Physician billing outsourcing has become popular in recent years. Every small, medium, and large size healthcare organization is hiring specialized billing agencies to handle billing matters. While some companies prefer managing their billing through in-house resources.
If you are wondering what to do? Read the blog and find out why your physician billing should be handed over to a third-party.
Understanding Physician Billing Outsourcing
Physician billing outsourcing is a process of handing over your billing matters to another company to improve the operational efficiency and grow practice revenue. Recent years have changed the way medical billing used to be handled.
Physician billing has become more challenging due to diverse codes and varied payer regulations. From insurance verification to document management and claim submission, every task requires precise knowledge and dedicated expertise.
- Insurance verification
- Documentation
- Coding
- Claim Preparation
- Reimbursements
- Denial Management
- Progress Tracking
Besides, a physician can’t manage billing and treat patients simultaneously. Doing so will only increase administrative burden and result in revenue leakage.
Reasons You Should Outsource Physician Billing
Physician billing outsourcing has numerous benefits for healthcare providers. It allows them to divert their focus on patient care and receive faster payments without messing with complicated codes and diverse payer regulations.
Cost Savings
Hiring a dedicated physician billing staff is very costly for small and medium healthcare organizations. Moreover, training them is another expense that physicians would avoid. Therefore, they prefer handing over the task to a dedicated company with specialized resources.
It helps providers save cost and focus only on patient care without worrying about losing the revenue. Overall cost includes hiring resources, arranging physical space and infrastructure maintenance etc. Therefore, avoiding such huge expenses is only possible when you outsource physician billing.
Improved Patient Satisfaction
Physician billing is a complex process that involve various tasks such as documentation, coding and claim submission etc. A provider alone can’t handle such massive workload and struggles to file accurate claims, resulting in revenue loss and poor patient care.
According to a poll 26% physicians claimed that outsourcing is an excellent strategy to save time and maximize revenue without sacrificing patient care.
Higher Operational Productivity
Medical billing is an ever-evolving field where rules and regulations keep updating. Therefore, keeping up with pace along providing patientcare becomes challenging for the solo physicians and healthcare organizations.
Too much burden only results in unwanted billing errors resulting in claim denials and revenue loss. Outsourcing physician billing ensures that a professional team is responsible for handling billing related complications.
These professionals employe a systematic approach
- Go through every document
- Find out mistakes
- Highlight coding inaccuracies
- Submit the claims
- Follow-through on denied claims.
Such efficient management results in lower errors and improved operational productivity.
Lower ICD-10 Errors
10th ICD revision made coding very challenging for the healthcare providers. The update totally changed the coding process. Therefore, medical providers needed much training and skills to accurately assign the codes against every service.
Outsourcing physician services allowed these experts to forget this complicated task and focus on treating patients. Nowadays, healthcare organizations prefer handing over physician billing to expert agencies and pay attention to patients.
Patient Information Security
Patient data security is a crucial aspect that determines the credibility of a healthcare organization. A minor breach can ruin the reputation of the company.
Physician billing agencies leverage tech and years of skills to maintain your revenue cycle. They employee advanced software to ensure your patient data remains secure. Moreover, they run regular checks on software to eliminate the flaws and keep it secure.
Higher Practice Revenue
Medical billing companies have a professional team to handle physician billing matters. They take care of everything from documentation to coding, compliance, and reimbursements. While you can focus on patient care without worrying about the denied claims and revenue loss.
This ensures your practice revenue stays in the right direction without putting much burden on your budget.
Compliance
Every patient has different insurance coverage, keeping up with diverse regulations becomes challenging for the physicians. Medical billing companies are often HIPAA and CMS compliance and follow their guidelines when preparing claims, resulting in higher revenue while maintaining 100% compliance.
In House Vs Outsource Physician Billing
If you are a solo Practitioner or a small healthcare organization running on limited resources. You might prefer handling everything yourself, here is a comparison of in-house and outsourced physician billing.
- Expertise and Communication
In-house resources require proper training to manage billing, which is costly. Billing companies have trained employees to sort your physician billing complications.
- Technology
It requires a proper technical background to integrate technology with existing billing processes. Outsourcing the physician billing ensures that vendor is responsible for handling tech-related issues without disturbing your operations.
- Overhead Costs
Healthcare organizations need to spend a huge amount on hiring specialized resources and infrastructure management. While billing companies handle your operations without asking for physical space or additional workforce.
- Scalability
Scaling a business requires hiring new staff, educating them about the business process. Outsourcing the process eliminates the needs for such expenses, and companies can scale even without bringing in new resources.
Closing Thoughts
Handling physician billing operations is difficult for a single practitioner due to a busy patient schedule. They spend less time with billing matters and get overwhelmed with too much paperwork, resulting in errors and revenue loss.
Outsourcing physician billing eliminates the need for dedicated focus, as the agency looks after billing operations. Moreover, their billing team utilizes years of experience to efficiently manage your billing. Allowing you to spend more time with patients without compromising revenue.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is physician billing?
Physician billing is a process involving patient insurance verification, document submission, code assignment, and claim submission to get reimbursement against the services.
What is physician billing outsourcing?
Outsourcing refers to hiring a professional billing company who is responsible for handling physician billing related tasks.
Why physicians outsource billing services?
Outsourcing allows them to focus on patient care and leave billing matters to experts who handle everything with care and boost practice revenue.
What is the process of physician billing?
- Registering the Patient
- Determining Financial Responsibility
- Capturing Codes
- Creating the Superbill
- Preparing and Submitting Claims
- Monitoring Payer Adjudication
- Creating Patient Statements
- Following Up
What are the drawbacks of physician billing outsourcing?
- Limited control
- Huge costs
- Patient security concern
- Outdated technology
