How Can You Keep Your Outsourced Medical Billing Costs To A Minimum?
Outsourcing your practice's medical billing greatly simplifies management since there's no need to hire and train personnel on your own. You also won't encounter problems if your billing staff quits, falls ill, or goes on a long vacation, since outsourced billing companies have a large staff pool to draw on. Eliminating the cost of training and employing new hires also means that outsourced billing is often less expensive than doing it all in-house at your practice. In addition to that, there are a few more ways you can make the cost of outsourcing your practice's billing even lower.
To find out how to keep outsourced medical billing costs low, read on.
Find Out Which Type of Fee Structure Best Fits Your Practice
When you're outsourcing medical billing, one of the biggest areas where you can save on costs is to pick the most favorable fee structure. Billing companies commonly use two different methods to assess fees for their services. They will either charge you a percentage of the revenue you collect from your claims or charge you a flat fee for every claim that they file.
The best fee structure for your practice depends on your average claim amount. If you run a specialty practice and reimbursement from your claims is high, then a flat fee per claim processed will normally be the better option. For primary care, where claim amounts tend to be lower, then being charged a percentage of your reimbursement revenue may be the better option. Go through your records and find the average reimbursement for the claims you file in your practice, and choose the fee structure that will allow you to retain the most revenue from your claims.
Bundle Billing With Your EHR Hosting
If the practice management software you use to bill patients and the electronic health record software where you keep their medical charts are being hosted in different locations, you're missing out on cost savings. An outsourced medical billing service will charge you extra fees if they need to run the servers for your practice management software.
You can run the practice management software on your own, whether it's in-house or in the cloud managed by a company that provides IT infrastructure for medical providers. You'll just need to give the medical billing service permission to access it. Bundling all of your IT infrastructure together will lower the fees that you pay for outsourced billing since they'll no longer have to manage it.
Don't Pay for Services You Don't Use
It's common for outsourced medical billing companies to offer other services besides simply filing claims with insurers. For example, they may obtain prior authorization for medical procedures from insurance companies, appeal denied claims, or offer a collection service for patients who are behind on their bills. You'll be charged higher fees for including more services.
You can save money on outsourced billing by moving some of these services in-house. Obtaining prior authorization for procedures, for example, is something that needs to be done quickly — in order to prevent a denied claim, you'll need to have it before you can perform the procedure. It may be better to have a receptionist for this in-house and incorporate it as part of your normal practice workflow, which will lower the cost of outsourcing and also help lower denied claims.
With all of these tips, you'll maximize the amount of revenue you earn from your health insurance claims.
Reach out to a medical billing company to learn more.
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