Medical billing services: choose wisely
It’s not news today that healthcare providers largely outsource their medical billing services to professional companies to handle their medical billing and collections. Various physicians, hospitals, nursing homes, urgent care centers, laboratories, DME companies and other entities associated with the healthcare industry have realized the need for professional management to regain focus on revenue recovery. mainly through the reduction of operating costs.
Another challenge lies ahead: finding the right medical billing service that can provide you with the solution you are looking for within your budget. It is extremely important to research rigorously by self-defined parameters to select the desired service. However, some common factors that can be considered essential for most healthcare providers can be discussed:
Points to consider
Some basics that cannot be overlooked in your search for the desired medical billing assistance include the following:
• Precise and efficient service.– Choose medical billing services that can take care of all your billing collections: accurate, complete and timely payment of third-party payers and patients through the latest technology for maximum system efficiency.
• excellent references: Revenue is the key focus and you need more business for that and for more business you need more referrals. Look for medical billing services that have enough experience and reputation to provide you with excellent doctor referrals.
• coding expert: Coding is one of the most important aspects of medical billing in this age of EMR and EHR technology. You searched for medical billing services that can provide you with the required expertise in ICD-10 coding. Due to the absence of certified and experienced coders in their in-house team, most practices suffer from common coding issues like:
oh disintegration: Unbundling involves listing different billing codes for charging for services included in one billing code. This results in the bill being inflated because items that should have been billed as a package rate are billed separately.
oh balance billing: This coding error arises when it is assumed that the balance bill sent to the patient after the insurance company’s price negotiation with the care provider and all hospital charges are covered by the patient’s policy.
oh Duplicate billing: Another common billing mistake, which involves generating multiple bills for the same procedures or services.
• Dedicated account management: Always prefer a service that provides you, the experts, with the dedicated care of your collections at no additional charge. Account managers should always be within your communication range to provide assistance during an emergency.
• flexible services: Sometimes you may need only one service, such as a prior authorization. Choose a medical billing service that can offer you stand-alone services when needed and not charge for a full package for RCM or other packages. It should also be flexible enough to work on both electronic and manual platforms depending on the requirement.
• special border: A great and good medical billing service is distinguished by the virtue of that ‘something special’ that it offers. An excellent medical billing service can keep healthcare management running smoothly through state-of-the-art patient services, giving your practice the professional guidance it needs to complete comprehensive end-to-end revenue cycle management. An experienced and trustworthy firm can do the trick for you by achieving overall smooth transitions from your time- and cash-strapped condition to getting your practice profitable, up and running.
Errors, both electronic and human, can prevent your practice from achieving the desired result. Signing up for a truly capable medical billing service will provide you with the protection against those mistakes, saving you unnecessary waste of time and money!