Medical billing service providers have proven as the best aid to physicians in maximizing their revenues. After such an exhaustive health care system reform, it is payback time for physicians.
Due to errors in coding and billing, insurance payments are rejected and physicians, in turn, have lower turnover. This dilemma goes on complicating matters even more with the ever-evolving healthcare reforms. The transition from one version of the ICD codes to the next has kept the providers baffled. Medical billing consumes a majority of the resources and energies of physicians who try to scale down returns and increase reimbursements.
Advantages of medical billing services
Accuracy in billing:
An error in the basic demographic information (i.e. age, date of birth, sex, address) of the patient can cause payment rejection. Medical billing services providers have trained resources that can enter the patient information cautiously and always check the current insurance status of the patient, covered services and perform pre-authorization.
Entering right codes:
Medical billing service providers use advanced tools to make sure that the right codes have been entered. There is always a possibility of entering the wrong ICD or CPT codes. A mismatch between diagnosis and procedural codes would provide a valid reason for payment denial.
Compliance with the latest standards:
Staying updated with the most recent developments and changes is a difficult task. Medical billing companies stay updated with the latest changes, train their staff and prepare the bills with the best of their expertise.
Coding and billing experts:
Medical billing companies employ expert staff to handle the coding and billing of medical practices. These companies keep their staff upgraded with professional training. Medical billing is a high demand job and hiring in-house coding and billing experts can increase the operational spending of the medical practices. To save on costs it is best to hire a professional medical billing services provider and outsource the task to them.Â
Audits and reports:
Medical billing companies review the status of claims periodically and assess the ratio of bills being rejected and accepted. The rejections are further analyzed to find the cause and follow-up rectification process. The payment claims are followed up on and resubmitted after fixing the errors. Medical billing services providers keep medical practices updated on the status of their accounts with monthly and weekly reports. It makes it much easier to track performance and analyzing the revenue cycle.
Real-time updates on returns:
Integrated health care technologies have provided advanced ways of tracking the claim status. These tools and expertise of medical billing companies are instrumental in streamlining accurate coding, billing, and processing of claims across networks, connecting healthcare facilities with patients, clearinghouses, insurance companies, and government agencies. On a successful collection, providers are notified with full transaction history.
Follow up on denials:
Sometimes insurance carriers delay the payments with minor objections, just to maximize their profits. After a certain time, the provider practice must inquire about the status, and remove their objections and resubmit the bills. However, everyday tasks keep them away from proper follow-up. Medical billing companies follow-up and take the current claim status and if there are objections they try to eliminate it right away. This way the success ratio increases and medical practices get maximum reimbursements.
