainable approach to your revenue cycle management. In fact, the true value of your outsourcing medical billing services is the long-term viability that they bring in to expand your medical practice.

Therefore, the outsourcing medical billing team maintains consistency and controls your practice finances with the expansion of your patient load, staffing levels, and other dynamics. The benefits of outsourcing your medical billing activities can extend to all the aspects of your practice in the long run.

Some of the compelling reasons why outsourcing medical billing services can be beneficial are as follows:

Enhance Transparency

The medical practitioner often thinks that the medical billing company near me is akin to giving up the control of the RCM to a set of strangers. But do you think it is linked to reality in any sense? Once you enter into a contract with an outsourcing medical billing firm, they become obliged to earn your practice positive marks on a precisely defined set of metrics. These include 100% payments, denial rates, collection ratios, and many alike. In fact, they are also accountable for providing you with the correct data on efforts made with the actual outcomes for your practice.

A reputable outsourcing medical billing company is one that always ensures you timely and comprehensive performance reports. Additionally, they will continuously keep you updated about any delays or issues with payment from the insurance payers. This simply means that you can easily control the RCM for your practice without micromanaging your billing staff. Therefore, they ensure you complete transparency about your practice’s revenue cycle management.

Reduce Costs

Did you know that relying on an in-house medical billing team means bearing lots of hidden costs? In fact, you have to pay for numerous expenses such as benefit insurance and training costs, payroll system, and hardware and software installation charges to enjoy the exclusive benefit of in-house team services. However, several fixed expenses can significantly be reduced when you opt for outsourcing your medical billing procedures.

The matter of fact is that many medical practices neither have sufficient disposable income nor time to maintain an entire billing team. In fact, it often becomes difficult for them to find a replacement in case employees are on leaves. By outsourcing these domain tasks, you can gain more control over your practice with a sustainable approach to revenue cycle management.

Fewer Medical Billing Errors

Frankly speaking, billing errors and other inefficient collection policies can hit your revenue very severely. In fact, one small mistake can delay your payments or even result in claim denials. Undoubtedly, everyone makes mistakes, but errors like authorization errors, incorrect patient information, duplicate billing, and other billing and coding errors can be costly, leading to huge revenue loss for your practice.

Outsourcing medical billing services help you in making your practice the most profitable one with up-to-date medical billing processes. The right billing experts follow the quality assurance measures that lead to error-free billing of your practice. Therefore, partnering with such experts only streamlines your practice workflows and reduces human errors with an increase in revenue for your practice.

When is the Correct Time to Outsource Medical Billing Tasks?

A change may not always be easy, but everyone should accept it with numerous benefits like outsourcing medical billing tasks. Now the most crucial question arises - when should one accept this change? Or, how will you come to know that it is the time to go in for outsourcing your medical billing tasks? If your medical practice is experiencing these signs, this means that you should go in for outsourcing medical billing companies without a second thought.

Administrative Stress

Does your in-house team have sufficient available time to focus on the patient's needs and care? Is your medical staff feeling overburdened with what is expected to complete in a day? Does your practice is struggling with higher staff turnover?

Before all these, have you ever asked yourself these questions about your in-house staff? If not, then there is a need to think over them, and in case the answer is Yes, it indicates the need for outsourcing. The right outsourced medical billing company can reduce the burnout of your in-house team to avoid unnecessary administrative stress. Therefore, you and your team can now shift your focus from revenue-centered to patient-centered.

Frequent Delayed Payment

Despite providing constant training to your in-house staff regarding the updated billing regulations, the most efficient solution is outsourcing if your practice still faces the trend of delayed or less or no payments. You can hand over your tension of timely claims review process to your outsourced medical billing company by making such a decision. An experienced medical billing company can ensure you the clean claims to the extent of 99.99%. This clearly depicts that delayed billing payments mean the need to outsource the medical billing and coding tasks.

Revenue < Median

Another sign that directs you towards looking for an outsource medical billing company is when your practice's total revenue falls short of the medical industry median. One of the most essential steps for your practice is to optimize your revenue cycle management to keep your doors open to take care of patients. And, this is possible to achieve easily only with the help of outsourcing your medical billing and coding. You can build your practice revenue above and beyond the medical industry median with the help of a professional medical billing company.  

What Questions should be Asked before Outsourcing Medical Billers & Coders?

With the fact that outsourcing is the need of an hour, you should be very careful while choosing the best medical billing company. One wrong decision regarding the selection of the medical billing company can completely ruin your practice’s financial health and status. That’s why various factors should be considered while making such a crucial decision.

Are they HIPAA Compliant?

Apart from HIPAA, your outsourced partner should uphold other medical regulations, laws, and guidelines to address your practice security and privacy.

What Services do they Provide?

As every medical billing company has its own unique way of dealing with clients, you should ensure the services and benefits that your practice will enjoy from such providers.

What Training does their Staff Receive?

A medical billing company will be successful in its promises only if they offer the right kind of training to its staff to keep them updated on the medical industry's day-to-day changes.

Will they Provide Regular Reports?

If you want your practice to work towards a healthier RCM, you need to get plans and regular reports from your outsourced billing partner, as communication is the key to trust.

Who will Handle Accounts Receivable?

Another most important question to be asked is who is going to handle the A/R and how will it be handled? Before outsourcing medical billing services, you should decide first whether you want them to take complete overload or just help in the few processes.

How much Experienced are they?

As your medical billing service providers are directly connected with your practice's financial performance, you should partner only with the people on whom you can trust. The more experience your outsourced provider is, the more trustworthy their services will be.

How Transparent Services do they Offer?

Despite outsourcing your billing and coding tasks, you should ask for the status of your claims from your medical billing service providers to oversee the billing processes efficiently.

How Efficiently can they Begin Claims Processing?

You should figure out with your billing provider the timeline when they will begin with your work and how long it will take to process the claims with the insurance providers.

Trust your Medical Billing Processes with the 24/7 Medical Billing Services Experts!

At 24/7 Medical Billing Services, we have years of worthy experience in tailoring your medical billing services to meet your practice requirements. Apart from handling your medical billing, we also ensure maximizing your management potential while retaining more and more revenue. We have billing specialists in dermatology and oncology, gastroenterology, holistic, and various other billing services. While some practices require only credentialing and contract management, others might need a complete revenue cycle management to get their practice on track. We are a one-stop solution to all your medical billing and coding needs.

Read more: Medical Billing Outsourcing – Common Myths Busted