Outsourcing a revenue cycle management partner can lower your costs and improve your performance in billing and collection. But you will be shocked to hear the data that supports this idea. Outsourced medical billing services can slash down the operational costs by more than 80% in an average primary care practicing clinic as compared to getting an elaborate in-house billing team onboard! However, there is a common notion that that outsourcing partners only work well in a small setup, but not for big healthcare systems with large billing teams. If you believe the same, now is the time to put some facts in order.
Outsourced medical billing services work well for all kinds of healthcare organizations, whether large scale or small. But why would a fully equipped team in a hospital need the services? Scaling up the business requires skilled workers and their support. Do not let mundane, manual tasks keep your workforce from getting into more complex decision making processes that need their full attention.
Here are top reasons why you should trust outsourced medical billing services to take care of your organization:
1.Greater Volume, Lesser Cost:
- Research shows that in an average medical clinic around 100 bills are completed every single day. Operational cost of each of those bills amounts to $75 to $80.
- When the volume of the bills are less, the cost for each of them increases proportionately when you take each component of the operational investment involved.
- In the case of outsourced medical billing services, the volume of bills worked every day is several times more since they handle different kinds of clients.
- As a result, the cost per bill automatically comes down, giving you the benefit of saving money.
2.Multiple Specialties:
- Outsourced medical billing services have the advantage of working with a large range of specialties and sub-specialties due to the sheer volume of their clientele.
- This can benefit your practice in more ways than one. If you fall into one of those specialties they have worked with before, you will get the right guidance on how to proceed with your revenue cycle management.
- Even if you are starting out your clinic and thinking of scaling up in the future, the services will adjust themselves according to your growth.
- This is another excellent point for the large-scale multispecialty health organizations to consider outsourcing billing services. They can switch to a hassle-free single vendor contact rather than having multiple specialists on board.
3.Variable Expenses:
- Medical billing takes up a large part of revenue cycle cost. Usually, with in-house billing teams the expenses are fixed.
- But the outsourced services offer flexibility to this cost since they work on a cost per bill basis.
- This means that they charge part only a part of the amount on the bill. You can save the money and invest it elsewhere if in a particular month you have a lesser volume of bills.
- Moreover, you still get the benefit of reduced cost per bill, thus bringing improving your profit margins.
4.No Investment in Technology:
- With automation technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning making its way up the ladder in the healthcare industry, manual processes are slowly becoming redundant.
- However, shifting to a new automated setup with improved high-end systems come with a huge cost.
- Not all organizations are ready to invest a lot of revenue into the setting up and maintenance of the systems.
- Outsourced medical billing services invest in these technologies to bring superior service to their customers. You get more error-free claims and save on denial management with the help of advanced software tools, without having to invest in them.
5.Consistency in Performance:
- Performances of leading outsourced medical billing services remain consistent with time. Rather, they improve their performance with time.
- Trying different models of scalable growth, tried and tested on a large number of organizations, help them to arrive at the best repeatable process. It is already proven to bring the best results.
- They charge their services on the basis of successful claim submission. This is the most financially viable reason to expect good returns.
- Therefore you can expect consistent efforts from the service teams to get your bills paid on time and keep your revenue cycle up and running.
6.Specialized Services:
- Revenue cycle management has different blocks of growth like denial management, provider credentialing, accounts receivables and data analysis.
- While most management companies help you with the overall growth, there are several experienced companies that help you to improve a particular niche.
- You can discuss the specific issues that your organization faces and get their services for the same.
- Sometimes they also offer their home-grown software tools to combat the problem with ease.
7.Training Programs for your Staff:
- In-house billing teams can have expert professionals with years of experience. But they sometimes lack the time to update themselves about the latest practices in billing industry.
- The outsourced service teams stay on top of the latest developments in the revenue cycle management practices.
- They conduct useful programs to upskill your staff to know the best practices in the business.
- Frequent staff training automatically reflects on your collections, with your staff facing lesser denials and improved reimbursements.
To know more about professional staff training programs, you can read the article here.
How do you choose the right outsourced medical billing services?
Medical billing services are common in the healthcare industry. However, if you want to get the best results for your organization, you should be careful about choosing the right vendor. Here are some pointers:
- Check if they are HIPAA compliant
- Know about their previous experience with your specialties, if any
- Check their client testimonials
- Get to know more about how many years of experience they have
Is your data protected?
- Sensitive health data of the patients are protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
- Reliable and ethical medical billing services ensure that they are compliant with the HIPAA regulations in order to keep the patient data safe.
- The outsourced medical billing services abide by the three basic pillars of HIPAA which are the privacy rules, the breach notification rules and the security rules.
- Any medical billing service abiding to the HIPAA regulations must check that the personal health information of the patients are not acquired or misused in any way that could raise the risk quotient for any stakeholder.
- When dealing with an experienced revenue cycle management company, they will take every possible measure to ensure that your data is safe by complying with the HIPAA regulations. So make sure that you look at their certifications carefully before sealing the deal.
- Another great way to check the reliability of the medical billing service is to look at their past client testimonials. Experienced medical billing services build a good reputation for themselves with a diversity of clients. Make sure you check them to get a better idea.
We hope this blog helped you understand why you should trust outsourced medical billing services for your organization. If you have any queries or suggestions, please write them below and we will get back to you shortly. For more such articles on the healthcare industry, please subscribe to our blog. Follow us on social media to get regular updates.