Medical billing, as any practice owner will tell you, is the most important part of running your practice. As healthcare systems have been changed and improved over time, this has brought about a number of challenges for healthcare providers and patients.
Failing to keep up with these changes or having errors in your billing claims can result in huge losses for you and your practice. According to Healthcare Business and Technology, medical providers leave approximately $125 Billion in uncollected revenue annually.
This as patients’ ability to pay for healthcare is on the decline.
In this edition, we tackle medical billing and claims and simplify them so that your practice remains viable and you continue to give health care to your patients.
Have a Medical Billing and Collections Process
Having a step by step medical billing and collection process helps you have an orderly way of managing your billing and collections. This also means that you can easily track where your claims process is going wrong and easily fix it. A simple process can consist of:
- Ensuring Patients are aware of your payment and collections process before they receive services.
- Establishing an accurate data collection plan where relevant information is collected and kept by the practice for reference purposes.
- Verifying all eligibility issues most importantly insurance verification.
- A good patient follow-up system for late payments, this can include mail or phone calls.
- Insist on prompt payment or even offer a discount on upfront payment to encourage swift payment.
Insource Medical Insurance Verification
Research shows that close to 30 % of revenue is lost to unverified insurance claims. This has an impact on your billing and collections. As verifications become commonplace you are able to spot procedures that aren’t covered by a particular policy.
This makes it easy for you to tell your patients on how to get the best medical procedure they need without the stress of shortfall or denied claims. This also ensures you always see a successful claim and your books are balanced.
Minimize Medical Billing Errors
Close to 80% of medical bills contain errors. This coupled with earlier mentioned policy changes will result in a number of failed claims for your practice. Getting this corrected is weeks of calls and corrections all while your practice is at a standstill.
Now you could handle claims yourself or even have your staff member to help but all this results in resources being spent when there is a solution that will save you time, money and a lot of frustration.
Outsourcing your medical billing leaves this task in the hands of specialists for a fraction of what you’d normally spend.
Attend to Rejected Claims Quickly
As billing claims are denied, appeals need to be made to ensure that reversals or claims are successful and you collect what you are owed. This makes the time of correcting a claim be reduces significantly.
Again double-checking claims can help avoid this altogether. Keep an open and active line of communication between yourself and the various service providers or better yet outsource so that you can have professionals handling your billing.
Virtual Assistants Save Time and Time is Money
The idea of having a virtual assistant might seem detached from billing but the two are actually intertwined.
When you invest in virtual assistants you clear your schedule and lessens the workload all round, making it possible for you to pick out would be errors and see more of your patients.
In summary when you spread out the workload you get;
- More expertise in your practice.
- Boosts the speed of applications and claims
- Increased revenue.
- Elimination of any kind of billing Errors.
- Get organized data and analytics.
- Savings on the money.
- Avoidance of payroll taxes.
- Focus more on your patients.
Outsourcing your Medical Billing and Claims
For a medical practice owner to manage an entire practice while giving quality healthcare is almost impossible. Something will have to be compromised for the other.
Handling all this yourself will take a lot of time and labor. Following up on debtors, editing claims, and staying up-to-date current regulations will not be achievable all while patients wait.
It is at this moment that one should admit that you need help. Having an outsourcing partner ensures that all your billing issues are handled successfully all while you give quality healthcare and grow your practice.
SupportDrs is a leading Texas-based insourcing company that provides virtual assistants and administrative support for businesses. Moreover, we provide both short and long term virtual outsourcing services customized to suit your business process needs.