Outsourced Medical Billing Companies and Healthcare Practices

Healthcare providers generally prefer Outsourced Medical Billing Companies to take over their medical billing tasks so they could have more time to focus on patient care, and healthcare research and adopt unique ways to improve patient care.

When comparing the Outsourced Medical Billing Companies workflow with the In-House Medical Billing team, healthcare providers prefer the Outsourced Medical Billing Companies which has a proven track record of delivering quality Medical Billing Service. Healthcare providers need to see an immediate result in improvement in the quality of medical billing tasks, and a positive impact on practice cash flow and collections. Some practices might not find the same answer as sometimes it depends on individual practice workflow and other relevant factors and they think it’s a wiser decision to stay with an in-house billing system where they have more control over the department but again it depends on the Medical Billing Company you are choosing. If you are fortunate enough to find the Best and Top Rated Medical Billing Company, you don’t need to worry about any problems and can focus on patient care.

In-house Medical Billing Team Workflow

• Cost of Employee Payroll: Generally an in-house medical billing staff member costs a healthcare provider around $16 to $ 22 an hour depending on the location and state in the United States because some states have higher minimum monthly wage than others and it also differs from the candidate’s level of medical billing expertise.
• Dependency and Billing Process Halt Possibility: Many healthcare professionals did experience that their one or more staff members are out of the office due to any reason and the billing process has been stopped or slowed down. In such cases, healthcare provider always looks for an efficient medical billing team at Medical Billing Companies around their area.
• Higher Overhead Costs: When it comes to the budgeting for healthcare practice, after the building rent, payroll becomes the second priority. In case of practice is getting an increased number of appointments, this would result in more claims filing and such workload would result in hiring more staff or having current staff work more hours. All this ultimately places liability and burden on the expenses sheet which sometimes doesn’t seem feasible. With Medical Billing Companies, you only pay for what you have collected which makes sense in such situations.
• Increased Liability on Healthcare Practice: Other than payroll and extra hours, having an in-house medical billing team can increase liability in cases of having sick/medical leaves, medical insurance coverage, maternity and/or paternity leaves along with annual raise in salary. All such costs add up on the practice ledge in the expenses sheet and after a certain time, healthcare practices have to move on to hire the Best Medical Billing Company that could catch up with things quickly and yet offer a cost-effective solution.

Outsourced Medical Billing Companies Processes

• Only Pay for What You have Collected: Medical Billing Companies that have flexible pricing structures, only offer their clients to pay when they get paid and do not charge based on hours. In such cases, the cost of having an expert medical billing team is very low and you don’t need to worry about hiring and managing staff.
• Lack of Negotiation Skills with Insurance: Medical Billing Company staff is trained to handle the situation and know the basics, how to communicate, negotiate, schedule meetings with insurance companies’ claims department managers, and medical directors, and can have them send the claims back for reprocessing and in-house billing team would lack such ability.
• Flexibility in Medical Billing Services: Medical Billing Companies have the resources to offer 24 hours a day and 7 hours a week. The healthcare billing companies do have more resources to handle bulk work and as an individual practice owner, you can’t take this advantage by having your in-house billing team provide the same flexibility you get from a Medical Billing Company.
• Up to Date with Healthcare Regulations: Medical Billing Companies always update their internal processes and keep themselves up to date with changes in the healthcare industry, insurance companies, and other regulatory requirements.
• Regular Follow-up on Aged/Unpaid Insurance Claims: Medical Billing Companies have the process in place to regularly follow up on medical claims sent to insurance and not paid. Having separate Account Receivable Departments and regular follow-up on pending/unpaid or denied claims improve practice overall collection and you can collect more. The in-house billing teams generally undertake other office tasks and they do not get much time to improve practice indicators. For more details on how “Denial Management in Healthcare” can help in your practice to improve the monthly collection, please check our Guide on Denial Management in Healthcare.
• Regular Medical Billing & Follow-Up Process: As a healthcare professional, it’s not your job to keep checking the claims are completed, sent out to the insurance company, and if the claims couldn’t go through due to inaccuracies in patient demographics or claims. When a Medical Billing Company is working on your medical billing tasks, they take care of everything to give you more time to focus on business operations.
• Better Healthcare Business Growth: By having an efficient and expert medical billing team working on your accounts, you get plenty of time to do research, analyze the practice performance and make decisions to have better business growth.

If you are considering how a Medical Billing Company can help you to improve your workflow and collections, please Contact Us today and talk to a Medical Billing Expert to have a free consultation.