Has the thought of outsourcing your practice’s medical billing services ever crossed your mind? There are many factors involved in deciding whether to outsource a service or not and you may be contemplating different decisions along the way. As medical billing and the medical insurance industry is an ongoing process, it is important to take a look at your current practice situations and see if it could be improved to help with collections and optimal patient care.
If you’re looking for reasons to outsource this service, then consider the following circumstances and reasons why it may be time to outsource your practice’s medical billing.
Staff Turnover and High Workload
In the process of staff turnover, it is important that no work is missed. This means that even if staff are leaving, a smooth transition process is key to ensuring claims are still being processed in a timely manner. Perhaps this results in some staff taking on more work, having the employee who is transitioning out finish up their existing claims, or having the new employee start right away. All of which could result in more stress in workload or even mistakes made in the transition process.
On the other hand, it may be due to a heavy workload that staff are leaving. As we mentioned earlier, medical billing is an ongoing process that requires a lot of attention to detail and time dedicated to following up on claims. If there becomes more claims than staff are able to handle in a timely manner, for example as your practice is growing, the work may be stressful as well.
Whichever the case, if the administrative burden is too much or there is staff turnover which results in more workload, then perhaps it is time to consider outsourcing your medical billing. This way, if another party is handling your billing, your staff turnover will not affect the billing process, ensuring a smooth transition.
Claims Piling Up and Stretched Revenue Cycle
Claims take time to reach insurance payors and get paid so it is best to shorten this cycle as much as possible. If your practice can bill in a timely manner that allows you to collect the required revenue for your practice to operate optimally, then that is great. However, in the case that you have unbilled claims piling up and delayed payments on claims, then it may be time to consider outsourcing.
Even before billing if staff are not familiar with different codes and billing processes, then it can take longer to submit claims as well. This can all stretch the time period between submission and claim collections. Billing companies have focused attention on claim submissions and can submit in a more timely manner.
Inefficiencies In The Workflow
If you are noticing a decrease in workflow efficiencies, then it may also be time to outsource. If your practice grows or there’s suddenly more claims to handle, the administrative pressure on staff can increase. Or, you may be seeing bottlenecks in certain steps along the Revenue Management Cycle, this may also indicate a need for an experienced medical billing company to handle your claims.
Denials
If your practice faces denials on a regular basis, or if denials are increasing more often, this may also be a sign to outsource your practice’s medical billing. Besides claim submissions, it also takes time to solve denials from insurance payors. For example, the claims may be missing information or submitted incorrectly which resulted in a denial. Denied claims needs to be checked upon with insurance. You will need to figure out what went wrong, which might be calling insurance, and finding out how to solve these issues. If this takes too much time, or you are not solving denied claims in a timely manner, this is something medical billing companies can take care of.
Balancing Patient Care and Practice Revenue
Do you find your time divided between optimal patient care and taking care of medical billing for your practice? Maybe you are billing yourself, or you need to oversee medical billing staff. Whatever the case, do you feel you are overwhelmed with taking care of both sides and worried about your practice’s revenue? Maybe there are other things your staff need to handle, but they are spending a great amount of time on billing. Working with a medical billing company can also help to decrease this burden so you can focus on patient care and not have to worry about how your practice will operate financially.
All these reasons can connect with each other. Increased claims can result in higher workload and increase administrative stress. Staff turnover can affect work efficiencies. An unorganized billing system or inefficiencies in workflow can affect the timely filing of claims and collections. With an experienced medical billing company made up of staff who understand the processes and have focused energy on managing the revenue cycle, your practice can lessen some of that strain and focus on patient care.
If you want to learn more about medical billing and what Americare Network can do to help your practice, contact us today to learn more.
