Deciding to Outsource Your Medical Billing

Time again, we hear the biggest challenge in the medical billing outsourcing industry is simply convincing physicians it would be a good idea to outsource their medical billing and coding to a medical billing company.

Some physicians have been burned by doing business with medical billing companies that may have very good intentions and promised great results, but simply didn’t have the on the job experience to handle the myriad of unusual circumstances, unexpected situations, and fast moving changes (some coding numbers can change many times in one year, and a wrong coding number means delays in reimbursements) that can occur in this industry.

Outsourcing medical billing is a huge step for many practices, but by asking the right questions, you can ascertain how much experience and how much faster your claim payments will be reimbursed to your office. Find out how the medical billing company charges for their services and what services are included with that fee.

A big question on most physicians’ minds is if the medical billing firm is LLC HIPAA compliant and how securely is data transmitted? Find out if the medical billing company will provide credentialing of physicians, which is a great convenience. Another important question to be ask is: How will your claims be tracked and how will rejected claims be handled?

Get the information up front, remember the more questions you ask about how your practice’s medical billing would be handled by the potential vendor, the happier you’ll be with outsourcing your medical billing because you’ll know how the work flow works and how you can expect reimbursements to be handled.

If you’re not already doing it, look into outsourcing your medical billing and be sure to ask questions!

View all Articles by: Melissa Clark, CCS-P