Should You Outsource Your Practice Billing?

By Alex Northwood


An outsourced medical billing service provides a lot of quality care. You often receive utilization management, verification of benefits and collection services. These services are often charged to you on a percentage scale from 4% to 16%. Some of the best billing names out there promise you higher returns. It is true that a medical billing company can do the job better than your own in house team can. I say this because they are experts in what they do. After all, they do billing for at least 8 hours a day. How long does your in house biller do billing?

If you are a medical doctor, you probably don't know much about billing or what ICD-10 even means. The codes are a lot longer than they were in ICD-9. If your employee is telling you that you need to upgrade your software, they are telling you this because they know something about ICD-10. ICD-9 was a whole different story. There weren't as many codes. Your biller has to know more in depth information about the patient and if their health is improving.

You can decrease claim denials with a professional medical billing company because they are experts. Billing companies will often tell you how your present finances look and what has to change in order to get higher returns. It is clear that most people do not understand medical billing. In fact, it is a complex system. The whole healthcare system in general is becoming too difficult for physicians to understand. A lot of doctors say that they were trained in healthcare and not billing. However, it is becoming clear that doctors need to know something about billing or else they will lose a high percentage of their profits. Doctors today say that at least 20% of their claims go unpaid each year. That is a lot of money lost due to improper billing.

Each time that the biller submits the claim to the insurance company, it gets rejected. Eventually, the biller or the doctor finally gives up altogether. This of course results in thousands of dollars in loss. You don't have to see life as a pain. You should look at yourself and ask the important question, "What is it that I like to do?" If you love working with patients, then leave your billing concerns to someone that is an expert. Billers are experts as a physician is an expert in what they do.

It is never easy to increase your profitability. It is important to find someone that can decrease your claim denials and get a good understanding of your financials. Many physicians are trusting in their billers to come through for them. Many physicians are seeing the healthcare industry as being controlled by the insurance companies. They often feel that the insurance companies are trying to tell them how to treat their patients. However, this is often not the case. The reason why most claims go unpaid is because of improper input. Unless you know what you are doing, you most likely cannot collect on your claims. It is becoming clear that a good coder is hard to find these days.




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